A king's ransom: Silver jewellery buried more than a millennium ago will now go on display in London and YorkshirePosted on 08/28/2009 10:16:13 AM PDT by BGHater
An impressive Viking hoard of jewellery has made a father and son metal-detector team £1m, after being bought by two British museums.
The find, which is the 'largest and most important' since 1840, was found in a field in Harrogate, North Yorkshire in January 2007. It had been buried there for more than 1,000 years.
Valued at £1,082,000, the hoard was purchased by the British Museum and the York Museum Trust after two years of fundraising.
The highlight of the collection is an intricately carved silver cup, estimated to be worth more than £200,000. It contains 617coins and various silver fragments, ingots and rings. Some of the pieces were from as far away as Afghanistan.
The treasure is believed to have belonged to a rich Viking who buried it during the unrest following the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in 927 by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan.
It is believed he was unable to go back to the hoard, possibly as a result of turbulence during the period.
Conservation work on the find began about a month ago and experts hope the process will reveal crucial details about the Viking era.Initial examinations suggest the treasure dates back to AD927 or 928.
Experts have spent over a month cleaning the hoard, often with a porcupine spine, to protect the delicate collection.
A king's ransom: Silver jewellery buried more than a millennium ago will now go on display in London and Yorkshire
The silver cup is worth around £200,000. Many of the coins were preserved as they were kept inside the vessel
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
sigh, Gov’t makes Vikings look like amateurs.
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Oh, so that’s where I lost my cup of silver.
Nice try but those items belong to my great (25 times) grandfather, Magnus Leifson, who rightfully looted it from some Brit. As Magnus Leifson's only remaining descendant, I must demand the items be returned to me. Of course, I'll provide a modest finder's fee.
Why do the coins all have the Latin phrase “Chuck E. Cheese” on them? Can someone translate that?
Lucky they didn’t find that stuff in the USA where every govt agency under the sun would show up to confiscate the lot.
I’ll toss my name in the hat. My ancestors came from England but yet had very distinctive Norwegian names. I suspect my forebears were Vikings that went to England for dinner and stayed. The loot could very arguably be ours.
A stunning and beautiful treasure!
Superb silver work.
A blonde walks into a bank to deposit a large bag full of money. The teller asked her, “Wow, did you hoard all this yourself?” “Of course not, dear,” the blonde replied, “my sister whored half of it.”
I think I see an Indian Head penny in there too.
Cleaning ancient silver with a porcupine quill. Right up my alley. I get all the fiddly jobs. Hubby does the brute force and ignorance stuff.
Hey, don’t knock brute force and ignorance — the Vikings wouldn’t have accumulated and then lost this hoard without it. ;’)
Yes! Without brute force and ignorance, not much would get done around here but cooking, cleaning, and laundry. All that snow plowing and chainsawing and log splitting and lawn tractor repair and snow tire installation and lots and lots of other things would lie undone. Not to forget the reaching high places in the house and outside. No! I love brute force and ignorance. And Vikings.
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