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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmateur Treasure Hunter Discovers Trove of Sixth-Century Gold Jewelry
First-time treasure hunter Ole Ginnerup Schytz had only been out with his new metal detector for a few hours when he stumbled onto an astounding discovery: a stash of 1,500-year-old gold artifacts dated to the Iron Age. Now, experts have deemed the findmade in a field near the town of Jelling in southwestern Denmark last Decemberone of the largest and most important in Danish history.
Schytz recalls hearing the device activate, then moving aside soil to uncover a small, bent piece of metal. It was scratched and covered in mud, he tells Steffen Neupert of Danish broadcast station TV Syd, per a translation by Sarah Cascone of Artnet News. I had no idea, so all I could think of was that it looked like the lid of a can of herring. The amateur metal detectorist had actually unearthed what turned out to be the first of 22 pieces of sixth-century gold jewelry. In total, the trove weighed just over two pounds.
Months after Schytzs chance discovery, the Vejlemuseerne in Jutland has finally revealed the ancient treasures to the public. This is the biggest find that has come in the 40 years I have been at the National Museum [of Denmark], archaeologist Peter Vang Petersen tells TV Syd, per Artnet News. We have to go back to the 16th and 18th centuries to find something similar. According to a statement, the haul consists primarily of bracteatesmedallions that were popular in northern Europe during the Migration Period (roughly 300 to 700 C.E.). Women would have worn the pendants, which were often inscribed with magical symbols or runes, for protection.
Many of the symbols seen on the newly unearthed bracteates are unfamiliar to experts, Mads Ravn, director of research at the Vejle museums, tells Agence France-Presse (AFP). Interpreting them will help shed light on the little-understood societies that inhabited the region prior to the Vikings. It is the symbolism represented on these objects that makes them unique, more than the quantity found, says Ravn. The objects immaculate craftsmanship points to their original owners probable high status. Only one member of societys absolute top [would have] been able to collect a treasure like the one found here, says Ravn in the statement. When experts excavated the site where Schytz found the hoard, they discovered the ruins of a village longhouse. Without the amateur treasure hunters discovery, there was nothing that could [have made] us predict that an unprecedented warlord or great man lived here, long before the kingdom of Denmark arose in the following centuries, Ravn adds.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/amateur-treasure-hunter-denmark-discovers-trove-sixth-century-gold-jewelry-180978640/
Many of the symbols seen on the bracteates are unfamiliar to researchers.
(Konserveringscenter Vejle / Vejlemuseerne)
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Great find!
Haggard Celine
(16,820 posts)He's a lucky ole schyt!
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Mosby
(16,168 posts)Shrike47
(6,913 posts)How much compensation is apparently a decision by the Board as far I got in to it, which wasnt very far.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)What a treasure that would be.
The Blue Flower
(5,420 posts)Highly recommended.
mahina
(17,506 posts)Excellent
geardaddy
(24,924 posts)FSogol
(45,363 posts)Luciferous
(6,068 posts)Backseat Driver
(4,339 posts)multigraincracker
(32,532 posts)I use to metal detect for years back in the 80s. Never found all that much in value. Lots of interesting items that made it worthwhile.
Now I find treasure that are worth lots of $ at yard sales. Last Friday my partner and I were out for about 4 hours. Just some of the days finds. An antique primitive apple box for $10, worth, to me at the mall, about $65. Also got a vintage Pullmans Platform step from Canadian International Rail Road made of iron for $7 worth $60. Also, a lady was unloading a tote from her car and struggling with it, so I helped her. I spotted and old prosthetic leg for below the knee. I ask how much she would like for it. She looked very surprised that I was interested, I could have it for free. Her husband had just got a newer much nicer one and didn't need it. Price zero and I have it for sale for $30. I think it would make a nice lamp.
Just my usual treasure hunt now. I love my side gig.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)Why 536 was the worst year to be alive'
A mysterious fog plunged Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and nightfor 18 months. "For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," wrote Byzantine historian Procopius. Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; people starved. The Irish chronicles record "a failure of bread from the years 536539." Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse, McCormick says.
https://www.science.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive
The specific volcanos which erupted in 536 and 540 have not been definitely identified. One may be in Iceland, but the other is possibly in Central America.
Did the TBJ Ilopango eruption cause the AD 536 event?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234350073_Did_the_TBJ_Ilopango_eruption_cause_the_AD_536_event
FSogol
(45,363 posts)536 was the second worst year.
The worst was any year during Trumpy's administration.
KewlKat
(5,624 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)In the Western world, it was a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck until the 1930s[4]
Joinfortmill
(14,248 posts)KS Toronado
(16,918 posts)I knew prior to Hitler the symbol had good associated with it.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)To me, it looks like an indicator of cultural continuity that goes far back into prehistory, and crosses every inhabited continent.
https://www.cabq.gov/artsculture/kimo/history-of-the-kimo/kimo-history/swastikas
From Collector's Guide:
"One of the oldest symbols made by humans, the swastika dates back some 6,000 years to rock and cave paintings. Scholars generally agree it originated in India. With the emergence of the Sanskrit language came the term 'swastika', a combination of 'su', or good, and 'asti', to be; in other words, well-being."
From Wikipedia:
"The swastika was a widely used Native American symbol. It was used by many southwestern tribes, most notably the Navajo. Among different tribes the swastika carried various meanings. To the Hopi it represented the wandering Hopi clans; to the Navajo it represented a whirling log ( tsil no'oli' ), a sacred image representing a legend that was used in healing rituals.
"The history of the swastika goes back to the origins of the Eurasian Continent. The swastika is an important symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, among others, and was also used in Native American and Jewish faiths prior to World War II. By the early twentieth century it was regarded worldwide as symbol of good luck and auspiciousness."
Hekate
(90,202 posts)The name svastika is Sanskrit, and it occurs in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. The earliest found was carved on a mammoth tusk from about 15,000 years ago.
More:
https://www.britannica.com/story/how-the-symbolism-of-the-swastika-was-ruined
I will add that there are certain other ancient religious symbols that can be found from Northern India, across Europe, and up into Ireland. The sacred spiral and the maze are prominent among them.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Thanks for posting.
"The earliest known use of the swastika symbolan equilateral cross with arms bent to the right at 90° angleswas discovered carved on a 15,000-year-old ivory figurine of a bird made from mammoth tusk."
Hekate
(90,202 posts)I think the reason it got written up in a US newspaper or journal was that a recent immigrant group of Buddhists were building a temple in their new location (ie the US) and experienced mutual culture- shock that Americans were appalled at the use of a Swastika, and then the immigrants were appalled when told why. They naturally tried to explain, they naturally wanted to use it as traditionally done
.
But the fact is that throughout Europe and America the symbol has been stained past redemption by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. They were exceedingly good with symbols. In addition, there are neo-nazis and other thugs who use the swastika to this day.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Yes. I am aware of that.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)by white nationalists. That the Western history of the symbol cant be elided.
Hugin
(32,784 posts)I'd like to know if the goldwork was done domestically to this group or if it was imported.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Some of the items:
"Older artifacts found in the cache include gold coins from the Roman Empire that were converted into jewelry. One depicts Constantine the Great, who ruled between 306 and 337 C.E."
Hugin
(32,784 posts)another metal detector.
Its user must've been having about the luck I was and buried it.
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)In research via the local high school he was able to return it to the woman who had lost it 10 years earlier.
Hugin
(32,784 posts)It had no distinguishing marks on it other than the high school it was from. I don't even remember it having a class.
A friend of a friend had gone to that high school and since I had no need for it, I gave it to her. A while later she coincidentally ran into the guy, who she knew, who had lost it several years before. She returned it to him.
Some things have a way of finding their way back to where they belong.
I bet that woman remembers your brother's efforts to this day!
Good job!
Was it bent in half?
But, at one point it may have had a stake driven through it.
This is exactly the sort of reason I am not an atheist. However, I do question the inordinate amount of time the higher powers spend screwing with me instead of, I don't know... PREVENTING PANDEMICS!
Joinfortmill
(14,248 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)Nevilledog
(50,687 posts)Xolodno
(6,341 posts)...to get off the couch and wife yelling at him.