A collection of 32 branding iron bars has been found in the cellar of a home in Valdres , Norway , dating back to the Viking or early Middle Ages . Grete Margot Sørum follow across the approximately 1,000 - class - one-time treasure while cleaning out the basement of her parents ’ house .
The collection contains a number of belittled identical iron rods each weighing 50 Gram ( 1.7 ounces ) , the uniformness of which suggests they were once used as a form of currency . Resembling small spatulas , the inclusion body of a hole in one terminal has chair experts to believe they were intended to be string together in a lot .
Sørum ’s father determine the collection while digging a well , and the iron has been sit around in their basement since the 1980s . The area the pieces were call up from sits just above the Bergen royal road which runs between Oslo and Bergen .
They were held in a bunch to be easily used as currency while traveling. Image courtesy of Mildri Een Eide
expert consider the memory cache was buried there with the aim of someone coming back to retrieve the items . “ We call it a memory cache regain because it is light that someone has [ buried it ] to conceal it , ” Archaeologist and associate prof Kjetil Loftsgarden toldNRK News .
Loftsgarden says it is uncommon to amount across something like this these days as most cache are fall back or damage during house and road construction .
The area of Valdres was alarge production sitefor Fe during the Viking and Middle Ages . Iron was get hold of from the valleys and mountains in southern Norway and Trøndelag to be used in the production of creature , weapons , and nail . While most atomic number 26 yield took place between 900 and 1200 CE , there ’s grounds of atomic number 26 yield in Valdres dating back to 200 CE .
After Sørum rediscovered the artifacts , she sent them to the Valdres Folkemuseum in Fagerenes . From there , the museum post them to the Cultural Heritage Section in the county municipality to have the findings register .
Anne Engesveen , the unit drawing card for archaeology at the Cultural Heritage Sectionsaidof the collection , “ former finds that are handed in to the archaeologists furnish new cognition about the chronicle of the Inland , so a big give thanks you to Grete Margot Sørum . ”
The collection has since been send to the Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo to be cataloged and stored . Sørum read of her father ’s find : “ we in the kinsfolk consider this is exciting and very beautiful . ”
