Norway's largest coin hoard goes nuclear

 The largest Viking-era coin hoard ever found in Norway is getting larger by the minute. 

When the discovery was announced less than two weeks ago, the number of silver coins had just passed 3,000. Today the number of coins in the 11th century Mørstad hoard has skyrocketed past 4,167 with more being found daily. The 4,167 milestone is the total of all four of the other major Viking hoards discovered in Norway combined. As of two days ago, the total for this new Norwegian hoard was up to 4,344. It will soon make the top 10 in Scandinavia.

Early Harald Hardråde coin, triskele on obverse, cross on reverse.  

Hardråde was the guy that invaded England to claim the throne after the English King Edward the Confessor died without an heir.  Hardråde met his end at Stamford Bridge in York at the hands of the English, but this victory was immediately followed by the news that England had also been invaded in the south by Willian the soon to be conqueror, from Normandy in France.  The necessity to march the English army all the way north to York, fight off the Norwegian pretender, then march all the way back south left them exhausted, and easy prey for the Normans, who were then and thereafter the new rulers in the land.

So whose money was this?  That much loot has to have left a trail in history, right?

The metal detecting survey is complete, but the coins keep coming. Archaeologists from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo have now taken over the excavation and are using heavy machinery to remove the topsoil. The topsoil is so thick at the site that metal detectors couldn’t penetrate it, but now that it’s been peeled back, the team is still pulling between 70 and 100 coins a day.

Coin number 4,000 is a Danish penny minted by order of Harthacnut, future King of Denmark from 1035 to 1042, and King of England for the last two of those years. It was minted in Lund (Lund is now in Sweden) between 1030 and 1035, the last years of his father Knut’s government.

The discovery of such an unprecedentedly huge coin hoard would be exciting in any context, but the location was far from the traditional centers of power of Viking Norway. Indeed, no evidence of any population at all has been found yet.

Very odd.  

Via the always good History Blog.