A metal detectorist in Sysmä, Finland, has discovered the country’s largest known Viking Age silver hoard, containing more than 4,000 coins and other objects. The find matters because it suggests Sysmä was an important Late Iron Age trading centre with extensive links across Europe and beyond.

The approximately 10-pound hoard includes coins from present-day Sweden, Britain and Germany, alongside Islamic dirhams from areas now in Turkey and Iran, plus hack silver, jewellery and other artefacts. Preliminary dating places it between AD 1000 and 1050, and archaeologists say it could reshape understanding of how silver circulated in Finland; its owner and why it was buried remain unknown.