KOTCT

Worldwide Coins & Bank Notes => Other World Coins => Topic started by: EgCollector on April 06, 2008, 11:40:34 PM

Title: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: EgCollector on April 06, 2008, 11:40:34 PM

Swedish archaeologists have discovered a rare hoard of Viking-age silver Arab coins near Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
About 470 coins were found on 1 April at an early Iron Age burial site. They date from the 7th to 9th Century, when Viking traders travelled widely.
There has been no similar find in that part of Sweden since the 1880s.
Most of the coins were minted in Baghdad and Damascus, but some came from Persia and North Africa, said archaeologist Karin Beckman-Thoor.
The team from the Swedish National Heritage Board had just started removing a stone cairn at the site "when we suddenly found one coin and couldn't understand why it was there", she told the BBC News website.

"We continued digging and found more coins and realised it was a Viking-age hoard." The coins were left there in about AD850, she said.
Such Viking hoards usually come from Gotland - a large Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, she explained.
"No Viking was buried at this site - the grave is older. Maybe the Vikings thought the hoard would be protected by ancestors," Ms Beckman-Thoor added. Vikings had settled in a village nearby.
The Vikings travelled widely in their longships in the Baltic region and Russia from the late 8th to the 11th Century. They are known to have travelled as far as North Africa and Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: EgCollector on April 07, 2008, 12:10:11 AM

(http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/eg_collector/200847_locationofcoins.jpg)


The Location of coins

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: EgCollector on April 07, 2008, 12:13:04 AM

(http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/uploaded/eg_collector/200847_arabviking.jpg)




The Arab coins reveal where they were minted and the date

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: scottishmoney on April 07, 2008, 01:30:13 AM

It is not a surprise that you would find Arab coins in Sweden during that time period, the Vikings and Arabs were movers and traders during that time, the Vikings even started the Russian state, Rus in Kyiv in the 9th century.

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: Humpybong on April 07, 2008, 10:31:58 AM

Very interesting, thanks for the story Amr.


I wonder how many more viking hoard's are out there, as yet unfound.


Would like to be one of those who find some great hoard.

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: AdamL on April 07, 2008, 11:10:15 AM

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: Nevol on April 07, 2008, 08:10:24 PM

What a great find that was. I wish I'd been there just for the thrill of seeing coins that hadn't seen the light of day for 12 centuries or so.  Amazing!

Title: Re: Swedes find Viking-era Arab coins
Post by: EgCollector on April 08, 2008, 02:04:15 AM

A member of the CCF sent me these links,

Here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7330540.stm is the BBC article. These Swedish sites have some more photos:

http://www.thelocal.se/gallery/49/
(with text in English, relatively small images)
http://www.raa.se/cms/extern/press/...sbilder.html
(with text in Swedish, large hi-res images)