**1000 year old Egyptian earring found in a Danish field amazes and enthralls**
*Extremely rare gold jewellery from Egypt found in a field in western Jutland.*
A detectorist has made a unique jewellery find. In a field in western Jutland, he suddenly found a lump of earth containing a special gold earring from the 11th century. The earring probably originates from Egypt, and no similar jewellery has ever been found before in the whole of Scandinavia.
– Only 10-12 pieces exist worldwide. All in old museum collections in the USA, Great Britain or Arab countries. Such a piece is unique, says archaeologist and curator Peter Pentz from the National Museum of Denmark.
But the site of the find, a field in Bøvling near Lemvig, raises questions.
– Why on earth did it end up in Jutland? It’s interesting, says Peter Pentz.
After a thousand years in the ground in a West Jutland field, curator Peter Pentz can only guess at one answer.
One possible explanation is that the emperor of Byzantium (a Christian empire in the 10th century, whose capital was Istanbul) donated the earring to a Danish Viking who was in his bodyguard.
Another theory is that the jewellery came to Denmark with a Dane on a pilgrimage to the eastern Mediterranean.
– But I think the earring is from Cairo in Egypt. Other similar crescent-shaped earrings we have in museum collections come from there,” says Peter Pentz.
On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the best, he describes the finding from Bøvling as a pure 8.
This is partly due to the enamel work on the jewellery, which is best known in Denmark from the Dagmark Cross, which was found in 1683 in one of the royal tombs in St Bendt’s Church in Ringsted.
Dagmark Cross
The Dagmark Cross is a Byzantine reliquary cross from the 1000s in gold and decorated with enamel.
The Dagmark Cross was found in 1683 in one of the royal tombs in St Bendt’s Church in Ringsted.
– In quality, the enamel on the earring is not quite as good as the Dagmark cross. But where the Dagmark cross was found in a queen’s tomb, where the context is self-evident, the earring was found without context in a field in western Jutland. It’s a bit fascinating with detector finds that you can imagine a lot, says Peter Prentz.
Imagination has also taken wing with 54-year-old Frants Fugl Vestergaard from Gudum near Lemvig.
It was his metal detector that started beeping at exactly 9.57am on 30 April this year, as he walked in the fields of western Jutland.
– You don’t forget when you find a dream find. Then the time is crystal clear, says Frants Fugl Vestergaard, who hadn’t expected to find anything in the field at all.
– Many other detectorists have walked the field over the years, and it has been ploughed at least a thousand times. So I was a bit flabbergasted.
The same day he found the jewel, he contacted Holstebro Museum, where Astrid Toftdal Jensen is curator and archaeologist. She remembers the day clearly too.
– When I see it, I think it’s really beautiful. We were all thrilled that it was found in our area,” she says.
The earring was quickly sent to the National Museum, where conservators have cleaned the gold jewellery in record time, so that it can be included in the museum’s ongoing exhibition ‘The Expedition’, which shows Denmark’s largest collection of treasures from the Viking Age, as early as Monday 6 December.
– We don’t often add new finds to existing exhibitions, but now that we have an exhibition about the Vikings who went to the Mediterranean countries, it’s great that a find from that area happens to come along,” says Peter Prentz, curator at the National Museum of Denmark.
For detectorist Frants Fugl Vestergaard, it’s an extra pat on the back that his find is being displayed so soon.
– It means a lot to me to contribute a small piece to our common cultural heritage. It’s like getting a text message that’s 1000 years old and having it forwarded,” he says.
The earring will later also be on display at the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, which is also hosting a special exhibition on the Vikings at the end of February next year.
This is amazing
Imagine the story behind it
r/gold. 🥇 🪙
I think it’s a great theory that this may belong to a returning member of the Varangian Guard.
And thus, Denmark shall henceforth be known as „Northern Egypt“.
The enameled items that I find here in the US with my detector are never in that good of shape, and are hundreds of years later!
Could the object also have been moved much more recently? Can they determine that it was in the ground in Denmark, where it was found for literally 1000 years?
Perhaps some Egypt-mad Danish guy in the 1800-1900s visited and brought it back as a souvenir, then promptly lost it after returning home. There was a period of Egypt interest in Europe around that time period and before that, weird-ass shit like eating mummies for medicinal purposes.
Point being, objects moved from Egypt to Europe much more recently too.
If finding a thousand year old egyptian gold earring in a field in denmark is 8, what is a 10?
Viking tomb raiders confirmed.
Keep searching those fields – one might have found the Holy Grail as well.
13th Warrior. That’s Antonio Banderas’ earring.
[deleted]
Guys with metal detectors. What would we do without them?
12 comments
[Article on DR.dk](https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/regionale/midtvest/1000-aar-gammel-egyptisk-oerering-fundet-paa-jysk-mark-undrer-og) with additional pictures and a video via DeepL.com:
**1000 year old Egyptian earring found in a Danish field amazes and enthralls**
*Extremely rare gold jewellery from Egypt found in a field in western Jutland.*
A detectorist has made a unique jewellery find. In a field in western Jutland, he suddenly found a lump of earth containing a special gold earring from the 11th century. The earring probably originates from Egypt, and no similar jewellery has ever been found before in the whole of Scandinavia.
– Only 10-12 pieces exist worldwide. All in old museum collections in the USA, Great Britain or Arab countries. Such a piece is unique, says archaeologist and curator Peter Pentz from the National Museum of Denmark.
But the site of the find, a field in Bøvling near Lemvig, raises questions.
– Why on earth did it end up in Jutland? It’s interesting, says Peter Pentz.
After a thousand years in the ground in a West Jutland field, curator Peter Pentz can only guess at one answer.
One possible explanation is that the emperor of Byzantium (a Christian empire in the 10th century, whose capital was Istanbul) donated the earring to a Danish Viking who was in his bodyguard.
Another theory is that the jewellery came to Denmark with a Dane on a pilgrimage to the eastern Mediterranean.
– But I think the earring is from Cairo in Egypt. Other similar crescent-shaped earrings we have in museum collections come from there,” says Peter Pentz.
On a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 is the best, he describes the finding from Bøvling as a pure 8.
This is partly due to the enamel work on the jewellery, which is best known in Denmark from the Dagmark Cross, which was found in 1683 in one of the royal tombs in St Bendt’s Church in Ringsted.
Dagmark Cross
The Dagmark Cross is a Byzantine reliquary cross from the 1000s in gold and decorated with enamel.
The Dagmark Cross was found in 1683 in one of the royal tombs in St Bendt’s Church in Ringsted.
– In quality, the enamel on the earring is not quite as good as the Dagmark cross. But where the Dagmark cross was found in a queen’s tomb, where the context is self-evident, the earring was found without context in a field in western Jutland. It’s a bit fascinating with detector finds that you can imagine a lot, says Peter Prentz.
Imagination has also taken wing with 54-year-old Frants Fugl Vestergaard from Gudum near Lemvig.
It was his metal detector that started beeping at exactly 9.57am on 30 April this year, as he walked in the fields of western Jutland.
– You don’t forget when you find a dream find. Then the time is crystal clear, says Frants Fugl Vestergaard, who hadn’t expected to find anything in the field at all.
– Many other detectorists have walked the field over the years, and it has been ploughed at least a thousand times. So I was a bit flabbergasted.
The same day he found the jewel, he contacted Holstebro Museum, where Astrid Toftdal Jensen is curator and archaeologist. She remembers the day clearly too.
– When I see it, I think it’s really beautiful. We were all thrilled that it was found in our area,” she says.
The earring was quickly sent to the National Museum, where conservators have cleaned the gold jewellery in record time, so that it can be included in the museum’s ongoing exhibition ‘The Expedition’, which shows Denmark’s largest collection of treasures from the Viking Age, as early as Monday 6 December.
– We don’t often add new finds to existing exhibitions, but now that we have an exhibition about the Vikings who went to the Mediterranean countries, it’s great that a find from that area happens to come along,” says Peter Prentz, curator at the National Museum of Denmark.
For detectorist Frants Fugl Vestergaard, it’s an extra pat on the back that his find is being displayed so soon.
– It means a lot to me to contribute a small piece to our common cultural heritage. It’s like getting a text message that’s 1000 years old and having it forwarded,” he says.
The earring will later also be on display at the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, which is also hosting a special exhibition on the Vikings at the end of February next year.
This is amazing
Imagine the story behind it
r/gold. 🥇 🪙
I think it’s a great theory that this may belong to a returning member of the Varangian Guard.
And thus, Denmark shall henceforth be known as „Northern Egypt“.
The enameled items that I find here in the US with my detector are never in that good of shape, and are hundreds of years later!
Could the object also have been moved much more recently? Can they determine that it was in the ground in Denmark, where it was found for literally 1000 years?
Perhaps some Egypt-mad Danish guy in the 1800-1900s visited and brought it back as a souvenir, then promptly lost it after returning home. There was a period of Egypt interest in Europe around that time period and before that, weird-ass shit like eating mummies for medicinal purposes.
Point being, objects moved from Egypt to Europe much more recently too.
If finding a thousand year old egyptian gold earring in a field in denmark is 8, what is a 10?
Viking tomb raiders confirmed.
Keep searching those fields – one might have found the Holy Grail as well.
13th Warrior. That’s Antonio Banderas’ earring.
[deleted]
Guys with metal detectors. What would we do without them?