Family searching for lost earring finds Viking-era burial instead, Norway photos show

Aspen Pflughoeft
Wed, September 27, 2023 

A family in Norway was searching for a lost earring in their garden but stumbled on a much older find instead: a first-of-its-kind Viking grave, photos show.

The Aasvik family got out a metal detector to look for a lost gold earring, the Cultural Heritage of Vestfold and Telemark County Municipality said in a Sept. 25 Facebook post. As they searched their yard, they uncovered something else entirely.

Buried under a big tree near the center of their garden, they unearthed two metal artifacts, officials said.

Photos show the artifacts. The smaller, broken one has an intricate X-shaped design with a central raised point. The larger turtle-shell-shaped one has a simpler X-shaped design.

Archaeologists identified the artifacts as a Viking-era clasp and buckle from the eighth century. The objects came from the grave of a woman buried over 1,100 years ago, the post said.


Photos show the relatively shallow burial and the surrounding garden.

The artifacts are a first-of-its-kind find for the Jomfruland area, officials said. The area was long believed to have been inhabited during Viking times, but the Aasvik family’s find is the first evidence of this history.

Jomfruland is an island in the Vestfold og Telemark county municipality off the southeastern coast of Norway. Jomfruland is about 130 miles southwest of Oslo.

Facebook Translate and Google Translate were used to translate the Facebook post from the Cultural Heritage of Vestfold and Telemark County Municipality.