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The discovery of 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons in a village in central Denmark might maintain vital clues to the Viking period.
Archaeologists made the landmark discovery that included a burial floor and the skeletons.
Experts hope to conduct DNA analyses and presumably reconstruct detailed life histories, in addition to trying into social patterns in Viking Age, akin to kinship, migration patterns and extra.
“This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved,” mentioned archeologist Michael Borre Lundø, who led the six-month dig. “Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons.”
The skeletons have been preserved due to favorable soil chemistry, significantly chalk and excessive water ranges, consultants from Museum Odense mentioned. The web site was found final 12 months throughout a routine survey, forward of energy line renovation work on the outskirts of the village of Aasum, 5 kilometers (3 miles), northeast of Odense, Denmark’s third-largest metropolis.
“This opens a whole new toolbox for scientific discovery,” mentioned Borre Lundø as he stood on the muddy, wind-swept excavation web site. “Hopefully we can make a DNA analysis on all the skeletons and see if they are related to each other and even where they come from.”
During the Viking Age, thought of to run from 793 to 1066 A.D., Norsemen often known as Vikings undertook large-scale raids, colonizing, conquering and buying and selling all through Europe, even reaching North America.
The Vikings unearthed at Aasum possible weren’t warriors. Borre Lundø believes the web site was most likely a “standard settlement,” maybe a farming neighborhood, situated 5 kilometers from a hoop fortress in what’s now central Odense.
The 2,000-square meter (21,500-square foot) burial floor holds the stays of males, girls and kids. Besides the skeletons, there are a number of cremated our bodies.
In one grave, a lady is buried in a wagon — the larger half of a Viking cart was used as a coffin — suggesting she was from the “upper part of society,” Borre Lundø advised The Associated Press.
Archeologists additionally unearthed brooches, necklace beads, knives, and even a small shard of glass which will have served as an amulet.
Borre Lundø mentioned the brooch designs recommend the lifeless have been buried between 850 and 900 A.D.
“There’s different levels of burials,” he defined. “Some have nothing with them, others have brooches and pearl necklaces.”
Archeologists say many of the artefacts got here from far past Denmark’s borders, shedding gentle on in depth Viking commerce routes throughout the tenth century.
“There’s a lot of trade and commerce going on,” mentioned Borre Lundø. “We also found a brooch that comes from the island of Gotland, on the eastern side of Sweden, but also whetstones for honing your knife … all sorts of things point to Norway and Sweden.”
The burial web site was found final 12 months, and the dig, which began in April, ended Friday. Boxes of artefacts have shipped to Museum Odense’s preservation labs for cleansing and evaluation.
Conservator Jannie Amsgaard Ebsen hopes the soil may maintain different preserved natural materials on the backs of brooches or knife handles.
“We’re really hoping to gain the larger picture. Who were the people that were living out there? Who did they interact with?” she mentioned. “It’s a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle: all the various puzzle parts will be placed together.”
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