Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of 1,500-year-old treasure beneath the remains of an ancient pagan temple.

In the vicinity of an ancient pagan place of worship located in Vingrom, just outside Lillehammer, Norway, researchers have uncovered a total of 35 gold artifacts.

These gold pieces are square in shape and approximately the size of a fingernail. They are impressively thin and intricately engraved with depictions of both men and women adorned in elaborate attire, Newsweek reported.

Some portray a couple facing each other, with a man on the left and a woman on the right. Nicolai Eckhoff, an archaeologist from the University of Oslo who participated in the excavation, shared these details in a Facebook post.

These artifacts date back to the era of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish Kingdom from the fifth century until around 751.

The discovery of such gold pieces in Norway is exceedingly rare, with only ten known locations where they have been found, typically associated with ancient places of worship.

Written by staff