Routine Yard Work Reveals a Trove of Viking Silver—the Largest Treasure of Its Kind Ever Discovered in Denmark

When a resident of northern Denmark started clearing their backyard, the plan was to install a new terrace. They expected a few hours of hard work. But after half an hour of digging, they came across something metallic: a trove of jewelry and coins.

Located in the municipality of Rebild, the backyard revealed the largest hoard of Viking silver ever discovered in Denmark. According to a statement from North Jutland Museums, the treasure includes roughly 700 artifacts and weighs more than 40 pounds. Experts think these items were buried in the tenth century.

The trove includes bracelets, 47 coins and coin fragments, silver bars, and a small object in the shape of Thor’s hammer. According to the National Museum of Denmark, silver was “the most important precious metal of the Viking Age,” which spanned from roughly 800 to 1050. During this period, silver objects like bars and jewelry were often valued by weight and used for payment, per the statement.

The Viking Age is “often described as an ‘age of silver,’” Jane Kershaw, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, wrote in the Conversation in 2025. To acquire it, they were prepared to risk their own lives—and take those of many others.” Two of the coins in the hoard are silver pennies minted under King Edward the Elder, who ruled in England between 899 and 924. Other coins, known as dirhams, are marked with Arabic inscriptions.

As Sarauw explains in the statement, they shed light on the Vikings’ connections to the east. One of the silver bars is engraved with runes that might say “hutu,” perhaps a name or mark of ownership. The hammer, meanwhile, is linked to Thor, the god of thunder in Norse mythology.

The Vikings were known to create and wear amulets shaped like Thor’s hammer. For those who wore them, amulets of this kind may have been associated with safety. The newly discovered hoard features an impressive number of silver bars.