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Museum artefacts from the 1200s discovered in a container
No one knows where the display case holding these objects has been since 1990, or why it ended up where it did. But it has now resurfaced and will be returned to the Museum of Cultural History.
'We found this and didn’t want to throw it away. What should I do?'
This message came in an email from a container rental company in Tønsberg to the Museum of Cultural History earlier in March.
Attached was a photo of a display case labelled: 'These objects are on loan from the university’s collection of antiquities.' Inside the case it says that the artefacts originate from a farm dating back to the 1200s, though the location of the farm is not specified.
All the items are still inside the display case, but some have shifted around. For example, a 'Monk face from a decorated ceramic jug' now lies beneath a 'Loom weight for warp-weighted loom.'
Loaned out in the 1980s
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"What we know is that the items were 'Excavated by the Directorate for Cultural Heritage’s excavation office, Kammergaten 10, Tønsberg, Vestfold in 1981.' The loaned objects are a selection of the finds from the excavation."
"The objects were loaned to Sparebanken Vestfold in 1984, with a return date set for 1992," says Anne Skogsfjord, finds liaison officer at the department of archaeology at the Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo. She was the one who received the inquiry from the person who found the display case.
Sparebanken Vestfold – a savings bank – was acquired by Sparebanken Nor in 1990.
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"At the same time, we had another loan agreement with Sparebanken Vestfold's real estate office, which later became NOR Eiendomsmegling Vestfold AS. Those items were returned in 1997. It's likely these two loan cases were mixed up," she says.
As a result, no one followed up on the missing display case.
"We have better routines in place now," Skogsfjord emphasises.
The artefacts are currently safely stored at the cultural heritage department in Vestfold County Municipality and will be retrieved sometime after Easter, according to Skogsfjord.
Praises the finder
Archaeologist Anja Nordvik Sætre from Vestfold County Municipality commends the person who found the display case.
"He handled it perfectly! The glass clearly states that it belongs to the university’s collection of antiquities, and he reached out to us," she says.
Sætre suspects the case was placed in the container during a cleanup following the bank’s closure and then forgotten. She adds that loan procedures from the Museum of Cultural History are now far stricter, with requirements for storage in rooms with the correct temperature that can be locked.
The county municipality collected the case from the finder and brought it to their offices in Tønsberg.
Sætre, however, doubts that this is the only display case – or collection of items – that has gone missing.
"There may very well be more. If anyone knows of any, just call us, and we can check whether there's a loan agreement," she says.
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As far as she knows, this is the first time an entire display case has been returned in this way.
Can be damaged by air
"We are regularly contacted by people who come across historical objects, and we encourage everyone to contact the cultural heritage department in the county municipality if they make a discovery or have questions about cultural heritage. It's very important to get in touch with professionals. Objects that have been buried for a long time can be damaged when exposed to air. Iron, for example, corrodes," says Sætre.
She emphasises that people will not be blamed for having items that actually belong in a museum.
"A kind of general amnesty?"
"Yes, there's no blame to assign. We accept everything, even lost display cases," she says.
Neither Sætre nor anyone else at Vestfold County Municipality has any explanation for how this display case ended up in the container. But for now, it remains at the department's offices in Tønsberg.
"It's this year's Easter mystery," says Sætre.
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This article was first published on Uniforum. Read the original here.
Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik
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