() – Danish archaeologists discovered more than 50 “exceptionally well preserved” skeletons in a large Viking Age cemetery in the east of the country.
A team from the Odense Museum has spent the last six months excavating the Åsum site, which covers some 2,000 square meters and is believed to date back to the 9th and 10th centuries.
The skeletons were buried alongside artifacts from far beyond Denmark’s borders, suggesting that the Vikings traveled widely to trade, according to the museum team.
Michael Borre Lundø, archaeologist and museum curator, told that it is incredibly rare to find Viking remains in such a good state of preservation.
“Often when we excavate Viking-era bodies, we are lucky if there are only a few teeth,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
The conditions of the site are what helped keep the skeletons in such good condition, he said.
“At this particular site, there is a lot of chalk in the soil, which helps preserve the bones, and there is also a lot of natural water in the soil,” he said. “For long periods the bodies of the Vikings were covered in water, which slowed down the decomposition of bones.”
Archaeologists had been called in to excavate the area as part of work to renew the electrical grid.
“We had no idea there was going to be a cemetery there with Viking skeletons,” Lundø said.
“It is really unusual to find so many well-preserved skeletons at once, like those discovered in Åsum,” he added separately in a press release.
“This discovery offers extraordinary opportunities to conduct a wide range of scientific analyses, which can reveal more about the general health, diet and origins of those buried,” he said. “The analyzes could even reveal whether the buried Vikings were related, which would be especially significant as this has never been examined in similar tombs.”
Objects found buried alongside the skeletons also suggest much about the deceased, such as their status in society and how far they might have traveled to trade.
Perhaps the most significant of the skeletons was that of a woman found buried in a cart, the top part of a Viking cart that was used as a coffin.
Lundø said in the press release: “The woman was buried in the car in which she was probably traveling. We must imagine that they buried her with her best clothes and belongings. They gave him a beautiful necklace of glass beads, an iron key, a knife with a silver thread handle and, above all, a small fragment of glass that could have served as an amulet.”
“At the foot of the cart there was a finely decorated wooden chest, the contents of which we still do not know.”
Another person’s grave nearby contained a fine three-lobed bronze brooch, a single red crystal bead on a cord around the deceased’s neck, an iron knife, and a small piece of rock crystal.
According to Lundø, this stone was of special interest.
“Rock crystal does not occur naturally in Denmark and was probably imported from Norway. “Several objects from the numerous tombs at Åsum indicate that the buried Vikings were connected to the international trade networks that developed during the Viking era, it said in the statement.”
According to the statement, the discovery of the burial confirms that Åsum was a key geographical point for early urban developments, which ultimately led to the formation of Odense, Denmark’s third largest city.
Archaeologists are still excavating part of the site area, but most of the skeletons and artifacts are now in the museum awaiting further examination.
Lundø told : “Now the skeletons are drying a bit before we can wash them and send them to Copenhagen for further examination.”
Among other things, scientists in the Danish capital will try to extract DNA from the remains to learn more about the people buried there.
“That’s going to be very exciting,” Lundø told . “I think that will give us a much better idea of people’s age, their sex, what diseases they might have and whether they were related.”
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