The archaeologist’s discovery includes four silver bracelets buried about eight inches (20 centimetres) deep on a mountainside in Årdal, a village in southwestern Norway, as reported by the University of Stavanger.

“This is definitely the biggest thing I have experienced in my career,” Volker Demuth, an archaeologist and project manager at the Archaeological Museum at the University of Stavanger, said in the statement.

Further investigation revealed the site once hosted a “large and powerful” Viking Age farm, dating from A.D. 793 to 1066, which included multiple buildings for both people and animals. The bracelets were discovered within one of the smaller structures, likely used by enslaved individuals.

“This is a unique find, because we very rarely find such objects exactly where they were placed,” Demuth said. “As a rule, such valuable objects are discovered on fields that have been ploughed, where an object has been completely taken out of its original context. Since the silver hoard has not been moved, it can give us completely new insights into life and society in the Viking Age.”

In addition to the jewellery, the excavation uncovered various artifacts such as soapstone pots, rivets, knife blades and whetstones. There’s also evidence that the farm had been burned down, which “coincides with a period of great unrest in the Viking Age,” according to the statement.