Imagine digging in your own backyard to put in a patio and suddenly realizing you just uncovered a Viking treasure that has been sitting there for around 1,000 years.
That’s what gets me about this story. Forget the value for a second. Somebody buried this silver for a reason. They apparently planned on coming back for it, and for whatever reason, they never did.
Now, more than 1,000 years later, a homeowner accidentally finds it while doing ordinary yardwork.
But here’s the part that would be tough for me: you find around 700 Viking-era pieces on your own property, yet under Danish law, the treasure belongs to the state. You can receive a reward, but you don’t get to simply keep what you found.
I’d be excited about discovering a piece of history, but I think I’d also be standing there thinking, “I found it on my property… shouldn’t some of it belong to me?”
Sometimes the most incredible history isn’t sitting in a museum. It’s still underground, waiting for somebody with a shovel to hit the right spot.
Photo credited
“Nordjyske Museer” or “North Jutland Museums / Nordjyske Museer.”