A man in the Danish countryside has discovered a stash of 1,500-year-old gold treasure with just a metal detector. The cache offered more than two pounds of gold, according to the Vejlemuseerne, the museum consortium in Vejle, Denmark. 

The treasure trove was found in a town called Vindelev, about 240 kilometres from Copenhagen. It includes coins and medallions from the Roman Empire. These will be expected to go on view at the Vejlemuseerne in February next year.

Among those medallions found is one inscribed with text translating to “the High” — could potentially be a reference to a ruler at the time or, the Norse god Odin. This artefact, along with the other objects found, dates back to the 6th century C.E.

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These objects could have been buried amid ecological doom. In the year 536, a volcano erupted, creating a giant cloud of ash that caused famine. Experts believe that the people of modern-day Denmark rejected their rulers and left the golden objects bearing their images either to hide them from enemies, or so as to not incur the wrath of the gods.

Vejlemsueerne’s archaeologists are now considering that Vindelev was once the capital of a powerful empire in the Iron Age.

This cache isn’t the only one recently discovered. The world’s third-largest diamond was uncovered earlier in June in Botswana, as well as the world’s largest Sapphire cluster found in a man’s backyard in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka.

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