The golden artifact, a sword scabbard fitting perhaps belonging to an elite warrior leader Annette Græsli Øvrelid, Archaeological Museum, University of Stavanger A storm along the coast of southwestern Norway likely uprooted the tree, resting on a mound of earth, that recently caught the eye of a man out on a walk. With a stick, the hiker poked at the debris—and uncovered something very old.
Suddenly, he saw something that glittered, the man says in a translated statement from the University of Stavanger in Norway. But he didn’t quite understand what he had found.
Researchers enlightened him. Likely originating from the sixth century C.E., it was a golden artifact that once may have fit on the scabbard of a warrior leader’s sword. The rectangular piece, roughly six centimeters wide and weighing a little more than an ounce, is covered with serpentine markings and beaded golden threads—a sign, the researchers discerned, that it was the handiwork of skilled goldsmiths. Fewer than two dozen others like it have ever been found in northern Europe, and it is the first of its kind to appear in Norway’s coastal Rogaland county.
Such discoveries take researchers aback, says Håkon Reiersen, an archaeologist at the university’s Museum of Archaeology, in the translated statement. The odds of finding something like it are small.
The condition of the discovery also surprised archaeologists. Unlike other sword scabbard fittings from the era, this one is particularly worn, suggesting an elite, powerful chieftain wielded the weapon for a long time. But other clues suggest that even this well-respected warrior was forced to reckon with the hardships of sixth century Norway—the fact that the item was likely buried in a rock crevice suggests it was offered as a sacrifice to the gods.
Turmoil was widespread in Norway in the 500s. Volcanic eruptions and temperature changes may have contributed to crop failure and famine around the same time that the continent experienced its first plague pandemic. According to a 2024 study in the journal Norwegian Archaeological Review, these crises led to a notable population decline during the sixth century.
Other sacrifices to gods have turned up in recent years in the area. In the 19th century, ploughers discovered a silver necklace, and in 1907 a large Roman bronze cauldron, likely fashioned on the Rhine River, was unearthed.
Meanwhile, amateur archaeologists continue to find Nordic and Viking artifacts elsewhere, too. Magnet fishers pulled a 1,000 year-old Viking sword from a river in England in 2023, likely from the Viking conquest of Britain. That same year, metal detectorists in Norway stumbled upon an early ninth century gravesite, leading to the excavation of coins, textile tools and jewelry. In 2024, a well-preserved 1,000 year-old sword was discovered on a farm in Rogaland, marking the first Ulfberht weapon to resurface in the area.
“Material analyses of those weapons show that they were not only made from the best raw materials available in Europe and beyond, but that the smiths were also at the very highest technical level,” Sigmund Oehrl, an archaeologist at the University of Stavanger, told All That’s Interesting’s Amber Morgan in 2024.
The new discovery will be displayed in the University of Stavanger’s Museum of Archaeology.
Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.
