A Dutch historian unearthed a unique 1,000-year-old medieval gold pot consisting of four gold ear amulets, two gold leaf bands, and 39 silver coins, the Netherlands’ National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) announced on Thursday.
Lorenzo Ruiter, 27, who told Reuters he had been looking for treasure since he was 10, found the treasure using a metal detector in 2021 in the small northern town of Howwood.
“It’s so special to find something precious; I can’t describe it. I never expected to come across something like this,” said Reiter, adding that keeping it a secret for two years was difficult.
However, it took time for experts from the National Museum of Antiquities to clean, examine, and date the hoard items, and they have now found that the most recent coin can be dated to around 1250, leading them to believe the hoard may have existed at that time. That. Buried.
At the time, the museum said the gem was two centuries old, adding that it must have been “an expensive and prized possession” by now.
“Gold jewelry from the Middle Ages is extremely rare in the Netherlands,” according to the museum.
While it remains a mystery why the treasure was buried, the museum indicates that in the mid-13th century, war was raging between the Dutch territories of West Friesland and the Netherlands, with Hoogwood at its center.
Ruijter said it is possible that someone in power at the time buried the valuables to protect them and hopefully exhume them once they were safe.
Due to its archaeological importance, the treasure has been loaned to a museum, which will exhibit it but it will remain in the legal property of its discoverer, Lorenzo Ruiter.
