A trainee metal detectorist in northern Germany recently hit on something his mentor never expected: an 800-year-old hoard of gold jewelry and silver coins that hint at the area’s trade connections.
The large hoard contained a dazzling collection of artifacts. “The hoard consists of two very high quality gold earrings set with semi-precious stones, a gilded pseudo-coin brooch, two gilded stone-studded finger rings, a ring fragment, a small formerly gilded perforated disc, a ring brooch, and about 30 silver coins, some of them heavily fragmented,” Ulf Ickerodt (opens in new tab)director of the State Archaeological Department of Schleswig-Holstein (opens