Boy, 13, helps find 1000 year old treasure in Germany

A 13 year-old boy is among treasure hunters who sparked the discovery of hundreds of thousand-year-old silver coins.

Jewellery linked to the era of Danish King "Harald Bluetooth," Gormsson, who lived in the 10^th century, has also been found on a German Island.

The dig was sparked when a silver coin was unearthed in January by two amateur archaeologists, including a 13-year-old boy, on the northern German island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea.

However they were sworn to secrecy until the experts could move in and unearth the entire treasure.

The Mecklenburg-West Pomerania state archaeology office said: "It's the biggest trove of such coins in the south-eastern Baltic region”.

The office said the two amateur archaeologists were asked to keep quiet about their discovery to give professionals time to plan the dig.

However, they were then invited to participate in the dig.

The finders, Rene Schoen and 13-year-old Luca Malaschnitschenko were using metal detectors on the field near the village Schaprode when Luca found a piece of metal he thought was aluminium rubbish.

But when the pair cleaned it, they understood it was more precious.

Archaeologists said about 100 of the silver coins were probably from the reign of Harald Gormsson, who introduced Christianity to Denmark.

His nickname came from the fact he had a dead tooth that looked bluish.

It inspired the name of Bluetooth technology invented by Swedish telecom company Ericsson.

The company named the technology after him.