The discovery was made by Erlend Bore on private land with the owner’s approval, and as a result nine gold coin-shaped pendants with rare horse symbols were unearthed, along with ten gold pearls and three gold rings.

Bore contacted the local county council, which subsequently notified archaeologists at Stavanger’s Jernaldergården Archaeological Museum/University.

The use of a metal detector is legal under Norwegian law as long as the owner has given permission and the use complies with the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Act of 1978. All objects dated before the year 1537 and coins before the year 1650 They are considered state property and must be declared before the corresponding authorities.

According to Associate Professor Håkon Reiersen of the Archaeological Museum, the gold pendants date back to around 500 AD. C., during the time of migration in Norway. Although the pendants look like coins, they are actually “bracts,” a type of decorative jewelry that was worn between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. The gold for the bracteads came mainly from coins paid as peace money by the Roman Empire to its Germanic neighbors to the north.

“The nine bracteates and the gold pearls have formed a very attractive necklace. The jewelry was made by skilled jewelers and was worn by the most powerful in society. It is very rare to find so many bracts together. No similar discovery has been made in Norway since the 19th century, and it is also a very unusual discovery in the Scandinavian context,” says Professor Reiersen.

Professor Sigmund Oehrl of the Archaeological Museum states that bracteates of this type are very rare and represent a hitherto unknown horse motif. Most bracteads show the image of Odin healing a horse that belongs to his son, which in mythology was seen as a symbol of renewal and resurrection to provide protection and good health to the wearer. In the Rennesøy bracteates, however, only the horse is represented.