14. 4. 2018 Viking treasure from the 10th century

Brooches, a necklace, hundreds of coins, but also a piece of jewelry resembling Thor's hammer. All this was contained in a tenth-century treasure from which a pair of seekers with metal detectors rejoiced three years ago. They found beautiful objects on the German island of Rügen.

The treasure associated with the reign of King Harald I of Denmark was found by an amateur archaeologist together with a thirteen-year-old boy on the German island of Rügen, located on the northeastern edge of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Experts kept the finding a secret for quite some time until they searched 400 square meters of land.

A pair of seekers found a necklace, brooches, rings, jewelry resembling Thor's hammer, and about 600 coins that were probably buried in the 1980s. "This is the largest coin find so far from the reign of King Harald I of Denmark in the southern Baltic Sea. That is why this discovery is of great importance, "said archaeologist Michael Schirren.

King Harald I was born a Viking . According to historians, during his reign Denmark was unified and Christianity spread. He was King of Denmark from 958 to 986, Norwegian from 974 to 986. Harald became the ruler of his father Gorm. It was the first time the Scandinavian king had handed over power to his son. Earlier, after the king's death, the nobles fought for power among themselves. Harald's name was Modrozub.

The treasure was located just a few kilometers from the place where in the nineteenth century a golden treasure from the reign of Harald I was found. It contained sixteen items. But even the newer treasure is no less important. Specifically, it was discovered by thirteen-year-old Luca Malaschnitchenko and amateur archaeologist René Schön.

With the help of GPS and metal detectors, they search for archeologically interesting places, where they then go to look. They found the treasure in Rügen as early as January 2018, and the media reported on it three months later. The couple immediately called in archaeologists, who thoroughly searched the area.

Robert Hemming Poulsen also found a 10th-century silver treasure in 2015 when he installed an optical network on the Danish island of Omø. After work, he talked to a local farmer, who revealed that he had discovered a silver ring as a boy in the field. Poulsen went to the scene with a metal detector and found a treasure containing over 550 artifacts.

We wrote about the treasure here: A Danish detectorist found a Viking treasure from the 10th century, it also contains Czech coins

Sources: www.bbc.com, www.dw.com