Some researchers have floated a theory that the coins might have been part of a hefty ransom in silver to pay off the Vikings who in the 9th century threatened to ransack Paris.
Other experts are not convinced, though.
The discovery was made by Przemysław Witkowski around the village of Biskupiec in Poland's northeastern Warmia-Masuria region in November.
But it is only now that the story has taken off following a large feature in The New York Times, asking the puzzling question: “How did a cornfield in northeastern Poland come to hold silver coins minted more than 1,100 years ago and nearly 1,000 miles away by the medieval rulers of what is now France?”
The find was sent to Warsaw for analysis by experts from an archaeological laboratory run by the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).
Mateusz Bogucki, the head of the lab, said he was skeptical about the Paris ransom payment theory, but said the coins were still a significant find, indicating that the Carolingian Empire had reached well beyond its heartland in Western Europe, the NYT reported.
The artifacts could also shed more light on medieval routes travelled by the Vikings, who, in their day, were known to act as middlemen in the brutal enterprise of slave trade, Bogucki told the NYT.
(mo/gs)
Source: NYT, onet.pl