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Amateur Danish archaeologist finds 1,500 year-old treasure

An amateur archaeologist made a remarkable find on muddy land on the island of Hjarnø near Horsens.

Amateur Danish archaeologist finds 1,500 year-old treasure
Photo: VejleMuseerne/Scanpix 2018

Over 32 pieces of jewellery including gold and pearls, dating 1,500 years, have been found on the island in Horsens Fjord, according to broadcaster DR.

The gold included beads, pendants, a needle and small gold pieces that were used as currency during the Iron Age.

The first pieces of the treasure were uncovered by amateur archaeologist Terese Refsgaard, a dental assistant from Aarhus, in spring 2017.

“Years can go by without amateur archaeologists finding gold, and some never do, so this is amazing,” Refsgaard told DR.

Mads Ravn, head of research at Vejle Museums, said the gold was thought to date from just before the Viking period and was likely buried around 500 CE.

The find suggests that people from Hjarnø had contact with the Roman empire, Ravn said.

“They probably took part in raids there, so our find is a small legacy from a turbulent time in world history in which gold speaks its own clear language,” Ravn told DR.

The pieces will now be analysed in order to further clarify their origin.

Some of the jewellery has patterns and designs not previously seen, the head of research said.

“In terms of craft, they are completely unique, with gold markings that almost form spirals,” he said.

“That is evidence of a high level of skill,” he added.

The treasures will be displayed at Vejle’s Museum of Cultural History before later being sent to the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

READ ALSO: Viking Age treasures connected to legendary Danish king found on German island

TODAY IN FRANCE

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

France has paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were then interned in French camps.

France to compensate relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

More than 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the war that pitted Algerian independence fighters against their French colonial masters from 1954 to 1962.

At the end of the war, the French government left the loyalist fighters known as Harkis to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that an AFP investigation recently found led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies.

READ ALSO Who are the Harkis and why are they still a sore subject in France?

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021 asked for “forgiveness” on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after independence.

The following year, a law was passed to recognise the state’s responsibility for the “indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory”, which caused “exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma”, and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites – including military camps, slums and shacks – were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

Now “up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures,” it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of state Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to “make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised”.

Macron has spoken out on a number of France’s unresolved colonial legacies, including nuclear testing in Polynesia, its role in the Rwandan genocide and war crimes in Algeria.

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