{"id":31663,"date":"2021-04-19T09:41:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T08:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/?p=31663"},"modified":"2021-04-19T09:41:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-19T08:41:37","slug":"unique-gold-discovery-in-bergen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/unikt-gullfunn-i-bergen\/","title":{"rendered":"Unique gold discovery in Bergen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Archaeologists have made the largest gold discovery from prehistoric times in Western Norway in over 50 years.<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"slekt-innhold_2 slekt-entity-placement\" style=\"float: right;\" id=\"slekt-2263050849\"><div class=\"slekt-adlabel\">--Advertisement--<\/div><div id=\"slekt-3664628590\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-4064624966162732\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:inline-block;width:336px;height:280px;\" \ndata-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4064624966162732\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"4473708690\"><\/ins> \n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>In connection with archaeological surveys related to plans for the new E16 motorway at Espeland outside Bergen, a large gold artifact from the Early Iron Age was found before the weekend.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The discovery was made when archaeologists from Vestland County Council, while cleaning the profiles in one of the registration shafts, saw some shiny rings and therefore called in the University Museum in Bergen for further archaeological investigations. As we began to clean the rings, it turned out that they were much larger than first assumed. Finally, we were able to remove a large clump of earth in which a considerable number of rings were visible, and we could conclude that we were dealing with a very unexpected and spectacular find,\" says Morten Ramstad, section head at the Form Museum at the University Museum in Bergen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The find was then transported to the University Museum for further examination. It turned out that the gold find has a total weight of nearly 156 grams and consists of seven different rings attached to a large oval loop-shaped ring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-betalingsringer-og-ringenes-herrer\"><strong>Payment rings and the lords of the rings<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These types of gold rings are referred to as payment rings and date back to a time long before the monetary economy. When necessary, a piece could be cut off and the weight of the cut piece determined its value. The cut pieces were probably used in special contexts, such as gifts to subjects, payment of fines and blood money, or as gifts to the gods in sacrifices.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Payment rings of this type date back to the late Roman period (200-400 AD) and the Migration Period (400-550 AD). At this time, there was a great deal of gold in circulation among the Germanic tribal communities in Scandinavia. This period is known as the Golden Age of our prehistory, and gold is referred to as the language of power. It belonged to the elites and aristocracy of the society of that time. Those who controlled and distributed the gold, the top of the social elite, can therefore be referred to as the lords of the rings, says Ramstad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\"The gold indicates close relations with Southern Europe and the Roman Empire. Most of this gold is probably remelted Roman objects and coins that ended up here in the north either as gifts or payment to Germanic tribes who served the Romans, or as ransom to prevent attacks from Germanic tribes,\" Ramstad adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-et-hellig-sted\"><strong>A sacred place?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The gold rings may be a treasure trove buried during times of unrest, but there are other factors that point to a more ritualistic interpretation of the find. The boulder where the find was made is located on the border between cultivated land and uncultivated land and marks a boundary in the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The northern end of the stone block lies next to a spring that serves as a source of drinking water for the farm. Towards the outfield, the stone block borders a stone clock. A large number of archaeological finds from Scandinavia testify to the fact that boulders and springs were among the most common places for sacrifices in prehistoric times, and both in older folklore and in Sami and Norse religion, there are many myths and religious beliefs associated with boulders, water sources, and stone clocks. Archaeologists believe that the context of the find at Espeland makes it likely that the gold rings were placed there as an offering to the gods, and that the stone by the spring was a sacred place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2013 In Norway, there are around 150 known small and large gold finds of this type from the early Iron Age. The find from Espeland is important in this context because, unlike most other finds of this type, it was discovered during an archaeological investigation. This means that we have far more information about the context of the find than we usually do. The find will therefore undoubtedly contribute new knowledge about social conditions, settlements, and cults in the Early Iron Age in Norway.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Archaeologists have made the largest gold discovery from prehistoric times in Western Norway in over 50 years.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18152],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pressemelding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slekt1.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}