Buying a jar of fishing bait worms only costs a few dollars, but many people are happy to buy them straight from the ground. And who knows? There’s always a chance you’ll find more in the dirt than wriggling invertebrates.
Consider a recent example near Stockholm, Sweden: According to county authorities last month, an anonymous fisherman searching for worms at his summer home discovered a corroded copper cauldron containing about 13 pounds of medieval treasure. The count is still ongoing, but an initial estimate suggests that up to 20,000 silver coins, rings, pendants and other jewelry have been discovered.
“This is probably one of the largest early medieval silver hoards discovered in Sweden,” Sofia Andersson, an antiquarian and county board member, said in a statement translated from Swedish.
Most of the coins date from the 12th century and some are embossed with “KANATUS”, the Latin name of King Knut Eriksson. Born no later than the 1140s, Eriksson ruled medieval Sweden from 1172 until his death around 1195.
The king oversaw an era when the written word became increasingly important, particularly as a bureaucratic tool. He also minted a new royal coinage, which previous monarchs had suspended for around two decades. Most historians ultimately consider his reign a relative success, given that Eriksson was the first Swedish monarch since 1118 CE to die of natural causes since King Philip in 1118 CE. Many of his predecessors met more violent ends in combat or due to illness.
In addition to Erikkson’s KANATUS coinage, the cauldron also contained rarer “bishop’s coins”, minted in Europe during the Middle Ages for the clergy. Many of these coins show a bishop holding a ceremonial staff known as a crosier in his right hand, as well as possibly a church on the reverse. The images on these coins suggest that the clergy actively negotiated with kings and exercised some power in medieval Sweden.
Laboratory analysis and processing of the artifacts is still ongoing, but it is likely that the researcher will receive sufficient compensation to purchase all the bait he or she desires in the imaginable future. According to Stockholm County authorities, Swedish law allows anyone who discovers an “ancient silver find” to receive an investigative commission.
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