Metal Detectorists, the technical term for metal detecting hobbyists, helped archeologists uncover a remarkable cache of Viking artifacts. The discovery included a number of Christian artifacts. The graves were found at a farm in southwestern Norway. Søren Diinhoff, an archaeologist from the University Museum of Bergen, explained that the hobbyists found the graves and immediately alerted a local museum.
Diinhoff says that the graves date back to between 800 and 850 A.D. The burial sites were filled with coins, jewelry, and other treasures, and experts believe they belonged to a wealthy woman. The first site featured “fragments of jewelry indicating it had been a rich grave with significant grave goods.” He explained the contents in a statement.
“There were fragments of a couple of gilded oval brooches (also called tortoise brooches) of Norse origin, [and] fragments of a metal cauldron/dish produced in southern England or Ireland with enamel inlay and animal-shaped handles,” the summary read. One of the most significant artifacts was a book clasp that the Vikings appeared to refashion as a buckle or brooch pin. Diinhoff believes this came from a Christian monastery.
“They put a needle on the back of the clasps, and they could be used as brooches,” he described. “We think that the clasp in the first grave could very well have come from a Bible in England or Ireland. It had been ripped off and brought back to Norway where it eventually ended up as a woman’s brooch.” The first grave was likely plundered not long after the burial, and mostly continued fragments.
“We have a suspicion that the first grave was opened a long time ago. It may even have been opened in the Viking age,” the expert explained, adding that plundering graves was “not uncommon” during the Viking age and that it was possibly done to rob the valuables there. He went on to say “The finds were spread out in fragments on top and around the grave.”
“The jewelry was broken to pieces, but the destruction was clearly not because of erosion. The fractured surfaces showed that the artifacts had been destroyed deliberately and most likely when the grave had been reopened,” he said. Diinhoff explained that the textile production tools, high-class jewelry, and coins in the second grave were priceless.
“These tools indicate the buried had skills, but more show that the buried woman was the leader of the farm textile production. High-quality textile production was prestigious and an important financial income,” the statement explained. “A bronze key found in the grave symbolizes this woman’s central position. She was the carrier of the house key and, as such, the leader of the farm household. [What is] probably a frying pan in the grave shows the same.”
The academic was thankful for the metal detectorists: “We fear that they will be destroyed in time. They are found just below the turf and there are so many ways they can be ruined…We hope to be able to excavate a few graves every year.” He went on to say “Without them ‘finding’ the site in the first place, we would not have known about the site,” the archaeologist said. “As the graves we found were just below the turf, they are very exposed and would likely have been lost in time. Now we get a chance to excavate this small gravefield.”