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Thursday, 19th July 2007 (3330 views)

A father and son have discovered what commentators are describing as "the most significant" Viking discovery in Britain in the last 150 years.

The pair - David and Andrew Whelan - discovered the treasure on a routine metal-detecting outing one Saturday in January.

Dating back to the Viking era of the tenth century, the significant archaeological find includes a gold arm ring and other gold objects and coins worth around £750,000.

"We ended up in this particular field, we got a really strong signal from the detector... eventually we found this cup containing the coins and told the antiquity authority," the Yorkshire duo told the BBC.

According to reports, the booty was most likely buried for safe-keeping by a wealthy Viking leader following the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in AD927 and includes artefacts from Afghanistan, Russia, Ireland and continental Europe.

North Yorkshire coroner Geoff Fell described the discovery as "one of the most exciting cases that I have ever had to rule on".

 

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