Bronze Age Treasure Found in Swedish Forests

A man who studied the forest to make a map for the orienteering club in western Sweden made an incredible discovery.

Cartographer Thomas Karlsson first learned that the treasure he thought was a fake was 2500 years old and belonged to the bronze age.

Found treasure, It includes about 50 items, such as necklaces, bracelets and clothing pins.

The cartographer, Thomas Karlsson, said “I first thought it might be a lamp, but when I looked closer I saw that it was old jewelry”.

According to Swedish archaeologists, it is very rare to find such a hoard in a forest. Such gifts were typically left in rivers or wetlands by ancient tribes. The hoard was on the forest floor, next to rocks.

They have been dated between 750 and 500 BC.

When staring down at a map he was working on, Mr. Karlsson noticed the metallic glint. Since the ornaments were in such fine repair, he first assumed they were copies. Then, while drinking coffee in the park, he emailed a local archaeologist, according to the regional newspaper Goteborgs-Posten.

The forest is located near the town of Alingsas, about 48 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Gothenburg.

Archaeologists refer to it as a “depot” discovery, which means it was intentionally left as a sacrifice to a deity or gods, or to invest in life after death.

The jewelry “is extremely well preserved”, said Prof Johan Ling, lecturer in archaeology at Gothenburg University.

“Most of the items can be linked to a woman, or women, of high status,” he said, quoted by Goteborgs-Posten.

The treasure includes a type of rod used to spur on horses, previously found in neighbouring Denmark, but not in Sweden.

Since such antiquities are considered state property in Sweden, anyone who discovers them is required by statute to contact the police or municipal authority. The Swedish National Heritage Board then agrees on a monetary award, if any, for the finder.

Mr. Karlsson said a reward “would be a nice bonus, but it’s not very important to me.

“It’s fun to be a part of exploring history. We know so little about that era because there are no written sources.”

The Bronze Age lasted in Scandinavia from about 1700BC to 500BC, until it gave way to the Iron Age. The Iron Age lasted until about the year 800 when the Viking Age began.

Pernilla Morner, an antiquities expert for the Vastra Gotaland region, said that “not since the bronze shields from Froslunda were excavated from a field in Skaraborg in the mid-1980s has such an exciting find from the Bronze Age been made in Sweden”.

VGRfokus, a news site for Vastra Gotaland, says a team of Gothenburg archaeologists is now investigating the site in detail.

Source: BBC