British Museum to show Viking treasures from North Yorkshire

A major new exhibition featuring Viking finds from North Yorkshire will take place at the British Museum next year.

Vikings: Life And Legend is the first major exhibition on Vikings to be held at the London museum for more than 30 years, and will include artefacts from the Vale of York alongside items from around the UK and Ireland, and the museum’s own collection.

The Vale of York Hoard, which was found by metal detectorists near Harrogate in 2007, will be shown in its entirety for the first time since it was found and jointly acquired by the British Museum and York Museums Trust.

The hoard includes 617 coins, six arm rings and a quantity of bullion and hack-silver, and is considered the largest and most important Viking hoard to be found since 1840’s Cuerdale Hoard, part of which will also will also be included in the exhibition.

The exhibition runs at the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery between March 6 and June 22 next year.

British Museum to show Viking treasures from North Yorkshire

Man thankful he ignored wife who told him to bin rare Viking ring

A man whose wife told him to bin a dirty piece of metal he found in a field is glad he ignored her after it was declared to be a rare silver Viking ring.

Instead of throwing the object away David Taylor from Co Down, Northern Ireland gave it a good wash and phoned the nearest museum to ask advice.

Almost 18 months on, the dirty object he spotted lying on a stone in his brother-in-law Andrew Coutler’s freshly ploughed field near Kircubbin on the Ards peninsula was today officially ruled to be treasure.

Mr Taylor, who was helping Mr Coulter remove stones from the field at the Inishargy Road, said he was glad he did not listen to his wife Lynda.

“She thought it was a bull ring and said ‘throw that in the bin’,” he laughed after the ruling at a special treasure trove inquest hearing at Belfast coroner’s court.

“I just knew by the shape of it, it was something.”

Man thankful he ignored wife who told him to bin rare Viking ring

Bronze Age hoard found in Denmark

A hoard of four Bronze Age gold arm rings has been found by a couple of Danish metal detectorists.

The four gold rings are all different and have distinct wear marks. Which shows that they once sat on the arm of a Bronze Age man whose clothing has rubbed against the soft gold. This is the first time ever, to be found four of the so-called oath rings at once.

These are so-called eds-rings, dating from the Late Bronze Age around 800 BC.

The (slightly wonky) Google translation from the Danish:

Bronze Age hoard found in Denmark