In July of 2022, the National Heritage Board of Estonia received a gold signet ring that had been found a few days earlier from the fields close to the former Vesneri Manor complex. It turned out that a licenced amateur detectorist had discovered an interesting artefact from the early modern period that according to preliminary estimation could be dated to the 17th century. Subsequent analysis succeeded in elaborating on the dating as well as identifying the former owner of the signet ring. Based on the coat of arms depicted on the ring, we found out that the ring once belonged to Johan Fritzberg, who was active in the 1680s and 1690s. His father Andreas Fritzberg Sr. had come to Estonia in the 1640s to study at the University of Tartu. He later served as a higher official of the municipality of Tartu. Andreas Fritzberg Sr. bought Vesneri Manor in September of 1673. It remained in the hands of the family until the mid-18th century.

Closer study of the signet ring and the owner’s biography also provides us with a relatively narrow period for when the ring was made and lost. Assuming that the ring was made after Johan Fritzberg left the Lyceum in Riga and started his academic tour of European universities (1686–1690), the ring should date from the late 1680s. Since the very same signet ring was used to sign a document in 1697, the current find was probably lost at some point in time thereafter. Exactly how it was lost remains a mystery but similar patterns from elsewhere indicate that it seems plausible that the ring was discharged at the current find spot in the muck coming from the latrine in the manor complex.