Archaeologists uncover 850-year-old treasure in ancient grave: 'Sensational find'

Swedish archaeologists recently uncovered a 12th century grave during an archaeological dig – and found buried treasure along with it. 

The Jönköping County Museum announced the find in a Mar. 27 press release that was translated from Swedish to English. The discovery happened during an excavation of a grave in an old church in Visingsö, a Swedish island.

The coins were found in the grave of a man that experts believed was between 20 and 25 years old when he died. The pieces of metal were produced between 1150 and 1180.

"My colleague Kristina Jansson and I found two skeletons in the shaft where the wires were to be laid," project manager Anna Ödéen explained in a statement. "We cleaned out the bones from the buried to get an idea of ​​what the graves looked like." 

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"All of a sudden three silver coins appeared! We soon realized that many more were lying close to the buried person's left foot."

170 silver bracteates were found in total. A bracteate is a piece of thin, coin-shaped metal that was used as jewelry.

While the find might be seen as just old metal to some, Swedish historians say that the discovery is significant to their field.

"The find is very special, partly because there are few similar finds from the time period, partly because some of the coins are completely unknown from before," the museum said.

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What stumped archaeologists is that the coins were found in a Christian grave. It was not a common practice for early medieval Christians to be buried with a hoard of coins.

"It is rare that finds are made in Christian graves, that custom belongs to prehistoric times and that makes the Visingsö find special," the press release explained. "Why this man in his 20s brought all these coins to the grave is not yet known.

"The county museum's archaeologists hope for more clues when they work further with the find."

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A Swedish coin expert told the museum that the discovery is "completely sensational."

"It is a completely sensational find that will change the early medieval coin history in Götaland and shed light on a period that is largely completely unknown," the Royal Coin Cabinet's Eeva Jonsson said in a statement.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jönköping County Museum for additional details, but none were available.

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