A leading Viking scholar says she and fellow archaeologists are thrilled with the discovery of what appears to be an ancient Celtic ornament in a field in Norway that is believed to be among a cache of Viking loot.
Dr Cat Jarman, a senior adviser to the New Museum of the Viking Age in Norway, said she was “very excited” about the discovery of what appeared to be a medieval ornament depicting a face that would have been fitted on a bucket most likely used by monks in Ireland between 500AD and 700AD.
The ornament – along with ancient Islamic coins known as Dirham, circa 800AD – were found by metal detectorists combing a farmer’s field for valuables near Trondheim in central Norway last week.
The extremely rare find has been handed over to archaeological experts at the Trondheim Archaeological Museum who will clean it up and examine it further.
However, Dr Jarman suspects it is of a similar vintage to other Celtic bucket ornaments taken by the Vikings from medieval monasteries in Ireland and the UK during looting raids in the 9th century that have since been discovered in Norway.
“They are beautiful, with religious significance,” she told the Irish Independent.
Once the ornament is cleaned up by conservators, she expects it will reveal two faces depicted in similar finds.
“It would have been very valuable back then,” she said of religious and other artefacts that Vikings plundered during raids here between around 790AD to 900AD.
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“It’s not very likely that it would have been brought in a peaceful way,” she said of the violent looting raids in which Vikings prided themselves on bringing back “exotic” finds during attacks on churches and monastic sites in Ireland.
