Havor hoard

The Havor hoard (Swedish: Havorskatten) is an Iron Age treasure found in 1961, in Hablingbo on the Swedish island of Gotland. It consists of a large gold torc, known as the Havor Ring, along with several well-preserved bronze objects and was buried inside a Roman bronze situla in the mound surrounding a hillfort.

In 1986, the Havor Ring was stolen from the Gotland Museum. As of 2016^[update], it has not been recovered.

The hillfort in the small village of Havor in Hablingbo is located in a meadow about 700 m (2,300 ft) northeast of the main building at Stora Havor farm. The fort was built more than 2000 years ago during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. At that time it was situated on the south banks of the lake that later became Mästermyr mire. The hillfort is surrounded by a round mound or wall 55 m (180 ft) in diameter, about 1 m (3.3 ft) high and 7–8 m (23–26 ft) wide. On top of the mound, there are traces of a wooden palisade and outside it are traces of a grave. Close by are also a couple of Iron Age house foundations and in one of these seven denarii minted in 112–192 AD were found. Archaeological excavations of the area in 1961–80, revealed that the site had been continuously inhabited from the Bronze Age until the Middle Ages.

The hoard was discovered on the first day of an archaeological excavation in April 1961, by a couple of workers who were removing turf from the mound around the hillfort. The excavation was a relief work project provided by Havdhem Municipality. Two men found a vessel containing several objects and "something that looked like gold" under a flat stone on the inside of the mound. As there was no archaeologist present that day, they put the stone back and shoveled some dirt over it and continued to dig elsewhere. The next day archaeologists took control of the site and police had to keep press, TV crews and spectators at bay. The excavation supervisor, then archaeology student Peter Manneke, was credited with the find. Manneke phoned his boss, professor Erik Nylén, who was in Stockholm at the time and he immediately flew to Gotland. To guard the find Manneke and Nylén spent the night in sleeping bags by the hoard.

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