It only costs a few dollars to buy a tub of bait worms for fishing, but many people are fine with sourcing them straight from the ground. And who knows? There’s always a chance you may find more in the dirt than wriggling invertebrates.
Take a recent example near Stockholm, Sweden: According to county officials last month, an unnamed fisherman scrounging for worms at his summer house discovered a corroded copper cauldron containing around 13 pounds of treasure from the Middle Ages. The tally is still underway, but an early estimate suggests as many as 20,000 silver coins, rings, pendants, and other jewelry were uncovered.
“This is probably one of the largest silver treasures from the early Middle Ages that has been found in Sweden,” antiquarian and county administrative board member Sofia Andersson said in a statement translated from Swedish.
Most of the coinage dates to the 12th century and some are embossed with “KANATUS,” the Latin name of King Knut Eriksson. Born no later than the 1140s, Eriksson ruled over medieval Sweden from 1172 CE until his death around 1195 CE.
The king oversaw an era when the written word was becoming increasingly important, especially as a bureaucratic tool. He also minted a new royal coinage, which former monarchs had suspended for about two decades. Most historians ultimately consider his reign a relative success, considering 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 battle or from disease.
In addition to Erikkson’s KANATUS currency, the cauldron also contained rarer “bishop coins” minted in Europe during the Middle Ages for clergy. Many of these coins from the haul show a bishop holding a ceremonial staff known as a crozier in his right hand, as well as possibly a church on the back side. The images on these coins suggest clergy actively negotiated with kings, and wielded quite a bit of power in medieval Sweden.
Lab analysis and processing is still underway on the artifacts, but it’s likely the finder will receive enough compensation to purchase all the bait he wants for the conceivable future. According to Stockholm county officials, Swedish law entitles any person who discovers an “ancient silver find” the chance to receive a finder’s fee.
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