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archeologist have get a line 35 miniature Au - foil depictions of Norse idol tucked inside the remnant of a pagan temple in Norway .
The gold foils , which are flat and as lean as a piece of music of newspaper publisher , contain etch motifs render the god Frøy and the goddess Gerd and date to the Merovingian period in Norway , which begin in 550 and continued into the Viking Age , allot toScience Norway . The enhancer may have been used as sacrificial offer .
Known as “gullglubber,” the gold-foil figure depicts the god Frøy and the goddess Gerd.
The atomic number 79 pieces miss maw , so it ’s unbelievable that they were wear down as jewellery . The first atomic number 79 foil were discovered in Scandinavia in 1725 and were eventually labeled as " gullglubber , " which translates to " golden onetime men . "
" This is a very special find,“Kathrine Stene , the archaeologist who precede the mining this summer , narrate Live Science . " Each foil is quite small and measures about the size of it of a fingernail . "
Several of the rough three twelve gold foils were packed inside postholes that once contained funding beams for the building in Hov , a village in southern Norway , while others were found where the social organisation ’s wall once stood .
Archaeologists originally discovered the little building back in 1993 along with two gold transparency . Additional excavations in the 2000s revealed 28 more gold pieces .
pertain : When unfolded , these ancient gold foil digit break embracing couples
Although interchangeable foil have been found in Norway and across Scandinavia — include in similar pagan building in Bornholm , Denmark , and Uppåkra , Sweden — this is the first time that archeologist have strike the foils in a smaller structure .
" But more of these small piece of Au keep appearing,“Ingunn Marit Røstad , an archaeologist at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo , tell apart Science Norway . " Either through excavation or with metal detector . So , more could crop up up in various office in Norway as well . "
During a separate excavation , archaeologists discovered 30 similar enhancer elsewhere in Hov .
" commonly we find these in extra building that were once used for spiritual design , " Stene say . " We were surprised to find them in such a small building . "
By look at the postholes , researchers could measure the structure ’s footprint and determine that it was some 49 base ( 15 beat ) in length . In comparison , most homes during that time period were between 66 and 98 ft ( 20 to 30 m ) long .
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There ’s been some venture about how the foils get there . While some researchers have suggested the gold piece of music were used as an admission charge fee to enter the construction , Stene enjoin it ’s more probable that the foils were rank there during mental synthesis .
" Based on where we happen them where the walls once brook and inside the post hole , they could n’t have been used as tickets to enter into the construction , " Stene suppose . " It ’s more probable that they were used as more of a sacrifice so that this limited edifice would have a safe life .
" We ’re happy that we found them , " she added . " This was considered a sacred place to infidel . "
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