The Hiddensee treasure was found in 1873 on the German island of
Hiddensee
Hiddensee () is a car-free island in the Baltic Sea, located west of Germany's largest island, Rügen, on the German coast.
The island has about 1,000 inhabitants. It was a holiday destination for East German tourists during German Democratic ...
in the Baltic Sea by chance, during rebuilding after significant
flooding in 1872 and 1873.
[Staatliche museen zu Berlin – Official website](_blank)
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Description and dating
The treasure consists of 16 pendants, a brooch, and a neck ring, all of gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
weighing a total of . It is the largest discovery of Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
gold artifacts in Germany.
The jewelry dates from the late Viking Age
The Viking Age () was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. It followed the Migration Period and the Ger ...
, . The pendants include both Norse pagan
Old Norse religion, also known as Norse paganism, is the most common name for a branch of Germanic religion which developed during the Proto-Norse period, when the North Germanic peoples separated into a distinct branch of the Germanic people ...
and Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
symbolsThor's hammer of Mjölnir
Mjölnir (from Old Norse Mjǫllnir) is the hammer of the thunder god Thor in Norse mythology, used both as a devastating weapon and as a divine instrument to provide blessings. The hammer is attested in numerous sources, including the 11th cent ...
and the cross. It is possible that the jewelry originally belonged to the family of the Danish King Harald Bluetooth
Harald "Bluetooth" Gormsson ( non, Haraldr Blátǫnn Gormsson; da, Harald Blåtand Gormsen, died c. 985/86) was a king of Denmark and Norway.
He was the son of King Gorm the Old and of Thyra Dannebod. Harald ruled as king of Denmark from c. 95 ...
.
Exhibition
A replica of the Hiddensee treasure can be seen today in the Hiddensee Local History Museum. The original is kept in the Stralsund Museum of Cultural History and .[
]
See also
* Viking art
Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries ...
* Curmsun Disc
Further reading
* Claudia Hoffmann: Der Goldschmuck von Hiddensee. In: WELT-KULTUR-ERBE. Nr. 01/2009, OCLC 265909878
References
External links
* Stralsund Museum
The Gold Jewellery of Hiddensee
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Treasure troves of Germany
10th century in Germany
Archaeology of Germany
Harald Bluetooth
Viking art
1873 archaeological discoveries