Jan Bartek – Ancientpages.com – Archaeologists excavating at Søften, Denmark, have found an intensive manufacturing website that will have equipped Viking Age Aarhus with textiles and craft items.
Background: Drone shot of the excavation. Credit score: Moesgaard Picture compilation, AncientPages.com
Søften is situated 10 kilometers north of Aarhus and solely 4 kilometers from Lisbjerg, the place Moesgaard archaeologists beforehand uncovered a noble property intently linked to the Viking metropolis of Aros, a middle for the king and worldwide commerce. In 2024, a younger archaeology scholar additionally found a Viking Age silver treasure in Elsted, just a few kilometers from Søften.
Archaeologists excavating a pit home at Søften. Credit score: Moesgaard
The Søften settlement featured intensive, well-organized manufacturing services. Archaeologists have recognized areas for processing flax and quite a few pit homes, that are buried workshop huts sometimes linked to crafts and manufacturing.
Ten weights utilized in reference to textile manufacturing. Credit score: Moesgaard
“We don’t see traces of an peculiar village, however quite a specialised and large-scale manufacturing space. The settlement consists of distinct zones for manufacturing, crafts, and a single residential home.
Pearls have been a luxurious merchandise within the Viking Age that might be used as a type of barter. Credit score: Moesgaard
This construction means that actions have been directed by a government with management over sources and manufacturing,” says excavation chief Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg.
Excavation supervisor Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg. Credit score: Moesgaard
Throughout the Viking Age, Aarhus grew to become one of many kingdom’s main buying and selling facilities beneath royal authority. Nevertheless, cities didn’t develop in isolation, as Søften and Lisbjerg clearly illustrate. Items and sources from the encircling countryside have been delivered to the cities for commerce, connecting them to the broader worldwide community of the Viking Age, says historian Kasper H. Andersen.
See additionally: Extra Archaeology Information
The present excavation at Søften covers simply over 60,000 m2. Investigations south of this space in 2008 and 2013 revealed comparable settlement and manufacturing traces from the identical interval. In whole, the settlement is estimated to have spanned not less than 100,000 m2. The present excavation has uncovered 48 pit homes, whereas earlier excavations recognized an extra 34, all a part of the broader manufacturing surroundings.
Supply: Moesgaard
Written by Jan Bartek – AncientPages.com Workers Author
