Fragments of Arabic silver coins unearthed in a Norwegian field have cast light on the price of a cow in the Viking era.
Discovered by detectorist Pawel Bednarski, the haul included jewellery, silver wire and seven pieces of coins with Arabic script.
Their significance has now been confirmed by archeologists, who believe they would have used for trading, representing around 60 per cent of the price of a cow.
Professor Birgit Maixner of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Museum said using silver to trade was easier than bartering.
“In the barter economy, for example, you had to have a fair number of sheep if you wanted to exchange them for a cow. Weighed silver, on the other hand, was easy to handle and transport, and you could buy the goods you wanted when it worked for you.”
8th century discovery
The trove was unearthed in December 2021, but was only recently examined by the museum.
Several of the coin fragments have been dated to the 8th century, much older than other Arabic coins found in Norway, although they may have been buried 100 years later.
In total, all the silver weighs 42 grams, worth barely Dh120 at today’s prices. In 8th and 9th century Scandinavia, however, the value would have been much higher thanks to the rarity of such pure silver from the Muslim world.
The legal code of the time known as Gulating Law offers clues as to their real value.
“A bit of figuring based on that law suggests that this treasure trove was worth about six tenths of a cow,” Prof Maixner said.
“That treasure amount was worth quite a lot in its time, especially for one individual – and also when you realise it wasn’t that long ago that medium-sized farms with five cows became common.”
Coins would not be minted in Norway for another hundred years, so their value lay simply in the silver they were made from.
Connecting worlds by water
Contact between the Middle East and Asia and Scandinavia came through rivers, with Vikings sailing their longships down the Volga and Don to trade.
In the 10th century, the traveller Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, who served the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, wrote of an encounter with Volga Vikings.
“I have never seen bodies as nearly perfect as theirs. As tall as palm trees, fair and reddish, they wear neither tunics nor kaftans. Every man wears a cloak with which he covers half of his body, so that one arm is uncovered.“
“They carry axes, swords, daggers and always have them to hand. They use Frankish swords with broad, ridged blades,” he noted.
Sacrifice or savings
The latest Norwegian discovery may have been buried as an offering to the gods or simply for safekeeping. The style of the jewellery unearthed is Danish, with the region where they were found was probably a trading post. Prof Maixner describes the find as “exceptional.”
Arabic coins and artefacts from 1,000 years ago have been found across Europe. Viking raids began with an attack on the English island of Lindisfarne in 793 CE and reached France and as far as Muslim Spain.
In the late 9th Century, Björn Ironside and his fleet of longships are said to have entered the Mediterranean, with Arab sources describing a Viking raid around 859 on Nakūr in present day Morocco, with the inhabitants carried off as slaves.
Further east, Vikings mostly traded with the local populations, seeking silver, the most valuable precious metal at the time.
Dirham coins from silver were largely minted in Central Asian Muslim provinces and the cities of Samarkand and Tashkent.
Hundreds of thousands found their way to Europe, and are prized today by archeologists and historians because they carry the year of minting and so allow more precise dating of sites.
By the 10th century, coins were being struck in Western Europe, largely replacing Arabic dirhams.
7th Century gold coins found hidden in a wall: in pictures
The specs
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Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Essentials
The flights
Whether you trek after mountain gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the Congo, the most convenient international airport is in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. There are direct flights from Dubai a couple of days a week with RwandAir. Otherwise, an indirect route is available via Nairobi with Kenya Airways. Flydubai flies to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, via Entebbe in Uganda. Expect to pay from US$350 (Dh1,286) return, including taxes.
The tours
Superb ape-watching tours that take in all three gorilla countries mentioned above are run by Natural World Safaris. In September, the company will be operating a unique Ugandan ape safari guided by well-known primatologist Ben Garrod.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, local operator Kivu Travel can organise pretty much any kind of safari throughout the Virunga National Park and elsewhere in eastern Congo.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Arrogate's winning run
1. Maiden Special Weight, Santa Anita Park, June 5, 2016
2. Allowance Optional Claiming, Santa Anita Park, June 24, 2016
3. Allowance Optional Claiming, Del Mar, August 4, 2016
4. Travers Stakes, Saratoga, August 27, 2016
5. Breeders' Cup Classic, Santa Anita Park, November 5, 2016
6. Pegasus World Cup, Gulfstream Park, January 28, 2017
7. Dubai World Cup, Meydan Racecourse, March 25, 2017
England-South Africa Test series
1st Test England win by 211 runs at Lord's, London
2nd Test South Africa win by 340 runs at Trent Bridge, Nottingham
3rd Test July 27-31 at The Oval, London
4th Test August 4-8 at Old Trafford, Manchester
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
PAKISTAN SQUAD
Abid Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Shan Masood, Azhar Ali (test captain), Babar Azam (T20 captain), Asad Shafiq, Fawad Alam, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Sarfaraz Ahmed (wicketkeeper), Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Imran Khan, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Sohail Khan, Usman Shinwari, Wahab Riaz, Imad Wasim, Kashif Bhatti, Shadab Khan and Yasir Shah.
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
