Derek McLennan stumbled upon the hoard of artifacts in Scotland last month after spending more than a year combing through land owned by the Church of Scotland.
His patience certainly paid off – the buried treasure consisted of more than 100 rare artefacts from the Viking period, including gold jewellery, arms bands and silver ingots.
One piece that was reported to hold particular significance was a solid silver cross with “highly unusual” enameled decorations that dated back to the 9th or 10th century.
A silver pot was also considered to be an important find, with McLennan commenting, “We still don’t know exactly what is in the pot but I hope it could reveal who these artifacts belonged to or at least where they came from.”
The items were handed to the Scottish Treasure Trove Unit for conservation work, as per Scottish law. However, the same law stated that the finder would be rewarded with the equivalent market value of the items, which was believed to be about £1 million (AU$1.8 m).
According to the Church of Scotland, it had, as the landowner, come to an agreement with McLennan on an “equitable sharing” of the proceeds, adding that it would primarily use the money to fund the local parish.
The discoveries
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