When you purchase through golf links on our site , we may earn an affiliate commissioning . Here ’s how it works .
A family in Norway unearthed more than they were expecting when they used a metal sensor to search their yard for a lost earring .
alternatively of bump the innovative jewellery , they observe a sign beneath a large tree behind their firm . And when they stab down , they discovered relics from a Viking sepulture : two bronze ornamentation that experts say were once covered in atomic number 79 .
The buried Viking relics were found on the Norwegian island of Jomfruland by the Aasvik family, who were using a metal detector to search the yard of their house for a lost earring.
The artifacts may be the firstViking Age(A.D. 793 to 1066 ) finds on the island of Jomfruland , confirm that people lived there at that sentence , Vibeke Lia , an archeologist with the Vestfold and Telemark County Council , differentiate Live Science .
Jomfruland is a remote island on Norway ’s southeast seacoast , facing the Skagerrak pass and Denmark . Many of its menage are holiday homes , and about 75 the great unwashed live there permanently .
When the metal detector signaled the buried hoard , the family arrest digging and reach local government archaeologists to look into the find , accord to aFacebook postby the county council ’s ethnical inheritance section .
The signal from the metal detector showed the location of two bronze brooches thought to have been buried with an aristocratic Viking woman. Both objects have traces of gold, which indicates they were gilded.
Related : Viking sword from warrior ’s tomb unearthed in family ’s yard in Norway
Remote island
Lia said several pile of on the loose rock , called cairn , had previously been found in southwest Jomfruland . While researchers supposed the cairns could have been made in the Viking Age , perhaps as a substance to lay claim to the land and nearby sea route , there is no mention that masses lived on Jomfruland before the first historic track record were made in the Middle Ages , she say .
The new uncovering , of what seems to be the grave accent of an aristocratic Viking woman , now advise that the cairns were , in fact , made by Vikings .
The larger artifact found in the grave is an ellipse - shaped breastpin that would have been worn by a woman on a halter dress , to secure the shoulder straps at the front , Lia said . Such brooches were commonly regain in the graves of Viking women , and its style was characteristic of the ninth C .
The objects were buried on the family’s property near a large tree. Archaeologists think other artifacts and the Viking grave itself may still lie underground nearby.
" They come in couplet , one for each shoulder strap , so there should be another one there , " she say .
Viking bling
The other aim was harder to identify , but the archaeologists have now determined that it , too , was a broach — this one circular .
Lia order molds for such brooches had been found at archeologic sites in the other Viking Age town of Ribe , Denmark , which was institute in the 6th century . However , the decorations on the newfound brooch indicate it was made in the ninth 100 .
The brooches were grace with intricate engravings of animals and geometric pattern . Both were made from bronze and had traces of Au on them , which indicated they had been gilded , she said .
The objects are the first artifacts from the Viking Age found on the small and remote island of Jomfruland, and confirm that people were living there at that time.
— 1,200 - class - old ' Viking graffiti ' is the old draft ever identify in Iceland
— Double cache of Viking gem let on near Harald Bluetooth ’s fort in Denmark
— Seemingly ' empty ' burial mound is veil a 1,200 - year - quondam Viking ship
The artifacts ' location in a yard — rather than on a farm , where many other relics are found — may have helped to preserve the items .
" They are in reasonably good condition compared to most metal - detecting detect we get , because this site has never been plow , " she say .
Lia is unsure if the site of the find will be excavated because it may be protected as a grave accent . " The next step is to appraise whether this site is in danger of deterioration , " she said . " If it ’s safe there , then it will probably not be dug but preserved where it is . "
