The unique silver artefact fragment was found by enthusiast Pertti Hyvärinen last year, who found images of similar items on a Russian website.
According to the discoverer, the fragment was part of a silver clasp worn as part of a prehistoric woman’s attire. The clasp is most likely a relic of the Viking era, and one comparable find has previously been made in the Gulf of Riga in Latvia.
“It’s most likely a fibula, a buckle used to fasten folds of clothing,” Hyvärinen explains. “They were used especially by women to attach different articles of clothing at the shoulder.”
The history of the find has also been verified by the South Karelia Museum. Amanuensis Jukka Luoto did some detective work on the origins of the silver clasp based on the internet images.
The search continues
Hyvärinen’s own intrepid digging into the clasp’s past took him most of the winter. An essential part of his archaeological pastime is to roam across fields and forests in the summer looking for metallic artefacts with a detector, while the winters are for scholarly background work.
”When you devote a lot of time to a research project, it’s quite a rush when you find what you’re looking for,” Hyvärinen describes. “It’s an immensely satisfying moment, equivalent to the feeling of actually discovering a physical item.”
With the snows having melted in Karelia, the search for more treasures is already underway. This past spring has already turned up a bronze bracelet piece, a pendant with a cross design, a small bell and the shard of a knife blade.
”These artefacts date back mainly to the Iron Age. Over the years you learn to already identify items on-site,” Pertti Hyvärinen says.
The story of the solved mystery of the clasp was first carried by the newspaper Etelä-Saimaa.
