Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com – As many as 35 beautiful 1,400-year-old gold figures were discovered at a site where a Pagan temple was once located outside Lillehammer, Norway.

They are the size of a fingernail and thin as paper, often square, and stamped with a motif. Usually, they depict a man and a woman in various types of clothing, jewelry, and hairstyles.

“It doesn’t get much more spectacular than this,” archaeologists say.

A total of 35 gold pieces have now been found by the roadside near the Hov farm in Vingrom. Credit: Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo

The gold foil figures are from the Merovingian period in Norway, which started around 550 and lasted until the Viking Age. A stormy climate and turbulent power relations characterize the historical period. Scientists admit the gold foil figurines are still a mystery, but discoveries from Hov outside Lillehammer may bring us closer to the answer to this puzzle.

“In previous excavations, archaeologists have found 30 such gold foil figures here at Hov, connected to what the archaeologists believe was once a temple where people worshiped and made sacrifices to the gods.

The archaeologists had talked about how they should not be disappointed if they did not find more gold foil figures this time.

But then something sparkled in the ground. “It was incredibly exciting,” archaeologist and the project leader for the excavation Kathrine Stene told Science in Norway.

Archaeologists have found five gold foil figures in the last couple of weeks.

Archaeologist and project leader Kathrine Stene shows off one of the five new gold foil figures recently discovered at Hov outside Lillehammer. Credit: Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo

Three of them were found where the wall of the temple once stood. Two of them were found in separate post holes.

Finding a gold foil figure is spectacular and rare in itself. But the five gold foil figures that were found at Hov this time offer something extra: They were found and excavated where they were most likely originally placed. Knowing where something was once placed helps archaeologists understand more.

“It’s extra special that we can link the gold foil figures to the various parts of the building’s construction,” Stene says.

The many gold foil figures found here earlier were discovered in and around another post hole in the old temple, on the opposite side of the two that recently appeared.

It’s possible that some of the gold foil figures they found here earlier were also placed in the wall, but there’s uncertainty about exactly where they were once found. Now, with these three that we found under the actual structure of the wall, it’s clear that they were intentionally placed there before the wall’s construction,” Stene says.

Why Were The Gold Figures In A Pagan Temple?

The most obvious ᴀssumption is that the ancient artifacts were used as sacrifices to the gods, but there is also another interesting possibility scientists ponder.

The gold foil figures may have served as a form of admission ticket to a temple like the one that once stood here at Hov.

But an admission ticket doesn’t lie under a wall.

The five new gold foil figures. One of them appears to have been intentionally crumpled. Credit: Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo

“Modern excavation has provided more knowledge about this,” Stene says. “The gold foil figures in the post hole were not visible to people. Those we found in the wall would also not have been visible to others. So this doesn’t appear to be an admission ticket, but rather an offering or a religious act to protect the building.”

The Pagan Temple At Hov

The temple at Hov was discovered by pure chance in 1993. County conservator Harald Jacobsen drove along the E6 and noticed the soil. He thought it looked like what archaeologists call cultural layers, meaning soil where traces of humans are found. A small investigation proved that he was right, and the finding of two gold foil figures indicated that this was no ordinary place.

Smaller excavations during the 2000s led to the discovery of 28 gold foil figures, and what is referred to as a temple, a house for pagan religious practices.

One of the reasons archaeologists believe this was a temple, besides the gold foil figures, is the absence of other finds that would be natural if people lived there, like cooking pots and whetstones.

Tiny Gold Foil Figures Have Been Found In Denmark, Sweden And Norway

In Norway, findings of gold foil figures are rare. The 35 from the temple in Vingrom represent the largest collection we have found in this country.

In a similar temple in Uppåkra in Sweden, archaeologists found 100 gold foil figures.

On the Danish island of Bornholm, over 2,500 gold foil figures were found in a field.

Were there not so many gold foil figures in Norway at that time, or have we just not found them?

“There must be more of them here,” Stene believes.

But most archaeological excavations today are commissioned.

“We dig when new roads and buildings are going to be built, this limits what we can investigate. It’s about being lucky and getting the opportunity. A lot of coincidences are involved here. They are so small, but they shine when you find them. There are probably more out there,” she says.

Ingunn Marit Røstad, archaeologist at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, is an expert on the Merovingian period in Norway and gold foil figures. She also believes there are more gold foil figures out there.

“Bornholm is very special, even in Denmark. There aren’t that many other find sites there,” Røstad points out.

There are also other regional differences: In Denmark, there are more individual figures, whereas in Norway and Sweden, it is mostly couples that are depicted.

Aerial view captured by a drone of the excavation site. The temple was situated between the modern-day E6 highway and the county road. Credit: Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo

“But more of these small pieces of gold keep appearing. Either through excavation or with metal detectors. So, more could pop up in various places in Norway as well,” she says.

Røstad is not convinced the gold foil figures were used as admission tickets to the temple.

They do not have holes suggesting that they were sewn onto clothing, and apart from a few exceptions from Bornholm, they do not have fastenings suggesting they are jewellery.

They are dated to the Merovingian period due to the style of clothing and jewellery depicted on the men and women.

“People ᴀssume that they’re showing the elite’s clothing during this period,” Røstad says. “A sort of idealised depiction of elite clothing, featuring the elaborate hairstyle that the women have with a distinctive knot. You also see beads, special types of brooches, drinking cups, and drinking horns, which date them to the Merovingian period.”

This is how the elite might have dressed during the Merovingian period in Norway, which is considered to be from 550 up to the Viking Age. This gold foil figure probably measures no more than 1 cm. Credit: Museum of Cultural History / University of Oslo

A common interpretation of the gold foil figures is that they have some sort of ritual significance. Many believe that the couple depicted is the god Frøy and the goddess Gerd. Perhaps the gold foil figures were part of a symbolic act when people celebrated weddings?

Of divine lineage?

As reported by Science in Norway, “Another interpretation deals with the idea that the most powerful families of this time claimed they could trace their lineage back to the gods, and that the gold foil figures in some way signaled that they were of divine lineage.”

See also: More Archaeology News

“This was used to legitimize ruling; you were a leading family because you were descended from the gods,” Røstad says. “Even though they’re tiny, the gold foil figures could have been very significant. Not as jewelry worn visibly to show status, but perhaps they were part of some kind of ritual placement at the high seat where the king or jarl sat.”

The first gold foil figures were found in 1725. In a text from 1791, they were referred to as ‘gullgubber’ (golden old men), and the name just stuck. Even though most of them depict both a man and a woman.

Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Staff Writer