‘Biggest surprise of my life’: Denmark’s largest Viking Age silver hoard discovered in backyard

The mundane work of clearing grass and stones in a backyard has led to the discovery of Denmark’s largest known hoard of Viking Age silver.

The finder, a man based in the northern Danish municipality of Rebild who wishes to remain anonymous, was preparing his garden for the construction of a new terrace when he came across the silver treasure , consisting of around 700 pieces, according to Danish cultural organization Nordjyske Museer, or North Jutland Museums.

Among the pieces were a small Thor’s hammer, bracelets, many silver bars, cut-up objects and 47 coins, some whole and some fragmented, the museums group said in a statement.

“It should have just been a few hours of hard gardening work removing stubborn grass, stones and gravel for a new tiled terrace, but it turned out to be the biggest surprise of my life,” the finder said in the statement.

“After half an hour of digging, my grip hit something that made a strange sound,” he continued. “At first I thought it was old iron or fence wire and some potsherds, but when I started digging with my hands, I was suddenly able to fish one metal object after another out of the ground. After a short period of careful work, I realized that it was jewelry, coins and silver bars.”

The silver hoard weighed 18.5 kilograms (41 pounds), which is nearly three times Denmark’s now-second-largest hoard of Viking Age silver, the so-called Terslevskat, which weighed approximately 6.5 kilograms (14 pounds), Nordjyske Museer said.

In the newly discovered hoard, around 320 objects, weighing 6.4 kilograms (14 pounds), were found still in their original clay vessel, in which they are believed to have been placed in the 10th century. The other items were found in the soil.

Most of the treasure’s weight comes from bars, jewelry and silver clips, with coins only making up a small part of it.

During the Viking Age, silver bars, jewelry and scrap silver were used as a means of payment and to store value, with their weight determining their value, according the museums group. Due to this, silver was often cut into smaller pieces or melted down.

The silver bars discovered in Rebild — an unusually large number — are grouped according to their weights, as are parts of the bracelets and scrap silver, which suggests they were organized purposefully as significant stocks of value, Nordjyske Museer said.

“This is a find of great importance for our understanding of the Viking Age in Denmark,” archaeologist Torben Sarauw, cultural heritage manager at Nordjyske Museer, said in the statement. “Not just because of its size, but also because the treasure so clearly shows how silver functioned as wealth and a means of payment in the Viking Age. It’s like finding a safe from the Viking Age.”

Runes are engraved on one of the silver bars, with the inscription possibly reading as “hutu,” which could be a name, a mark of ownership, or some other form of significant marking, according to the museums group.

The coins found were Arab and Anglo-Saxon , which Sarauw said testifies to how closely connected Denmark was to large parts of Europe and areas far to the east during the Viking Age.

Two Anglo-Saxon coins were minted under King Edward the Elder, who came to rule most of England during his reign from 899 to 924. The Arab coins, known as dirhams, are cut up and have similar inscriptions to those found in silver hoards from the 9th century, Nordjyske Museer said.

“The silver was hidden in Rebild, but it points to a much larger world,” Sarauw said. “The coins reveal that there were connections to the Islamic world in the east and England to the west, as well as a Viking Age where people, goods and values ​​moved over enormous distances.”

The Rebild area has been home to several discoveries of large Viking treasures, including the 1971 Rebildskat trove, which consisted of 4 kilograms (9 pounds) of silver that also dated to the 10th century, as well as the Rold treasure, found two months ago, that consisted of six intact gold bracelets.

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There won’t be a large archaeological investigation at the site of the newly discovered hoard, however, because it is in a built-up area.

The treasure has been submitted for assessment at Denmark’s National Museum. In the longer term, Nordjyske Museer said it is working on a permanent display of the silver treasure, together with the gold bracelets from the Rold treasure, at Fyrkat Viking Museum in northern Denmark.

CNN’s Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.

清理后院杂草和石头这种平凡的工作，竟意外发现了丹麦已知最大的维京时代银器宝藏。

据丹麦文化机构北日德兰博物馆（Nordjyske Museer）称，发现这批银器宝藏的是一位居住在丹麦北部雷比尔德市的男子，他希望保持匿名。当时他正在为建造新的露台做准备，结果发现了这批由大约 700 件银器组成的宝藏。

博物馆集团在一份声明中表示，这些文物包括一把小型雷神之锤、手镯、许多银条、切割过的物品和 47 枚硬币，其中一些是完整的，一些是碎片。

“原本以为只是几个小时辛苦的园艺工作，清除顽固的杂草、石头和砾石，为新的瓷砖露台做准备，结果却成了我一生中最大的惊喜，”发现者在声明中说道。

“挖了半个小时后，我的手碰到了什么东西，发出奇怪的声音，”他继续说道。“起初我以为是旧铁丝或铁栅栏线，还有一些陶片，但当我开始用手挖的时候，突然间就能一个接一个地从土里捞出金属物件。仔细辨认了一会儿后，我发现那是珠宝、硬币和银条。”

据北日德兰博物馆称，这批银器宝藏重 18.5 公斤（41 磅），几乎是丹麦目前第二大维京时代银器宝藏——所谓的特尔斯莱夫斯卡特宝藏——的三倍，后者重约 6.5 公斤（14 磅）。

在最新发现的宝藏中，约有320件物品，重达6.4公斤（14磅），仍保存在原有的陶罐中，据信这些物品是在10世纪被放置于此的。其余物品则是在土壤中发现的。

这批宝藏的大部分重量来自金条、珠宝和银夹，硬币只占很小一部分。

据博物馆集团称，在维京时代，银条、银饰和废银被用作支付手段和价值储存手段，其价值取决于重量。因此，银经常被切割成小块或熔化。

北日德博物馆表示，在雷比尔德发现的银条数量异常庞大，而且是按重量分组的，手镯碎片和废银也是如此，这表明它们是有目的地作为重要的价值储备进行整理的。

“这项发现对于我们了解丹麦的维京时代意义重大，”北日德兰博物馆文化遗产经理、考古学家托本·萨劳在声明中表示，“不仅因为其规模庞大，更因为这批宝藏清晰地展现了白银在维京时代作为财富和支付手段的功能。这就像发现了一个维京时代的保险箱。”

其中一根银条上刻有符文，铭文可能是“hutu”，据博物馆团体称，这可能是一个名字、所有权标记或其他形式的重要标记。

萨劳表示，发现的硬币是阿拉伯和盎格鲁-撒克逊的，这证明了在维京时代，丹麦与欧洲大部分地区以及遥远的东方地区有着多么紧密的联系。

据北日德兰博物馆称，在老爱德华国王统治时期（公元899年至924年），铸造了两枚盎格鲁-撒克逊硬币，老爱德华国王统治了英格兰的大部分地区。这两枚阿拉伯硬币，即迪拉姆，已被切割，其铭文与9世纪银窖中发现的铭文相似。

萨劳说：“这些银器虽然藏在雷比尔德，但它们指向的是一个更广阔的世界。这些硬币表明，当时东方的伊斯兰世界和西方的英格兰都有联系，而且维京时代人口、货物和价值观跨越了巨大的距离。”

雷比尔德地区曾多次发现大型维京宝藏，包括 1971 年发现的雷比尔德斯卡特宝藏，其中包含 4 公斤（9 磅）白银，其年代也可追溯到 10 世纪；以及两个月前发现的罗尔德宝藏，其中包含六个完整的金手镯。

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然而，由于新发现的宝藏位于人口稠密的建成区，因此不会在该地点进行大规模的考古调查。

这批宝藏已送交丹麦国家博物馆进行评估。北日德兰博物馆表示，从长远来看，他们正计划在丹麦北部的菲尔卡特维京博物馆，将这批银器宝藏与罗尔德宝藏中的金手镯一起，进行永久展出。

CNN的安东尼娅·莫滕森对本报道亦有贡献。