World News for Students of English

17-10-2014 15:00

A one-million-pound discovery of Viking artefacts has been uncovered in southwest Scotland by an amateur treasure hunter and his trusty metal detector.

Derek McLennan, a retired businessman from Ayrshire, stumbled across the massive collection after dragging himself from his sickbed to go on the trip with two friends. Now, he’s in line for a bumper payout after the find was described as one of the most significant of its kind ever discovered in the UK.

In total, more than 100 items were recovered, including armbands and brooches. A solid silver cross which has enameled decoration which experts consider to highly unusual was also amongst the collection.

This pot is likely to had been around 100 years old when the horde was buried in the mid-9th or 10th centuries.

Within hours, experts from historic Scotland had arrived at the field in Dumfries and Galloway to begin a major excavation of the site. The discovery comes after lucky Derek hit the headlines earlier this year after discovering 322 medieval coins in a field.

Difficult words: artefact (an object which is historically interesting), treasure (a quantity of gold, coins, gems etc.), trusty (reliable), stumble across (find by chance), drag (forcing himself to get up), bumper (very large), significant (great), brooch (an ornament on your clothing), horde (big group), excavation (digging), medieval (from the Middle Ages).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com