How did this 1,000-year-old Byzantine gold coin end up in the Norwegian mountains?

“It’s difficult to brag so much about finds because it sounds absolutely incredible. But that’s exactly it,” says May-Tove Smiseth, district archaeologist for Innlandet county in eastern Norway.

Even she didn’t believe the metal detector who contacted her and reported that he had found a gold coin up in the mountains of Vestre Slidre in the Valdres region.

“The fact that he found a gold coin on a random trip to the mountains is completely surreal,” she says.

“This is unusual and extraordinary. According to our knowledge, the coin is the only one of its kind in Norway.”

And it was true. It was a gold coin that came from the area we now call Istanbul, Turkey, which was then known as Constantinople.

Christ and the Emperors

The coin is a Byzantine Histamenon Nomisma. These were introduced around 960 AD in Byzantium in what was then the eastern part of the Roman Empire.

One side of the coin is embossed with an image of Christ holding the Bible. On the other side, the two emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII are most likely depicted. The two brothers ruled together in Byzantium for almost 50 years, from 976 to 1025.

The coin was probably minted at the beginning of the 11th century. The exact date is difficult to determine, but the dotted border suggests it was late in the reign of Basil and Constantine, Smiseth explains.

The coin also bears two inscriptions. It says in Latin Jesus Christ, King of rulersand in Greek it reads Basil and Constantine, Roman Emperors.

Harald Hardrada’s treasure

One way or another, the coin ended up in Valdres, Norway.

Perhaps it was originally among the treasures amassed by Harald Hardrada after serving in the Varangian Guard for the Byzantine Emperor in 1034? The Varangian Guard consisted of Scandinavian mercenaries who served as bodyguards and were considered fearless and strong.

In a press release, Innlandet County writes that it was common practice at the time for the guards to loot the palace when an emperor died, and three emperors had died during Harald’s time in Byzantium.

The treasures collected by Harald were partly used as a dowry so that he could marry Ellisiv, one of the daughters of Prince Yaroslav of Kiev. You can read more about her in this article: The Princess from Kiev was Norway’s last Viking queen.

Incidentally, Basil II, who is depicted on the coin, was Ellisiv’s great-uncle.

The sagas also tell us that Harald and his men returned to Norway in 1046 with immense wealth and ships full of gold and other valuables.

From a ship loaded with gold to the mountain wilderness

The whole thing sounds incredible.

“But it is not unrealistic to assume that the coin came from here,” says Smiseth.

She points to a study of Byzantine coins in the Nordic region, which says that three Byzantine gold coins have been found in Sweden, none in Denmark, while 15 have been found in Norway – most of them from various 19th-century hoard finds. This includes the recent find in Valdres.

“It can be assumed that this coin comes from the treasures that Harald Hardrada brought with him. He received a lot of gold as payment from the three emperors of Byzantium who ruled there during his time,” says Smiseth.

“Harald gained a lot of power by using the gold he came back with to build alliances.”

Trade routes connected the east and west across the mountains in Valdres. Perhaps a traveling salesman was unlucky enough to lose the magnificent gold coin on such a trading trip.

Maybe we’ll know more about it next year, since the discovery was made so late in the fall this year and the ground was already frozen. The site should therefore be examined more closely in the spring.

Not just any old object

Svein Harald Gullbekk is a professor at the Cultural History Museum in Oslo and his area of ​​expertise includes coins. He confirms that the Byzantine coin, although occasionally found, is a rare find in Norway.

“The coin is also a really interesting find, and that’s because it’s not just any old object,” says Gullbekk.

“We can date it, we know where it comes from, we can place it in Norwegian history with a fairly precise dating background. So it’s a very special and great find.”

Gullbekk also talks about Harald Hardrada and the Scandinavian warriors who served the emperors in Byzantium.

“The coin doesn’t look like it has been in circulation for that many years, so it might be a bit of an exaggeration to assume that Harald brought it with him when he returned home,” he says.

“Harald wasn’t the only Scandinavian who was down there and came home. But he is the one mentioned in written sources from the same period.”

Most finds in the country

Smiseth monitors all discoveries made with metal detectors in Innlandet, the Norwegian county that annually contributes the most such finds to the Museum of Cultural History.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 finds are submitted to Smiseth every year.

“We are informed about discoveries every day in the spring, summer and fall,” says Smiseth.

Earlier this year, someone found a rare golden bracteate from the Migration Period in Norway (400-570 AD). Bracteates were imitations of Roman medallions used as jewelry.

Detectors have also found many conical brooches, a type of costume jewelry used between 550 and 650 AD.

“We thought this was a rare find until the metal detectors found so many of them,” says Smiseth.

It has seen an increase in the number of finds submitted since 2017, which peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when almost 2,000 finds were submitted.

The finds are recorded and forwarded to the Cultural History Museum in Oslo.

———

Translated by Ingrid P. Nuse

Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no