A silver coin bearing the image of a prominent Viking king was discovered in Hungary.

 

A metal detectorist in Hungary has uncovered a little silver coin lost about a thousand years ago and bears the name of a prominent Viking monarch. The piece was lost in a cave in Hungary.

 

A metal detectorist has discovered a little silver coin that bears the name of a well-known Viking monarch. On the other hand, it was found not in Scandinavia but in southern Hungary, where it had been misplaced about a thousand years ago.

 

Archaeologists have tried to explain how the coin might have ended up there and have found it difficult to explain how the find has confounded archaeologists. The coin likely arrived with the itinerant court of a medieval Hungarian king.

 

Even though it is made out of silver, the early Norwegian coin was known as a "penning," It had a value roughly equivalent to $20 in today's money. This is even though silver has historically been considered a precious metal.

 

According to Máté Varga, an archaeologist at the Rippl-Rónai Museum in the city of Kaposvár in southern Hungary and a doctoral student at the University of Szeged in Hungary, "This penning was equivalent to the denar used in Hungary at the time." Varga shared this information with Live Science in an email. "It was not worth very much—possibly just enough to feed a family for one day," she said.

 

A metal detectorist named Zoltán Csikós discovered the silver coin earlier this year at an archaeological site on the outskirts of the village of Várdomb. He then gave the coin to an archaeologist by the name of András Németh at the Wosinsky Mór County Museum in the city of Szekszárd, which is located near Várdomb.

 

The ruins of the medieval town of Kesztolc, one of the area's most important commercial centers, may be found at the Várdomb site. According to Varga, archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of discoveries there, including garment jewelry and coins.

 

According to Varga, there is significant evidence of communication between medieval Hungary and Scandinavia, including Scandinavian items found in Hungary and Hungarian artifacts found in Scandinavia. He said these objects could have been carried there by commerce or visiting artisans.

 

According to him, this is the very first time a coin from a Scandinavian country has been discovered in Hungary.

 

Who was Harald Hardrada?

The coin discovered at the Várdomb site is in poor condition, but it can be identified as a Norwegian penning. It was struck between 1046 and 1066 at Nidarnes, or Nidaros, a medieval mint in Trondheim, central Norway, for King Harald Sigurdsson III, also known as Harald Hardrada. The coin was found at the Várdomb site.

 

According to the description of a coin that is very similar to this one (which opens in a new tab), the front of the coin bears the inscription "HARALD REX NO," which translates to "Harald, king of Norway." It is adorned with a "triquetra," a three-sided symbol representing the Holy Trinity in Christianity.

 

On the opposite side of the coin is an inscription that names the master of the mint at Nidarnes, two ornamental sets of dots, and a cross with double lines representing the Christian religion.

 

According to Britannica, Harald Hardrada, whose name translates to "hard ruler" in Norwegian, was the son of a Norwegian chief and the half-brother of King Olaf II of Norway. "Hardrada" in Norwegian means "hard ruler" (opens in a new tab). He lived during the conclusion of the Viking Age and is often regarded as the last of the great Viking warrior-kings. He died in about the year 1000.

 

After the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030, in which Olaf was defeated and killed by the forces of an alliance between Norwegian rebels and the Danish, Harald fled in exile, first to Russia and then to the Byzantine Empire, where he became a prominent military leader. Traditional stories record that Harald fought alongside his half-brother at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030.

 

He returned to Norway in 1045 and became joint king of Norway with his nephew Magnus I Olafsson. However, when Magnus was killed in a battle against Denmark in 1047, Olafsson became the sole ruler of Norway.

 

Harald then spent many years attempting to obtain the throne of Denmark. In 1066, he attempted to conquer England by allying himself with the rebel forces of Tostig Godwinson, who was attempting to take the kingdom from his brother, King Harold Godwinson. Ultimately, Harald was unsuccessful in both of these endeavors.

 

But the forces led by Harold Godwinson were able to kill both Harald and Tostig during the Battle of Stamford Bridge, which took place in northern England in 1066. As a result, the victor and his armies were forced to travel the length of the country in a matter of weeks to face William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings, which Harold Godwinson ultimately lost, along with the kingdom of England.

 

Medieval Travels

 

According to Varga and Németh's findings, the Várdomb penny may have been lost more than a hundred years after it was minted; however, it is more likely that it was in circulation for ten to twenty years.

 

This chronology suggests that there may have been a relationship with Solomon, a medieval Hungarian monarch who ruled Hungary from 1063 until 1087.

 

According to a medieval Hungarian illuminated manuscript called the "Képes Krónika," also known as the "Chronicon Pictum" in Latin, Solomon and his entourage camped in 1074 "above the place called Kesztolc." As a result, the archaeologists believe that one of Solomon's courtiers at that time may have been the one who carried the exotic coin and then lost it.

 

According to a statement made by Varga and Németh, "The king's court might have included people from all over the world, whether diplomatic or military commanders, who could have had such coins." 

 

The researchers said the trading town "was crossed by a major road with international traffic, the predecessor of which was a road built in Roman times along the Danube." This is an additional possibility that the silver coin was brought to medieval Kesztolc by a common traveler.

 

They noted that "this path was traveled not just by kings, but also by merchants, pilgrims, and soldiers from a distance away," and that any of these people could have been responsible for losing the rare silver coin.

 

Even though excavations are not scheduled, Varga added that field surveys and other metal detection would be carried out at the site in the future. This could shed light on the circumstances surrounding the coin's discovery and its relationship to the location.

Article source : https://www.livescience.com/viking-king-coin-discovered-hungary

Image source  : https://pixabay.com/id/illustrations/eropa-benua-dunia-beraneka-warna-2239718/

A silver coin depicting a prominent Viking king was discovered in Hungary.

A Viking-themed silver coin was recently discovered in Hungary.

Hungary unearths silver coin portraying Viking king