Gold crescent earrings buried for 1,000 years

Metal detectors found an earring that could have been a gift from an Eastern Roman emperor to a Viking in the 11th century.

Frants Fugl Vestergaard

a 54-year-old man from Denmark, dug up a rare gold earring while searching for metal in a field in Western Jutland, the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen announced on December 5.

The earrings consist of an enameled tatkuink crescent-shaped piece of gold, with a gold frame set with small gold beads and rings. The ornament on the gold plate depicts two stylized birds around a tree, representing the tree of life.

This earring is most likely of Middle Eastern origin and is the first artifact of its kind found in Scandinavia. The researchers also say that this 1,000-year-old artifact could provide a breakthrough in the understanding of Vikings and the Middle East.

Gold earrings are so rare

that only 12 similar artifacts have been found in the world. This may have been a gift from the Byzantine emperor to a Viking chieftain in the 11th century, according to Peter Pentz, an expert at the National Museum of Denmark. However, it is also possible that the emperor gave it to a Danish Viking as his bodyguard.

In the middle of the 7th century

the Danes, Norwegians and Swedes began to invade the British Isles. In the 8th century, they expanded their territory and pillaged the coasts of Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Normandy, and skull clothing expanded eastward along the Baltic coast. They also invaded the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in eastern Europe.

The Vikings brought silver and gold coins and loot looted from coastal villages, towns and monasteries back home, but rarely had jewelry, according to Pentz. This makes the earring very special. Not only the origin but the reason why this jewelry was buried in West Jutland is also a mystery. Pentz also said that there are no archaeological sites of Vikings near the site where the gold earrings were discovered.