Archaeologists unearth 1000 yr old Viking treasure trove in Swedish Garden
Swedish archaeologists have dug up a Viking treasure trove in a garden in the Baltic Island of Gotland. A gardener who was tending his vegetable patch stumbled upon the treasure trove containing silver coins from Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East. The Viking money totalled about 69 coins dating from late 900s and early 1000s. The find contains rare early Viking money and foreign currency from present-day England, Germany, Ireland, Iraq, and Uzbekistan. Vikings, also called Norsemen or Northmen, refers to a members of the Scandinavian seafaring traders, warriors and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the 8th to the 11th century and reached east to Russia and Constantinople. The Anglo-saxon coins that were found in the Swedish garden are likely to be the plunder or protection money known as danegeld, which was paid by regional rulers to keep Vikings from attacking, according to the experts. A similar cache was found earlier in England. Gotland probably was a Viking trading center earlier and that’s the reason why the archaeologists have discovered about 700 to 800 silver hoards. Source