Hiker Discovers Rare 1,500-Year-Old Gold Sword Scabbard in Norway

The golden artifact, a sword scabbard fitting, perhaps belonging to an elite warrior leader.
Image:  Annette Græsli Øvrelid, Archaeological Museum, University of StavangerA routine morning walk through Norway’s windswept southwest countryside became an extraordinary encounter with the distant past when a local hiker uncovered a rare 1,500-year-old gold sword scabbard fitting beneath the roots of a storm-felled tree. The sixth-century artifact, found in the Austrått