Dutch Historian Finds Medieval Treasure Using Metal Detector

Photo of the treasure courtesy of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities Twitter account
Photo of the treasure courtesy of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities Twitter account
TT
20

Dutch Historian Finds Medieval Treasure Using Metal Detector

Photo of the treasure courtesy of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities Twitter account
Photo of the treasure courtesy of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities Twitter account

A Dutch historian found a unique 1,000-year-old medieval golden treasure, consisting of four golden ear pendants, two strips of gold leaf and 39 silver coins, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) announced on Thursday.

Lorenzo Ruijter, 27, who told Reuters he has been treasure hunting since he was 10, discovered the treasure in 2021 in the small northern city of Hoogwoud, using a metal detector.

"It was very special discovering something this valuable, I can't really describe it. I never expected to discover anything like this", Ruijter said, adding that it was hard to keep it a secret for two years.

But experts of the National Museum of Antiquities needed the time to clean, investigate and date the treasure's objects and have now found that the youngest coin can be dated back to around 1250, which made them assume the treasure was buried then.

By that time the jewelry was already two centuries old, the museum said, adding it must already have been "an expensive and cherished possession".

"Golden jewelry from the High Middle Ages is extremely rare in the Netherlands," the museum also said.

While it will remain a mystery why exactly the treasure was buried, the museum pointed out there was a war raging between Dutch regions West Friesland and Holland in the middle of the 13th century, with Hoogwoud being the epicenter.

Lorenzo said it is possible someone powerful at the time buried the valuable objects as a way to protect them and hopefully dig them up once it was safe again.

Given its archaeological significance, the treasure was given as a loan to the museum which will display it, but it will remain the official property of finder Lorenzo Ruijter.



International Space Station Welcomes 1st Astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom-4 crew of four astronauts lifts off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom-4 crew of four astronauts lifts off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
TT
20

International Space Station Welcomes 1st Astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary

A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom-4 crew of four astronauts lifts off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom-4 crew of four astronauts lifts off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, June 25, 2025. REUTERS/Steve Nesius

The first astronauts in more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday, ferried there by SpaceX on a private flight.

The crew of four will spend two weeks at the orbiting lab, performing dozens of experiments. They launched Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

America’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, is the commander of the visiting crew. She works for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the chartered flight.

Besides Whitson, the crew includes India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a pilot in the Indian Air Force; Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer; and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a radiation expert and one of the European Space Agency’s project astronauts on temporary flight duty.

No one has ever visited the International Space Station from those countries before. In fact, the last time anyone rocketed into orbit from those countries was in the late 1970s and 1980s, traveling with the Soviets.

It's the fourth Axiom-sponsored flight to the space station since 2022. The company is one of several that are developing their own space stations due to launch in the coming years.