Thousands of medieval jewelry were discovered underneath Scandinavian churches

More than 100,000 coins and hairpins were found on the floor of ancient churches throughout Scandinavia, revealing insights into religious life in the Middle Ages.

Archaeologists excavated a large amount of coins, pearls and hairpins under the medieval church floor throughout Scandinavia. In Norway alone, more than 20,000 coins were found, half of them from 1180 BC to 1320 BC.

Norway may be home to thousands of wooden churches in the Middle Ages , also known as the Stave Church . Twenty-eight of them have been preserved to this day and several hundred other churches from the Middle Ages still exist.

More than 100,000 coins discovered so far

Archaeologists in Norway, Sweden and Denmark have discovered a large amount of similar coins and other objects under the wooden church floor. In total, more than 100,000 coins have appeared throughout these three countries. Most coins are found under the church floor in Norway and on the island of Gotland in Sweden.

Svein Harald Gullbekk, an archaeologist from the University of Oslo, Norway: 'Each of these coins opens a door to learn about religious activities'.

Ancient church of Petäjävesi.

Hairpins reveal the difference of churches for men and women

Gullbekk decided to find out if there were any models for finding objects in churches.

People who came to the church during the Middle Ages would almost stand during worship, only the old and sick people sitting on benches along the sides of the church.

Perhaps there is also a clear division between sex: Women, capable of standing in the north of the church and men standing in the south.

Gullbekk said: 'When investigating the hairpins, pearls and other women's related items found at the Bunge Church in Gotland Sweden, we find that more than 95% of them are in space. North. This confirms that medieval churches maintain a strict set of rules about men and women, where women are asked to stand regarding the dark and cold forces of nature. Meanwhile men stand in the south '.

A lot of small changes in the church

Gullbekk said: "New discoveries under the church floors give us a deeper insight into the culture of piety in Norway in particular and Scandinavia in general during the Middle Ages. know a lot of things about using money in a church context ".

Other recent studies show that people bring lots of coins to the church to buy salvation and shorten their time in purgatory or to escape hell. But Gullbekk did not think that people deliberately put money in the middle of the floor. He believed that people simply lost their coins to the floor and that happened during the time the church performed the rituals.

The discovery of many small changes on the coins below the churches in Norway shows that these coins became popular in Norway 800 years ago and sooner than the two neighboring countries Sweden and Denmark.

Only in Nordic countries and Switzerland

Wooden churches in the Middle Ages are rare. In Europe, most old churches have stone floors. Besides the Nordic region, only Switzerland and a few other places have churches with wooden floors, explaining why most of these findings occur only in Nordic countries. It provides new, detailed information about people's lives and beliefs during the Middle Ages 700 to 800 years ago.

'The environmental conditions for preserving our old wooden church floors are particularly good. They have been here intact for hundreds of years , 'Gullbekk added.

Coins were discovered all over Norway

Norwegian coins were discovered across the country, from the Hvaler church in the south to the Trondenes church just outside the city of Harstad in the north. The researchers found most of the objects under the old church floor in the interior parts of central Norway. Gullbekk said: " If you go into a wooden church yet to be investigated by archaeologists in Norway, I can assure you that you can find a lot of coins under the floor."