Mästermyr

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The Mästermyr is a former bog area on the Swedish island of Gotland . It is south of Levide and Fardhem , west of Hemse and Alva , north of Hablingbo and east of Sproge and Silte, and began just a few hundred meters east of the church of Silte. In 1936 the wetland was drained and turned into farmland.

The tool box

A box with iron tools from the Viking Age was found there. The wooden box that was found in the area when it was first plowed there, with the large number of tools, gives a valuable insight into the technology of the Vikings. The find is kept by the State Historical Museum in Stockholm.

Finding circumstances

The valuable find emerged when the arable land that had been reclaimed was plowed for the first time. The field was still very soft, almost like a wetland, which of course means that many organic components and the box itself could be retained over such a long time. In the autumn of 1936, the fat and moist arable top was plowed through, so suddenly a strange bronze kettle appeared. After a while of intensive examination, the tractor driver was able to determine that it was uninteresting junk and he threw it aside. However, it was not worthless because it was from the Viking Age. When the tractor driver was plowing the next furrow into the earth, a large black archaeological find was suddenly pulled out of the earth. He jumped down and examined what it was. It was a box. Knowing that he had struck an old find, but not knowing its value, he struck the iron chain that tied the box together and broke the lock in the hope of finding a treasure in silver or even gold. But the hopes were dashed immediately. The man, Hugo Kraft, only saw a “soup made of rust”, hardly an impressive sight. However, he took some of the finds with him and a few archaeologists quickly learned of the find and drove there. You were not disappointed, on the contrary. When they got the box out of the mud, they sent it straight to the conservators in Stockholm. The box was full of tools.

The box find

Most of the find has been placed in the box, but some archaeological finds have also been found around the box. Three bronze kettles, three iron cowbells ( Swedish skälla ) and a basket ( Swedish blosskorg ). All of this probably got there when a boat capsized because the moor was still an open lake at the time.

The box was very large, 90 × 25 cm in base and about eight inches high. She was hardly damaged by the plow, despite the violent treatment to which she was subjected. The lid was slightly curved and made of boards. The actual box was made of four boards of different lengths with recessed corners and an iron locking device.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Popular historia. Retrieved March 3, 2013 (Swedish).

swell

Coordinates: 57 ° 14 '32.7 "  N , 18 ° 13' 58.8"  E