{"id":12443,"date":"2025-01-15T15:32:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12443"},"modified":"2025-01-15T15:32:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:32:58","slug":"1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html","title":{"rendered":"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
University Museum of Bergen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A couple of metal detectorists stumbled across a surprising 1,200-year-old treasure containing jewelry, coins, and a clasp seemingly belonging to a Bible. Members of the Bj\u00f8rgvin Detector Club were exploring Skumsnes farm in Fitjar, located in southwestern Norway autumn 2023 when they uncovered some Viking graves. The pair immediately notified a local museum, with archaeologists finishing their excavation of the site late last year. Two graves belonging to women were excavated, dating from 800 to 850 AD. A third one was analyzed, with archaeologists uncovering a gilded brooch and 25 beads. Based on the finds of the first two graves, archaeologists believe those graves belonged to women of the same family. In all, archaeologists believe there are around 20 graves at the site.<\/p>\n

The first grave contained mostly fragments, indicating it had most likely been plundered.\u201d There were fragments of a couple of gilded oval brooches (also called tortoise brooches) of Norse origin, [and] fragments of a metal cauldron\/dish produced in southern England or Ireland with enamel inlay and animal-shaped handles,\u201d according to a summary of the find. A book clasp that appeared to have come from a Bible had been repurposed into a buckle or brooch pin. S\u00f8ren Diinhoff, an archaeologist from the University Museum of Bergen, spoke with Fox News<\/em><\/a> about the discovery. \u201cThey put a needle on the back of the clasps, and they could be used as brooches. We think that the clasp in the first grave could very well have come from a Bible in England or Ireland. It had been ripped off and brought back to Norway where it eventually ended up as a woman’s brooch,\u201d said Diinhoff.<\/p>\n

The second grave was much more intact, containing high-class jewelry and coins. The women appeared to be wealthy according to the type of jewelry found. The grave also included tools utilized for textile production. \u201cThese tools indicate the buried had skills, but more show that the buried woman was the leader of the farm textile production,\u201d said a report from the archaeologists. \u201cA bronze key found in the grave symbolizes this woman\u2019s central position. She was the carrier of the house key and, as such, leader of the farm household. [What is] probably a frying pan in the grave shows the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coins found in the grave helped with dating the graves, with some minted in Jutland from 832 AD to 840 AD. Other coins from France were minted during the reign of Louis the Pious, son of the famous French king, Charlemagne, who died in 840 Ad. Diinhoff acknowledged the detectorists\u2019 role in uncovering the graves. \u201cWithout them \u2018finding\u2019 the site in the first place, we would not have known about the site. As the graves we found were just below the turf, they are very exposed and would likely have been lost in time. Now we get a chance to excavate this small gravefield.\u201d\u00a0 Diinhoff expressed a sense of urgency in excavating the remaining graves. \u201cWe fear that they will be destroyed in time. They are found just below the turf and there are so many ways they can be ruined\u2026We hope to be able to excavate a few graves every year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of metal detectorists stumbled across a surprising 1,200-year-old treasure containing jewelry, coins, and a clasp seemingly belonging to a Bible. Members of the Bj\u00f8rgvin Detector Club were exploring Skumsnes farm in Fitjar, located in southwestern Norway autumn 2023 when they uncovered some Viking graves. The pair immediately notified a local museum, with archaeologists…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archaeology"],"yoast_head":"\n1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A couple of metal detectorists stumbled across a surprising 1,200-year-old treasure containing jewelry, coins, and a clasp seemingly belonging to a Bible. Members of the Bj\u00f8rgvin Detector Club were exploring Skumsnes farm in Fitjar, located in southwestern Norway autumn 2023 when they uncovered some Viking graves. The pair immediately notified a local museum, with archaeologists…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-15T20:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/1200-yo-viking-treasure_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway","og_description":"A couple of metal detectorists stumbled across a surprising 1,200-year-old treasure containing jewelry, coins, and a clasp seemingly belonging to a Bible. Members of the Bj\u00f8rgvin Detector Club were exploring Skumsnes farm in Fitjar, located in southwestern Norway autumn 2023 when they uncovered some Viking graves. The pair immediately notified a local museum, with archaeologists…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2025-01-15T20:32:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/1200-yo-viking-treasure_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html","name":"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/1200-yo-viking-treasure_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2025-01-15T20:32:58+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-15T20:32:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/1200-yo-viking-treasure_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2025\/01\/1200-yo-viking-treasure_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"University Museum of Bergen"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2025\/01\/1200-year-old-treasure-including-book-clasp-for-a-bible-found-hidden-in-norway.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"1,200-Year-Old Treasure, Including Book Clasp For a Bible Found Hidden in Norway"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/","name":"Christ News Today","description":"Christian News From Around the Globe","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/#\/schema\/person\/f0820942b588b1bdba133d7ca3c8eb6e","name":"rdewing","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/author\/rdewing"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12446,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12443\/revisions\/12446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}