A separate, larger settlement may once have stood just beyond the ramparts of the Muhu stronghold, which was burned down in 1227. In the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, the area is even referred to as a town. Until now, no extensive excavations had been carried out on the modern-day field surrounding the stronghold — but recently, a coin hoard was discovered there. Among the finds was a half-penny, an extremely rare coin believed to be a Saxon penny.

"This site spans four hectares. It's a very large settlement site, well, quite sizable, and has a rather intense cultural layer. Of course, I was hoping some structural remains had survived, but they haven't. During the Soviet era, this field was heavily plowed and everything is completely mixed up. That was a bit of a disappointment, but still — it is clearly a settlement layer," said Dr. Marika Mägi, an archaeologist.

The soil is literally producing silver coins with every sweep of the detector. In two bags, a total of roughly one hundred silver coins of various origins were found. The number is approximate because the coins have so far only been eagerly collected and there hadn't been time to count them all by Saturday afternoon.

"Pure silver, Viking-era silver, with a very high silver content — so they've been remarkably well preserved. At first, we recovered 40 coins. Now we've found another 80 or maybe 70 or even 100 — I'm not exactly sure. The people of Muhu, or Estonians at the time, didn't have their own currency, but coins came here through trade. This hoard includes coins from Germany, England, France — I think even France — along with the Netherlands, Denmark and also from the Arab world," said detectorist Jegor Klimov.

Jegor is also the man who once found a gold hoard in Saaremaa, making this discovery the second-largest for his team.

"It's hard to say how many rare 'strawberries' — real treasures — are in here. With coins, it only takes one small detail for the rarity value to skyrocket," Klimov said.

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