Record-breaking silver hoard from the Viking Age submitted

Published 27 November 2024 at 13.14

Cultural news. One of the largest silver treasures found in Jönköping County has recently been submitted anonymously to the County Board.

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The treasure, which dates to the Viking Age (750 –1050 AD), consists of approximately 100 Arabic silver coins, jewelry, an amulet ring, and several pieces of silver.

This find surpassing the previous largest find from Forsheda in the 1800s. Then an agricultural worker found about a hundred English and German silver coins, as well as an Arab coin and a small piece of jewelry, but the treasure that has come in now is more abundant.

According to the county board, the find was made through illegal metal searching without archaeological participation, which means that important scientific information about the find site has been lost.

The County Administrative Board emphasizes the importance of following the Cultural Environment Act, which protects ancient remains and regulates the use of metal detectors.

“If you find ancient finds and try to clean them yourself and then leave them at home in the chest of drawers, they will be destroyed. But it is, after all, good that the find has now been handed in,” the authority writes on its website.< /p>

The treasure contains coins that were probably used as means of payment, a braided silver necklace, a filigree-decorated pendant and parts of ring pins. Of particular note is a large amulet ring with smaller rings, believed to have had a ritual significance.