Found Coins May Unveil a Lost Viking King

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Tue December 20th, 2011, 10:18 pm

A hoard of silver found by a metal detector has provided intriguing new clues to a previously unknown Viking king, the British Museum announced on Wednesday.

Found some 16 inches beneath the surface of a field in Silverdale, a village in north Lancashire, UK, the hoard materialized as Darren Webster, a 39-year-old stonemason, lifted a lead box signalled by his detector.

A shower of 201 pieces of silver revealed an abundance of arm-rings, brooch fragments, ingots and coins.

Full story (with photos!)

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed December 21st, 2011, 3:15 am

You find the greatest stories like this!

SM

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed December 21st, 2011, 3:39 pm

Would be nice to see them all shined up.

A few problems with the writing of the article (Alfred the Great as a Viking) but a very cool find. It's nice that the money will be split between the finder and the landowner.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Wed December 21st, 2011, 4:28 pm

Way cool. Thanks for the link, Rowan!

annis · Post by **annis** » Thu December 22nd, 2011, 4:05 am

Posted by LoveHistory

(Alfred the Great as a Viking)

Poor old Alfred would be turning in his grave if it hadn't already been ransacked by cultural vandals in the 18th century. Alfred the Great was the only Anglo-Saxon king who successfully kept the Vikings at bay!

Carla · Post by **Carla** » Thu December 22nd, 2011, 3:13 pm

[quote=""annis""]Posted by LoveHistory

Poor old Alfred would be turning in his grave if it hadn't already been ransacked by cultural vandals in the 18th century. Alfred the Great was the only Anglo-Saxon king who successfully kept the Vikings at bay![/quote]

His son and daughter gave them a run for their money too

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Thu December 22nd, 2011, 5:46 pm

[quote=""SonjaMarie""]You find the greatest stories like this!

SM[/quote]

A lot of the time these are articles someone else finds and posts on a forum I belong to that covers a very wide range of topics. They have a section devoted to history/archaeology/paleontology. Occasionally, I'll stumble across one on my own.

Alisha Marie Klapheke · Post by **Alisha Marie Klapheke** » Mon January 2nd, 2012, 4:42 pm

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. Geez, I wish that stuff was under my grass! The only cool thing I've found in my southeastern US yard is a 19th c horseshoe and some square edged nails. I'm always hoping for an arrowhead--the ten-year-old in me will never die!

DianeL · Post by **DianeL** » Mon January 2nd, 2012, 7:37 pm

Alisha Marie, my brother is an archaeologist, and I can tell you one possible place for arrowhead hunting. He grew up finding Civil War bullets and a few arrowheads; apparently it was inspiring.

And the area hasn't even been paved over with a mall parking lot, either ... !

He once plotted with me a future archaeology project. I'd broken a figurine, and he got excited and said, "bury the hand and the body in one place, and the elbow somewhere completely different. It'll drive them mad 500 years from now, figuring out how the connecting piece went astray."

We have a very sad sense of humor in my family.

His own finds, digging a garden in my yard one year: 1960s and 1970s soda and beer bottle caps and can tabs in varying states of decomposition.

Apart from that, the cat buried (now beneath my air conditioning outdoor fan unit) is probably the most interesting artifact ...