Found a lovely article from the BBC (again) about the largest Viking treasure every recovered. It’s a fantastic find not only in terms of what it tells us about how far Vikings traveled for trade, pillaging and looting (there’s stuff in there from Ireland, France, Russia, the Middle East, Scandinavia) but also in terms of its worth-approximately $2 million.

The picture below gives you an idea of the boats Vikings traveled in. This one is a reprooduction, obviously. And no, they aren’t pillaging but racing with other boats in the North Sea. Cold but fun, yes?!

The picture below shows you how all the treasure was stuffed into the bowl. The father-son team kept all the contents intact until archaeologists could arrive and carefully remove all the goodies.

In England, citizens are required by law to turn over anything that may be of an historic value. The treasure hunters, a father-son team, are regular joes who take out the metal detectors on the weekends together. I think thats lovely! Instead of professionals this find was discovered by hobbiests out walking and talking. The duo will get to split the bounty with the landowners. I’m not sure exactly how it all gets split, English law being unfamiliar to me, but I would guess the father-son team are daggone pleased to have the unexpected reward.

Here’s the full article over at the BBC!