{"id":116010,"date":"2026-06-25T08:23:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/116010\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:23:30","slug":"huge-viking-textile-production-site-found-in-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/116010\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Viking textile production site found in Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00d8FTEN, Denmark (AP) \u2014 Archaeologists have discovered a huge Viking Age textile production site in Denmark<\/a> that dates back more than 1,000 years and underlines the sophistication of Viking society<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Experts from the Moesgaard Museum said this week that the sprawling 100,000-square-meter (more than 1 million-square-foot) site features an area for processing flax as well as more than 80 pit houses \u2014 semi-buried huts that were used as workshops and dwellings in Viking times.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s located in S\u00f8ften, 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of Denmark\u2019s second-largest city, Aarhus, on the Jutland peninsula. The site dates back to the late Iron Age and early Viking Age, sometime between A.D. 600 and 950.<\/p>\n

Archaeologist Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg, who led the 10-month dig, said that \u201cwe have a clear focus on textile production, which makes this settlement different from other kinds of settlements of this period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spindle whorls, we have weight looms; that tells us about what has been going on in the pit houses,\u201d said Reher-Langberg, adding that archaeologists had also discovered silver coins, glass beads and pottery.<\/p>\n

Experts found separate areas for production and crafts, plus a single residential home, which suggests work was overseen by a powerful individual with control over resources and production.<\/p>\n

Reher-Langberg said that, over the last three decades, people with metal detectors had unearthed several silver coins in the area. A trial excavation 1\u00bd years ago, before the start of construction work on a new road and industrial area, then piqued archaeologists\u2019 interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could see in the trenches that it just keeps on going, with these houses and pit houses and textile production features,\u201d Reher-Langberg said.<\/p>\n

Moesgaard Museum historian Kasper Andersen said that the discovery at S\u00f8ften is \u201canother piece in the puzzle\u201d to understanding the local economic, cultural and political structure at the time.<\/p>\n

During the Viking era, Aarhus \u2014 then known as Aros \u2014 functioned as a center for royalty and international trade. And last year, archaeologists discovered another Viking site in Lisbjerg, just 4 kilometers (2\u00bd miles) away, that was likely home to members of the nobility. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Morning Wire:
\n Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day.\n <\/p>\n

Goods and resources were likely brought from the countryside and settlements like S\u00f8ften, before entering an extensive international trade network, Andersen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a production site of this scale, it cannot be only because of the local area. It needs to be understood as part of a greater network, a much bigger international perspective,\u201d Andersen said.<\/p>\n

Reher-Langberg hopes future carbon dating and pollen analysis might answer some lingering questions, for instance about what kind of textile production went on at the site.<\/p>\n

During the Viking Age, considered to run from A.D. 793 to 1066, Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raids, colonization, conquest and trade throughout Europe, even reaching North America.<\/p>\n

Andersen said that the discovery at S\u00f8ften shows that Vikings were \u201cnot just simple, uncivilized, barbaric hordes, rambling about Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have a place like S\u00f8ften, you need a very well-organized society with a production line, and you also need a market to have the production,\u201d he said. \u201cThe textiles from S\u00f8ften go into a market that\u2019s much bigger than just the local area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S\u00d8FTEN, Denmark (AP) \u2014 Archaeologists have discovered a huge Viking Age textile production site in Denmark that dates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[57557,35728,438,27,26,71,1162,1689,2501,57561,21230,1161],"class_list":["post-116010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-aarhus","tag-archaeology-and-anthropology","tag-business","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-europe","tag-general-news","tag-international-trade","tag-lifestyle","tag-liv-stidsing-reher-langberg","tag-trending-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116809787221400297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}