Finland’s largest Viking

First Denmark, now Finland. It’s a banner week for record-breaking Viking silver hoards. A massive silver coin hoard has been discovered near the Sysmä church village in southern Finland. It is the largest Late Iron Age coin hoard ever found in Finland. The first coins were discovered by metal detectorist Kalle Lappinen on September 3rd. He reported the find to the regional museum and archaeologist Esko Tikkala of Lahti City Museums excavated the site the next day. He and his team recovered thousands of silver coins, silver fragments, a silver bracelet, silver clasp and one silver bead. The total silver weight is approximately 4.5 kilos (just shy of 10 lbs). The coins have yet to be cleaned, documented and counted, but there’s no question this hoard establishes a new record. The previous record-holder, found in Nousiainen in 1895, contains 1,700 coins and small objects, and weighs a total of 2.2 kilos. The hoard is also exceptional because of what it was buried in: a pair of birch bark containers. They were filled with coins and silver and buried 18 inches under the surface about 40 feet away from each other. Remnants of the birch bark have survived, which is very rare in Finnish soil. Archaeologists are now working on separating, cleaning, counting and identifying all of the coins. The birch bark remains are also being studied in the hope they will provide more information about the origins and burial of the hoard.