Discovered with a metal detector in Denmark, the stunning 11th century gold earring may have been gifted by the Byzantine emperor to a Viking leader 1,000 years ago, experts say. Such decorations have never been seen in the Nordic countries before.
Experts claim that the amazing gold earring discovered in Denmark may have been a gift from the Byzantine emperor to a Viking leader a thousand years ago, writes the Daily Mail.
“Completely unique” gold jewelry dating from the 11th century has never been seen in the Nordic countries before. Probably one of a pair, the earring was found with a metal detector in a field near Bövling in West Jutland, Denmark.
It is believed that the earring was originally made in Byzantium or Egypt and serves as potential proof that the Vikings had connections throughout the Mediterranean.
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was a powerful civilization with its capital at Constantinople (present-day Istanbul).
Now the unique gold earring is on display at the Danish National Museum dedicated to the Vikings and their travels to the Middle East.
“It is completely unique to us, we only know 10 to 12 other samples around the world, and we have never found a single one in Scandinavia before,” said Peter Pentz, inspector of the National Museum of Denmark, about the found gold earring. “We could expect to find such a beautiful and priceless piece of jewelry like this, along with some large gold treasure or in a royal tomb, and not on a random field at Boeuling.”
The find is a crescent-shaped gold plate set in a frame of gold threads, decorated with small gold balls and gold ribbons. The crescent-shaped plate is covered with enamel, now slightly cracked, which would have been created using a special technique involving breaking and dusting glass before melting it with metal to make it opaque. The enamel motif is two stylized birds around a tree or plant, which symbolize the tree of life.
This type of jewelry is especially known both in Muslim Egypt and Syria, as well as in Byzantium and Russia. In style and craftsmanship, it is similar to the “Dagmark Cross” – a Byzantine relic of the 11th-12th centuries.
Dagmark’s earring and cross are believed to date back to the Viking Age or the early Middle Ages and were probably not sold but donated by kings and emperors.
This explains why Dagmark’s cross was found in the queen’s grave at St Bendt’s Church in Ringsted (Denmark) in 1683.
On the contrary, a new treasure was found in a field in Boeuling, near which there are no known Viking sites, so how it turned out there remains a mystery.
The discoverer of the invaluable find was 54-year-old Franz Fugl Westergaard, who had walked the field many times in search of gold and silver. When his detector emitted a faint squeak, he lifted a lump of earth and crushed it with his hand, revealing an earring that had appeared outward.
One explanation for how this ancient piece of jewelry from the South ended up in Denmark may be that many Vikings went to military service with the Byzantine emperor, who had a bodyguard squad of warriors from Scandinavia.
Icelandic sagas show that mercenaries returned from the East with silk and weapons, and they also say that the emperor sometimes gave wonderful gifts to his bodyguard.
Thus, the earring could have been donated by the emperor personally to a certain trusted Viking who served as a bodyguard, and then was lost under unknown circumstances in Denmark.
The find confirms that West Jutland has always had strong connections around the world, says Astrid Toftdal Jensen, an inspector at the Holstebro Museum, which is located near where the earring was found.
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