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A metallic element detectorist in the Netherlands has discovereddazzling atomic number 79 and silver medal treasuresthat were buried in a mediaeval swampland 800 year ago , mayhap during wartime .
The hoard includes four golden ear pendent , two comic strip of gold leaf and 39 silver gray coin .
The medieval treasure unearthed by a metal detectorist in the Netherlands contained pieces of gold jewelry from the 11th century.
A historian stumbled upon the riches in 2021 , while search with a alloy detector in the little northern metropolis of Hoogwoud , in the West Friesland region . Now , archaeologistsat the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities ( Rijksmuseum van Oudheden ) have date the hoarded wealth back to the Middle Ages .
The lavish jewelry probably belong to a plentiful and powerful mediaeval material body , museum experts said in a statement .
" Golden jewelry like this belonged only to the high social classes , so this could have belonged to someone with corking riches and power , maybe even to the countess of Holland,“Lorenzo Ruijter , who unearthed the treasure trove , told Live Science .
The medieval treasure unearthed by a metal detectorist in the Netherlands contained silver coins from the 13th century.
The hammered silver coins follow in a variety of trend , with some produced locally at the beginning of the thirteenth century and a couple bearing the mark of the Holy Roman Empire , Ruijter enjoin . The most recent coin is from the late 1240s , which coincides with a period of war that might explicate why the owner forget these valuable possession .
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" The new coin is from 1247 or 1248 , which is very penny-pinching to many battles between main Farmer , who cultivated the squashy dirt in what was the free state of West Friesland , and different counts of Holland who claimed the country , " Ruijter said . " In a menses like this of never-ending engagement and warfare , you ’d require to protect your goods and your money . There were no banks in the Middle Ages , so what do you do ? You put it in the priming . "
archeologist at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities are still investigating thegoldpieces to nail when and where they were made , but the engraving on them are typical of the Friesland area , Ruijter said .
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" We are deal with physical object that belonged to citizenry in the highest ranks of society , mayhap kings or counts,“Annemarieke Willemsen , the curator of mediaeval collections at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities , told Live Science . " alas , we have no idea how much they were worth because we have nothing to compare them with — we do n’t know if they had any soppy value either . It ’s hard to know how many of these objects were around at the sentence because amber was a highly reuse textile and anything that was n’t buried will have been melt down many , many times over . "
That ’s why a " tangible chivalric gem " like this one is a " very , very rare " find , Ruijter mark . " I was shaking with excitement , " he said , describing the moment he dug up the first gold and silver piece . " I could n’t trust it after all these year of searching . It ’s unreal to incur something as important as this . "
