Striking 18.5kg Silver Jackpot in the Backyard... Discovery of 1,000-Year-Old Viking Treasure

700 Pieces of Silver Treasure Discovered in Danish Home Garden
Weighing 18.5 kg—Three Times the Previous Record
"Akin to Discovering a Viking Age Safe Deposit Box"

While digging up his garden to build a new terrace, a homeowner in Denmark unearthed a Viking Age silver treasure weighing 18.5 kilograms.

A Viking Age silver treasure found in the garden of a house in Rebild, northern Denmark. North Jutland Museum

According to a report by CNN on September 4 (local time), the treasure was found last spring in the garden of a house in Rebild, northern Denmark. The homeowner, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "I was supposed to spend several hours on hard gardening work, removing turf, stones, and pebbles to build a new tiled terrace, but it turned into the biggest surprise of my life." He explained, "About 30 minutes into digging, my pitchfork struck something that made a strange sound. At first, I thought it was an old piece of iron, some fence wire, or a broken pot fragment, but as I cleared the soil by hand, metallic objects started to come out one by one, and I soon realized they were jewelry, coins, and silver ingots."

The artifacts were buried inside a clay pot. The North Jutland Museum stated, "About 320 pieces were found inside the pot, with the silver weighing 6.4 kilograms. The rest was scattered in the surrounding soil." In total, the findings include silver ingots, bracelets, 47 coins and coin fragments, cut-up pieces of silver, and small pendants shaped like Thor's hammer.

This collection, comprised of about 700 pieces and weighing 18.5 kilograms, is the largest Viking Age silver treasure ever discovered in Denmark. Its scale is roughly three times that of the previously largest find—the Terslev hoard, which weighed about 6.5 kilograms.

One of the discovered silver ingots was engraved with runic inscriptions, the ancient writing system used in Viking Age Northern Europe. According to the museum, these runes could be read as "Hutu," possibly indicating a person's name or an ownership mark. However, the exact meaning remains unconfirmed.

One of the discovered silver ingots was engraved with runes, an ancient script used during the Viking Age in Northern Europe. Photo by Nordtulandt Museum

Coins found alongside the hoard provided clues to the period it was buried. Among the artifacts were two silver coins minted during the reign of King Edward the Elder of England, who ruled from 899 to 924, as well as a Dirham, an Arabic silver coin. Based on this evidence, the museum estimates the treasure was buried sometime in the 900s.

Torben Sarauw, an archaeologist at the North Jutland Museum, described the find as "akin to discovering a Viking Age safe deposit box." He added, "Not only silver ingots, but also jewelry and cut-up pieces of silver were valued and traded according to their weight. Analyzing the weight of these silver artifacts helps us understand the economic activities of Viking society at that time."

Meanwhile, Viking Age treasures continue to be unearthed in the Rebild area. In 1971, the "Rebild Hoard," consisting of 4 kilograms of 10th-century silver, was found in the same region. In April of this year, the "Roll Hoard," which featured six intact gold bracelets, was also discovered. At that time, a local resident reported finding two gold bracelets partially exposed in the soil beside a field path to the archaeology department of the North Jutland Museum.

The artifacts found in this latest discovery are currently under review at the National Museum of Denmark to determine whether they qualify as "Danefae," meaning they would become state-owned cultural property. Since the find location is a densely populated residential area, no further excavation is planned. The North Jutland Museum stated that once cataloging is complete, they intend to have the newly found artifacts put on permanent exhibition alongside the gold bracelets from the Roll Hoard at the Fyrkat Viking Museum.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.