PC: North Jutland Museums
As per North Jutland Museums, the hoard contains around 700 objects and fragments with a combined weight of 18.5 kilograms. The newly discovered hoard contains around 700 objects and fragments weighing a total of 18.5 kilograms. It includes numerous silver bars, bracelets, 47 complete coins and coin fragments, a small Thor’s hammer and various pieces of cut silver objects. About 320 objects weighing 6.4 kilograms were still inside the original clay vessel when the discovery was made. It is almost three times larger than the Terslev hoard, previously considered Denmark’s largest Viking Age silver hoard, which contained about 6.5 kilograms of silver. Among the findings, there are two Anglo-Saxon silver pennies minted during the reign of King Edward the Elder, who ruled from 899 to 924. In 1971, another large silver hoard known as the Rebild hoard was found nearby. Another recent discovery from the wider area is the Rold hoard, consisting of six intact Viking Age gold arm rings weighing a combined 762.5 grams.
Because most of its weight comes from silver bars, jewellery and cut silver rather than coins, pC: North Jutland Museums The Rebild hoard is unusual. Because the hoard could not have been buried before such coins had entered circulation, these coins provide an important dating point. What first appeared to be old iron, wire and pottery fragments soon revealed something far more valuable.
Instead, much of it appears to have been organised according to weight. A few hours of garden work in Rebild, Denmark, turned into an extraordinary archaeological discovery when a homeowner uncovered what is now the country’s largest known Viking Age silver hoard. It was unexpectedly found while the owner was removing stubborn grass, stones and gravel to prepare the ground for a new tiled terrace. After about half an hour of digging, a garden fork struck something that made an unusual sound. The homeowner began pulling metal objects from the soil by hand and realised they were jewellery, coins and silver bars. The remaining objects were scattered in the surrounding soil. This suggests the silver was not simply collected as a group of attractive objects. During the Viking Age, silver could be used as a means of payment and as a store of value. Pieces were often cut into smaller parts, divided or melted down. What mattered was largely the weight and purity of the silver. The unusually large number of silver bars in the Rebild discovery falls into particular weight groups. Parts of the bracelets and pieces of cut silver show similar patterns. This indicates that the silver may have been deliberately organised as a substantial store of value rather than being randomly accumulated. The hoard contains both Arabic and Anglo-Saxon coins, offering clues about the extensive connections of Viking Age Denmark. The discovery also contains Arabic silver coins known as dirhams with inscriptions that can often be connected to particular mints and periods. The new silver hoard is not the only major Viking Age discovery from the Rebild area. It also dates to the 9th century and contained silver bars, jewellery and smaller pieces of silver. Altogether, it weighed around four kilograms and had been wrapped in animal skin when it was buried. Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.
It is almost three times heavier than Denmark’s previously largest known Viking silver hoard.
