A chance discovery is shedding new light on early Norse history, after two old schoolfriends, armed only with a metal detector stumbled across a gold treasure trove.

More than 20 gold artefacts, weighing almost a kilo, were found buried in a field in the Danish village of Vindelev. Hidden for almost 1,500 years, the treasure includes Roman medallions and ornate pendants called 'bracteates' some as large as a saucer.

There are mysterious inscriptions and neverseenbefore runes, which researchers think are some of the earliest references to Norse gods.

So could Vindelev have been the seat of power for a previously unknown Iron Age king or chieftain?

Video by Adrienne Murray & James Brooks
Commissioned by Dan John



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