Experts believe that a stunning pair of earrings in gold found in Denmark could have been given by the Emperor Of Byzantium as a gift to a Viking Chief 1,000 years ago.
Dating from the 11th century, the ‘completely unique’ gold jewellery has never been seen before in the Nordic countries.
Likely one of a pair, it was found by a metal detectorist in a field near Bøvling in West Jutland, Denmark.
It’s thought to have been originally crafted in Byzantium or Egypt and is potential evidence the Vikings had connections all the way around the Mediterranean.
The Byzantine Empire (from 395 to 1204 and from 1261 to 1403), also known by the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium was an influential civilization that had its headquarters in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul).
An email is now slightly cracking on the earring. It features a motif consisting of two stylized birds surrounding a tree, or plant. This symbolises life’s tree.
The earring is probably from Egypt and reached all the way to Bøvling, where Frants Fugl Vestergaard found it on a field with a metal detector
The exhibit is now on display at the Danish National Museum’s Viking Exhibition ‘Togtet, which literally translates to ‘The Cruise’. It is about Viking travels in the Middle East.
Experts are unable to locate a comparable earring that could have been part of a pair.
Peter Pentz from the National Museum Denmark, Inspector, stated that the specimen is unique because he only knows of 10-12 other examples in the world. He also said that he has never seen one in Scandinavia.
‘We had expected to find such a fine and invaluable piece of jewellery like this together with a large gold treasure or in a royal tomb and not on a random field in Bøvling.’
It consists of a crescent-shaped, gold plate that has been inserted within a frame made from gold threads decorated with small gold balls.
The plate’s crescent-shaped shape is now covered in an enamel. This was created using a unique technique that involves breaking down and powdering glass, before it is melted with metal to make it opaque.
Two stylised birds are arranged around a tree, or plant to represent the motif in enamel.
Vikings had connections all the way to the Mediterranean, according to the National Museum Denmark
Back view of the earring. This find is made up of a gold crescent-shaped plate, inserted into a frame of gold threads and decorated with small gold balls or gold ribbons.
This kind of jewelry is most popular in Muslim Egypt, Syria, Byzantium, and Russia.
In terms of style and craftsmanship, it’s similar to the Dagmark cross – an 11th or 12th-century Byzantine relic.
The earring and the Dagmark Cross are thought to both date from the Viking Age or the earliest Middle Ages and were likely not traded but donated by kings and emperors.
This explains how the Dagmark Cross was discovered in the grave of a Danish queen at St. Bendt’s Church, Ringsted in 1683.
Both the Dagmark cross (pictured) and the earring are believed to date back to the Viking Age.
In contrast, the new treasure was found in a field in Bøvling without known Viking sites nearby, so how it ended up there is therefore a bit of a mystery.
The discoverer of the priceless find was 54-year-old Frants Fugl Vestergaard, who had searched the field many times before in the hunt for ‘danefæ’ – gold and silver in the earth without an owner.
He heard his detector make a weak bleep and picked up some earth clumps in his hands to discover the earring.
According to him, ‘Stop It’ I Think, then it’s time for me to stand still,’ said the National Museum.
“I feel very humbled, and I wondered why that particular piece was found in West Jutland. There is so much to be discovered between them. It’s almost like reading the text of the past.
The exhibit is now on display at the Danish National Museum’s Viking Exhibition ‘Togtet, which literally translates to ‘The Cruise’. It is about Viking travels in the Middle East.
This earring was the first in Scandinavia and only 10-12 pieces worldwide of it are available.
“You yearn for something special, an exceptional find and you find it suddenly in your possession.” It’s impossible to imagine.
It could be explained by the fact that many Vikings enlisted in war service to the Byzantine Emperor, who was surrounded by warriors from Scandinavia.
Icelandic legends reveal that mercenaries returned from East with silk, weapons, and that occasionally the Emperor gave fine gifts to his guard.
The earring may have been handed by the Emperor to a Viking trusted in his bodyguard, and then it was lost in unknown circumstances in Denmark.
The find confirms that West Jutland has always had strong connections around the world,’ said Astrid Toftdal Jensen, an inspector at Holstebro Museum, which is near its finding place.
Jensen hopes to have the earring loaned later so it is possible for visitors to see it in the same area it was discovered.