A treasure hailed as the “gold find of the century in Norway” has been discovered by a metal detectorist in Rennesøy, an island in southwestern Norway. The group of gold bracteates and beads dates to the late Migration Period (375-568 A.D.), and is believed to have been part of a single opulent necklace.

Erlend Bore picked up metal detecting when his physiotherapist and doctor strongly recommended he get outside more to combat the ills of sedentary living. On June 7th, he took his new metal detector out for its first spin. Two months later, he went to Rennesøy. When his detector gave a strong signal, he lifted a clod of earth and saw a glitter that he thought was a wrapper for a chocolate coin. Reader, it was not a chocolate wrapper. Bore scooped it up to take a closer look and when the soil around it fell apart, even more gold beads came out.

He immediately contacted the county archaeologist and sent him a picture of the find. The archaeologist informed him he had found Migration Era gold treasure. The find consists of nine gold bracteates (flat, thin, single-sided medallions that never circulated as actual coins but were often modelled after coins), all of them bearing a stylized horse image, ten gold beads and three gold spiral rings. The total gold weight of the find is just over 100 grams.

Archaeologists believe the gold necklace and spiral rings were buried in the 6th century during a time of conflict, plague and upheaval after a volcanic eruption blocked out of the sun in 535-6 A.D. leading to widespread crop failure and famine. Ole Madsen, director of the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger, called the treasure “the gold find of the century” because it has been that long since so many pieces of gold jewelry have been found together in one place in Norway. The bracteates alone, however, would be sufficient to garner such high praise.

Professor Sigmund Oehrl at the Archaeological Museum is an expert on bracteates and their symbols. Approximately 1,000 golden bracteates have so far been found in Scandinavia. According to him, the gold pendants from Rennesøy are of a specific type that is very rare. They show a horse motif in a hitherto unknown form.

“The motifs differ from most other gold pendants that have been found so far. The symbols on the pendants usually show the god Odin healing the sick horse of his son Balder. In the Migration Period, this myth was seen as a symbol of renewal and resurrection, and it was supposed to give the wearer of the jewelery protection and good health,” says Oehrl.

On the Rennesøy bracteates, however, only the horse is depicted. A somewhat similar horse, depicted together with snake-like monsters, is also found on a pair of gold bracts found in Rogaland and southern Norway.

“On these gold pendants the horse’s tongue hangs out, and its slumped posture and twisted legs show that it is injured. Like the Christian symbol of the cross, which spread in the Roman Empire at exactly this time, the horse symbol represented illness and distress, but at the same time hope for healing and new life,” says Oehrl.

The bracteates, beads and spirals are now being conserved at the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger and will soon go on display. According to Norwegian law, any archaeological object dating before 1537 belongs to the state. The finder and the landowner will split a finder’s fee in an amount determined by the National Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists excavating an early Medieval cemetery in Ingelheim, Germany, have unearthed the intact grave of Frankish warrior from the 7th century. Found between two looted graves, the warrior managed to escape his neighbors’ fates and keep the rich furnishings buried with him for 1,300 years.

The grave contained the skeletal remains of a man between 30 and 40 years old at the time of death. The position of the shoulders — close together and slightly raised — is known as coffin posture, evidence that the man was buried in a wooden casket of which no traces survive today. He was buried with a full complement of weapons. A spatha (double-edged sword) with a blade 30 inches long (the whole sword including hilt and pommel is 37 inches long) was placed under the deceased’s right arm. The blade is in excellent condition and even retains some of its original flexibility. Elements of a bronze scabbard and the suspension mount or belt also remain in place.

By his left arm was a broad seax (short slashing sword). The blade and bronze rivets from the scabbard survive today. The grave also contained a knife, lance and a shield. This exceptional array includes virtually all of the weaponry in use by the elite warrior class of the era; only a bow is missing to complete the set.

The flat shield boss with a wide rim and the massive design of the seax suggest the burial dates to the 7th century identifying the warrior as Frankish. That preliminary assessment may change once the weapons are cleaned and conserved. There are details of the ornamentation, including what appear to be silver inlays, that are currently obscured by a heavy coating of corrosion materials.

Excavations of the burial ground began in 2015 and come to an end this year. Most of the graves were pillaged centuries ago, so this rich discovery is of great archaeological import. Study of the weapons and analyses of the osteological remains promise to shed new light on Merovingian-era society in Ingelheim.

A seal matrix used to authenticate indulgences granted to penitents by the Priory at Mottisfont in Hampshire in the 15th century is going on display at Mottisfont Abbey, the stately home that is its direct descendant. The cast copper alloy almond-shaped die was discovered by a metal detectorist two miles from Mottisfont where a market stood in the Middle Ages, perhaps lost by a canon selling his priory’s repentance wares to sinners.

The seal features an enthroned God the Father, his hands raised in blessing, with the crucified Christ between his knees. A tiny, barely visible dove of the Holy Spirit is perched above Christ’s left shoulder. Beneath the representation of the Trinity is a stone arch with a cleric praying. The inscription around the oval reads ” sigillu officii prioris (p’or – etas) Cce trinitat’ de moteCfont,” meaning “seal of the prior of [the priory] of the Holy Trinity of Mottisfont.” It would have been stamped on hot wax and the impression affixed to the indulgence document.

The iconography of the enthroned God with draped robes and a forked beard with Christ on the cross between his legs and the dove above the cross is known as a Throne of Mercy type. It is a characteristic representation of the Trinity in 15th century English art, particularly the alabaster statues and panels carved by artisans in Nottingham.

Mottisfont Abbey was founded in 1201 by William Briwere, an administrator and judiciary to four Plantagenet kings (Richard the Lionhearted appointed him as judiciary in charge of the kingdom when he went on the Third Crusade in 1189), as the Priory of the Holy Trinity. Owned and operated by Augustinian canons, it was famed for its sacred relic: a finger of John the Baptist. It became a popular stop for pilgrims on the way from Canterbury to Winchester and prospered from the pilgrim trade and from lavish donations made by local aristocrats to pray for their souls and the souls of their departed loved ones.

The Abbey was struck by the Black Death in 1348, and it struck hard. At least two priors and three of Mottisfont’s cellarers died from the bubonic plague and as a third of Europe died with them, the priory’s income front rents, mills, orchards, churches and markets took a massive hit. There were so few canons left that they had to import a new prior from Leicester in 1352.

With its priestly ranks and revenues so drastically reduced, the priory was in danger of going under. Its patron, Henry of Lancaster, petitioned Pope Innocent VI for an indulgence to all who visited or donated to Mottisfont on Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost). Innocent approved and granted all the priory’s Trinity Sunday penitents for the next five years one year and 40 days off their time in Purgatory. He even went beyond Henry’s request, granting one year and 40 day indulgences for visitors to the priory church on the feasts of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Cross, St. Michael, and the Assumption and Nativity of Mary.

Things started looking up in the first decades of the 16th century. In a reorganization by Henry VII, the priory was reassigned as a subsidiary of Westminster Abbey and in 1521 landed a new patron, the wealthy wine merchant and sheriff of Southampton Henry Huttoft. The revival of Mottisfont’s fortunes came to a screeching halt in 1536 with the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. It managed to avoid the total destruction that swept away so many other monasteries by being sold off to William Sandys, the king’s Lord Chamberlain. Instead of demolishing it, he converted it into an elegant Tudor mansion.

Today Mottisfont Abbey, heavily modified in the 18th century, is an historic estate operated by the National Trust. The seal matrix was acquired by the National Trust and went on display at Mottisfont Abbey last Saturday.