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50 well-preserved Viking graves found in Åsum, Denmark
A Viking burial ground with 50 well-preserved inhumation graves and five cremation graves has been unearthed in Åsum, an village just east of Odense, Denmark. It is one of the largest Viking-era burial grounds ever found on the island of Funen. Preliminary estimates based on the artifacts found in the burials date the graves to between 850 and 970 A.D.
The burial ground was discovered during an archaeological survey before renovations to the electrical grid. A metal detector scan of the field had found numerous objects, but the discovery of a Viking burial ground was completely unexpected, let alone one so large and well-preserved.
The skeletal remains are in unusually good condition, with complete articulated skeletons and surviving textile and wood fragments, because of the high groundwater level of the field. The low oxygen levels of the waterlogged environment slows down the decomposition process. It’s rare to find organic materials so well-preserved west of the Great Belt (the strait that separates the island of Zealand from Funen). The remains in the two other Viking burial sites on Funen that are of comparable size are in far worse shape.
Several of the burials belonged to high-status individuals, most notably a woman buried in the cart part of the wagon as a coffin. This practice took place only in the middle of the 9th century, and was very rare The wood is gone, but it left an imprint behind on the soil and the rivets and nails that held the cart together are still in place.
[Museum Odense archaeologist] Michael Borre Lundø says:
“The woman was buried in the wagon she likely traveled in. We must imagine that she was buried with her finest clothes and belongings. She was given a beautiful glass bead necklace, an iron key, a knife with a silver-threaded handle, and, most notably, a small shard of glass that may have served as an amulet. At the foot of the wagon, there was a finely decorated wooden chest, the contents of which we still do not know.”
One of the other high-status graves contains the remains of an adult woman wearing a very fine iron neck ring. This was not locally made. It is of a type that was manufactured in Gotland. She also had a large bronze buckle shaped like an animal head placed on her chest that was also from Gotland. More than a thousand of these types of brooches have been found there, but only 50 (51 now) of them have been discovered south of Gotland, and this is the only one ever found on Funen. Its rarity suggests she was an important person in the community, and because the buckle was part of the national costume, she most likely came from Gotland, or was related/married to someone who did.
Another contained a trefoil brooch, a red glass bead on a cord around the deceased’s neck, an iron knife and a nugget of rock crystal.
Michael Borre Lundø says:
“Rock crystal does not occur naturally in Denmark and was likely imported from Norway. Several items from the many graves in Åsum indicate that the buried Vikings were connected to international trade networks that developed during the Viking Age.”
The imported grave goods and the presence of several graves of high-status individuals are evidence that Åsum was an important trade hub when the future Odense was still the small settlement of Odins Vi a couple of miles to the west. The River Odense, Funen’s longest river, ran through Åsum. Nonnebakken, a massive ringfort built by King Harald Bluetooth to control access to the river, was constructed around 980, in the last years the burial ground was in use.
The skeletal remains will be sent to the Panum Institute at the University of Copenhagen for osteological examination and further studies. The bones are in such a good state of preservation that scientists believe they will be able to successfully extract ancient DNA on the majority of the skeletons. If the DNA extraction goes as well as expected, this will be the first time DNA analysis can be performed on almost all of a single burial ground. Researchers will determine if any of the deceased were related to each other, if they originated from or have genetic links to other areas of Europe.
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