By Tim Binnall
A metal detectorist in Denmark unearthed a rather ornate golden earring that has astounded experts as it is unlike anything ever found in Scandinavia. According to a press release from the National Museum of Denmark, Frants Fugl Vestergaard made the remarkable discovery in a field near the community of Bøvling. A seasoned searcher, the man has spent ten years scouring the region with his metal detector and finally struck literal gold when his equipment alerted him to something odd in the ground beneath his feet. Recalling the moment in which he stumbled upon the object, Vestergaard conceded that he was actually skeptical that he had found anything particularly special until he got a closer look at it and then "time stood still for me."
"I got very humbled and wondered why I should find that piece," the man marveled, "it's like getting a text from the past. You always yearn to find something beautiful, a top find, and then you suddenly have it in your hands. It is completely inconceivable." Vestergaard's amazement was quickly compounded when he showed it to experts at the National Museum of Denmark and they could not believe what they were seeing. "It is completely unique to us," the museum's Peter Pentz said of the object which was determined to be a golden earring from the Byzantine era in the 11th century, "we only know of 10-12 other specimens in the whole world, and we have never found one in Scandinavia before."
How, exactly, the incredibly rare object wound up in Denmark is something of a mystery as Pentz marveled they would expect to find "such a fine and invaluable piece of jewelry like this with a large gold treasure or in a royal tomb and not on a random field." Since some Vikings were known to have served as bodyguards for the Byzantine emperor, he speculated that the earring could have been a gift that was handed down to one of these mercenaries and then subsequently lost upon their return to Denmark. The golden glimpse of the past will be put on special display at the National Museum of Denmark alongside other Viking treasures which have been found throughout the country.