1srelluc
Diamond Member
| A large, gold Viking ring crafted from twisted metal strands turned up in a very unexpected place: a heap of cheap jewelry a woman in Norway purchased at an online auction. Archaeologists think the ring may be more than 1,000 years old and once belonged to a powerful Viking chief. Mari Ingelin Heskestad, who lives in western Norway, told the Bergensavisen(opens in new tab), a daily newspaper in Bergen, that she'd found the gold ring among several pieces of cheap jewelry and trinkets that were being auctioned together online. She said she'd bought the bundle, packed into an old cardboard banana box, because she was interested in one of the other pieces. But when she received the assortment in the mail, the ring immediately stood out. "It was bright and gold. It looked very special, was roughly made," Heskestad told the newspaper in Norwegian. "I reacted to it being so heavy. It glistened and stuck out among the other jewelry." After showing it to her family, Heskestad drove to the headquarters of her regional government, located in the city of Bergen in Vestland County, and showed it to archaeologists there. Once they analyzed the ring, the team confirmed from its distinctive style that it was a gold ring from the late Iron Age in Scandinavia (after about A.D. 550), and perhaps from the Viking Age (after about A.D. 700). Experts at the University Museum of Bergen are now conserving the ring, and it will go on display there in a few months. Gold Viking ring unexpectedly found in stash of 'cheap jewelry' from online auction Gold Viking ring unexpectedly found in stash of 'cheap jewelry' from online auction In before someone named Leif shows up to claim it.  |
