An archaeology student finds 7 stunning Viking silver arm rings, Danish museum says

Audio By Carbonatix

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An archaeology student unearthed seven “spectacular” Viking-era curled silver arm rings earlier this year north of Denmark's second-largest city, a Danish museum said on Monday, adding the finding has ties to Russia, Ukraine and the British Isles.

The Moesgaard Museum, located south of Aarhus where the relics were found, said in a statement that Gustav Bruunsgaard, a 22-year-old Dane, came upon the armlets while scouring the area, known as a historical Viking settlement, with a metal detector and a spade.

“The find emphasizes that Aarhus was a central hub in the Viking world,” said Kasper H. Andersen, a historian at the museum which is dedicated to archaeology and ethnography.

Archaeological experts estimate that the arm rings date back to 800 CE, likely to be early Viking era which approximately lasted from 793 CE to 1066 CE.

One of the armbands is a known type that originated in Viking settlements in what is now Russia and Ukraine and was later copied in the Nordic region, said the museum. Three others are of a style commonly found in south Scandinavia, probably Denmark, at the time. The other three armlets have no ornamentation and though described by the museum “rare,” they are known to be from Scandinavia and England.

The arm rings weigh in total more than 500 grams, the museum said, adding silver was the Viking Age’s measure of value. It served as a means of payment and transaction, as well as to demonstrate “the owner’s financial ability,” according to the museum.

The Moesgaard Museum is best known for the well-preserved Iron Age Grauballe Man, found in 1952 in a western Danish bog. One can still see the fingernails, the toenails and hair on the body of the man believed to have been violently killed and placed in a watery grave some 2,000 years ago.