A rare “goldman” from the Nordic Iron Age, a small piece of gold foil depicting a man and woman, has been discovered in southwestern Norway. It dates between 550 AD and the beginning of the Viking Age in 793 AD. The piece was discovered by metal detectorist Kjetil Særheim on his family farm in Klepp. It is only 1 cm (.4 in) long and made of such thin foil that Særheim was surprised that it even registered on the detector.
Gulgobi (literally “little old man of gold”) is commonly found in important centers of power in Scandinavia. 3600 or so known examples have been found in Denmark. Only about 50 have been found in Norway, and this is the first to be discovered in southwestern Rogaland province in 127 years.
They are often seen in connection with hall buildings, and archaeologists believe they were placed as part of religious rituals.
“We believe that they were used in a ceremonial context, and that they were placed as offerings in these hall buildings,” says [Sigmund Oehrl, professor of archaeology at the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger].
In 1897, a total of 16 such “golden men” were found in Clapp’s Hodge, not far from this latest discovery.
Hauge Goldman was discovered by a farmer during an agricultural operation, so details about the find site are unknown. The new discovery at Klepp provides archaeologists with a precise 19th-century excavation site, a useful starting point for further research. The area is already recognized as archaeologically important as several burial mounds and ring-shaped courtyards have been found there. The gold man may indicate that the site also had a great hall or god’s court, which would have given it great cultural importance in the Nordic Iron Age.
The 16 Goldman found in Hauge were transferred to the University Museum in Bergen because there was still no museum in Stavanger at the end of the 19th century. Clapp Goldman would therefore be the first person to occupy the museum where they met.
