AN INCREDIBLE collection of ancient Viking treasure with a “highly unusual” surprise has been discovered by two Rookie “archaeologists” on a tiny island.
John Crowe and David O’Hare were busy exploring the British Isle of Man with their metal detector in hopes of making a ground-breaking discovery.
And to their incredible luck, they managed to unearth a hoard of ancient Viking-era coins – with some of them still in their original form.
The amazing collection includes 36 silver coins that were minted in different locations in England – and span from around 1000 to 1065 CE.
Experts found the coins came from locations like York, London, Lincoln, Cambridge, Hastings, Ipswich and Exeter.
Some of them were created under the reign of Edward the Confessor, the king of England from 1042 to 1066, Smithsonian magazine reports.
Others were minted when Canute the Great ruled England from 1016 to 1035 and formed the North Sea empire by unifying England, Denmark and Norway.
The collection also includes some Irish coins that experts claim were produced in a mint in Dublin close to 1014.
Kristin Bornholdt Collins, a leading expert in Viking Age coins who carefully studied the discovery, said: “This important hoard was likely assembled in two or more stages, with the earlier English and Irish coins deposited together in the first instance, and the later coins dating to Edward the Confessor added later.
“This new hoard might be compared to a wallet containing all kinds of credit cards, notes and coins, perhaps of different nationalities, such as when you prepare to travel overseas.”
The impressive hoard, which was abandoned at least 1,000 years ago, has now been declared an official treasure.
Allison Fox, Curator for Archaeology for Manx National Heritage, said: “This is a wonderful find which helps further our understanding of the complex Viking Age economy in the Isle of Man.
Kristin said while it was an incredible discovery, it was also “highly unusual” to find so many coins made from such diverse materials that date back to the Viking Age.
She said this will provide a “rare chance” to study such ancient artefacts in depth.
She added: “The hoards provide a rare chance to study the contents side by side, right down to the detail of the dies used to strike the coins.
“Having this much closely dated comparative material from separate finds is highly unusual.”
Meanwhile, an ancient set of teeth from the Viking era has revealed signs of a brutal “initiation ritual” that marked their social identities.
Damnnig new evidence found after studying 1000-year-old remains of a man shows the Vikings filled horizontal grooves into the teeth that apparently helped them to identify as merchant men.
Archaeologists Matthias Toplak of the Viking Museum Haithabu and Lukas Kerk of the University of Münster in Germany found the bizarre tooth filings in the remains of 130 males from the Baltic isle of Gotland.
Masterfully filled horizontal grooves have been found inside the skulls of men from Sweden and Denmark in a practice that experts think may have persisted for years.
Research suggests that these teeth fillings were found in places known to support trading – and that all individuals with filed teeth appear to be adult men.
They have been analyzing the modifications closely, looking for a possible explanation for the bizarre methods.
Scientists previously thought tattoos were the only form of body modification used in the Viking age, but now suggest that Vikings purposely deformed their skulls as well.
Instances of an intentional reshaping and elongation of the skull associated with the Viking Age have been found in three Gotland women.
A brief history of the Vikings...
THE Viking Age is a period in European history and dates from around 800 to 1050AD
Some groups of Vikings did live on for a bit longer after this period in different countries across the globe
They originated in Scandinavia and travelled all over the world on their famous Viking ships
The Vikings were known for raiding and trading from their homelands across wide areas of northern, central and Eastern Europe, during the late 8th to late 11th centuries – now become known as The Viking Age.
They carried out many raids on Anglo-Saxon Britain – the first recorded raid was in 793.
And they continued to make regular raids around the coasts of England, looting and capturing people as slaves.
Gradually, the raiders began to settle and stay in the British land they had seized – mainly in the east and north of England.
In 866, the Vikings captured modern York (Viking name: Jorvik) and turned it into their capital.
The Viking raiding did not stop – different bands of Vikings made regular raiding voyages around the coasts of Britain a few hundred years after this.
Vikings created a trade network that spanned the globe and evidence of similar house styles, jewellery, tools and lots of other everyday equipment can be found in many different countries
The Viking Age in Britain ended when the Norwegian king Haraldr harðráði was killed at the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066
Vikings are usually depicted as having horns on their helmets but there is only one well-preserved helmet from the Viking Age and this does not have horns.
