Daria_Kuldushova
Daria_Kuldushova
10 January 2023, 13:27

A woman from Norway found a gold Viking ring among cheap jewelry.

A woman from Norway found a gold Viking ring among cheap jewelry.
Marie Angeline Heskestad bought a batch of inexpensive jewelry at an online auction. The package came in the form of a box of bananas. Examining the contents, the Norwegian immediately noticed a large, heavy gold ring.
Jewelry and trinkets from the auction, among which a ring (circled in red) was found.
Jewelry and trinkets from the auction, among which a ring (circled in red) was found.

She took the find to the municipality of Westland province. After examining the ring, local archaeologists said the ring belonged to the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia (around 550 AD) or the Viking Age (700 AD). They came to this conclusion from the style characteristic of that time. After conservation, experts from the University of Bergen want to exhibit the find. Since it is impossible to determine the location of the find, the national archives decided to send the ring to the University Museum of Bergen, which houses antiquities dating back to 1537.

The auction house where this lot was presented did not have detailed information about the provenance of the ring.
The only thing that can be said is that the ring probably belonged to a tall man, because its size is very large.

"It is quite possible that the ring was once in a Viking grave, among other jewelry, and someone took it and then died," says advisers of the Cultural Heritage Center.
Ring of the Viking. Photo: Municipality.
Ring of the Viking. Photo: Municipality.

An archaeologist from the University of Oslo, comments: "The ring comes from the Viking Age, the ring is consistent with other finds in graves from that time. Rings, especially gold ones, are rare in this period. Sometimes they were used not only as a decoration, but also in rituals, for example, when taking an oath. Also at that time, jewelry was a sign of emphasizing hierarchy; gold in the Viking Age was only for the highest social elite. It is possible that people of lower social status also wore jewelry, but in less expensive materials such as bronze or copper. The most expensive metal was gold, then silver, copper alloys, then tin and lead alloys".

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