KEY POINTS:
The most important Viking treasures to be discovered in Britain for 150 years have been unearthed by a father and son with metal detectors in Yorkshire.
David and Andrew Whelan uncovered the hoard, which dates back to the 10th century, in Harrogate. The British Museum said the hoard could shed new light on the period.
Andrew Whelan, 35, said it had initially felt like an unlucky day when they drove out to the countryside one Saturday morning in January with their metal detectors in tow.
He and his father, 65, had been turned away from two farms and had argued before reluctantly visiting a field as a "last resort" because they had discovered only buttons there.
There they unearthed 617 silver coins, a gold arm-ring and a gilt silver vessel, one of only six or seven in Europe.
Mr Whelan said, "My father got a strong signal and a cup tumbled out after a couple of scoops of earth. There was a coin sat on top of this bundle. We knew then it was something big and we were shaking with excitement as we lifted it out."
It is thought the treasure was buried for safety by a wealthy Viking leader during the unrest that followed the conquest of the Viking kingdom of Northumbria in AD 927 by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan (924-39).
One of the coins, which bears the Latin inscription, Rex Tiotius Britanniae, dating to 927, is the earliest indication of Britain being under the country of one ruler, at a time when the country was split between Viking and Anglo-Saxon control.
The medieval objects were traced to come from as far apart as Afghanistan, Russia, Scandinavia and continental Europe.
- Independent
