Baltic Island Detector Finds Viking Hoard Linked to Harald Bluetooth

On Germany’s Baltic island of Rügen, a 2018 metal-detecting find by René Schön and student Luca Malaschnitschenko spurred a professional dig that uncovered a Viking hoard—necklaces, pearls, rings, and nearly 600 coins—some dating to Harald Bluetooth’s reign (958–986 CE); the oldest coin is a 714 Damascus dirham and the newest a 983 penny, making this the largest Bluetooth-era coin find in the southern Baltic and offering clues about Viking activity in the region.