Search For Lost Earring Leads To Discovery Of Viking Treasure In Norway

After a man made a record-breaking gold discovery in Norway with a metal detector, a family in the country made another unprecedented discovery with the same device. The family was searching for a lost earring in their garden when they instead unearthed artefacts dating back more than a millennium.

According to the BBC, the Aasvik family dug up a bowl-shaped buckle and another item that appear to be part of a Viking-era burial. Experts believe the artefacts were used in the ninth-century burial of a woman on the small island of Jomfruland. The discovery was made under a large tree in the centre of the family's garden on the island, off Norway's south coast.

"We congratulate the family who found the first safe Viking-time find at Jomfruland," the Cultural Heritage of Vestfold and Telemark County Council wrote in a Facebook post.

Live Science reported that the new discovery of what seems to be the grave of an aristocratic Viking woman now suggests that the cairns were, in fact, made by Vikings.

The larger artefact found in the grave is an oval-shaped brooch that would have been worn by a woman in a halter dress to fasten the shoulder straps at the front, Vibeke Lia, an archaeologist with the Vestfold and Telemark County Council, told Live Science. Such brooches were commonly found in the graves of Viking women, and their style was characteristic of the ninth century, according to the news outlet.

"They come in pairs, one for each strap, so there should be another one there," she said.