{"id":2820,"date":"2026-06-25T14:04:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:04:25","slug":"archaeologists-find-huge-viking-textile-production-site-in-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2820","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists find huge Viking textile production site in Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>S\u00d8FTEN, Denmark<\/strong> | Archaeologists have discovered a huge Viking Age textile production site in Denmark that dates back more than 1,000 years and underlines the sophistication of Viking society.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>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<div><\/div>\n<p>\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<p>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<p>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<p>\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<p>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<p>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>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<p>\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<p>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<p>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<p>Andersen said that the discovery at S\u00f8ften shows that Vikings were \u201cnot just simple, uncivilized, barbaric hordes, rambling about Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\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<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2815\">PERRY: State legislators run the home-school gravy train off the taxpayer tracks, finally<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2817\">Toon in Thursday<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2818\">Trump turns America 250 kickoff into a campaign-style rally on the National Mall<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>S\u00d8FTEN, Denmark | Archaeologists have discovered a huge Viking Age textile production site in Denmark that dates back more than 1,000 years and underlines the sophistication of Viking society. 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101,1102,149,1103,1104],"tags":[4573,4574,4575,4576,4577,4578],"class_list":["post-2820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-0-no-apple-publish","category-1gridmagazine","category-a-town-magazine","category-uncategorized","category-z-other-galley","tag-aarhus","tag-aros","tag-jutland-peninsula","tag-liv-stidsing-reher-langberg","tag-moesgaard-museum","tag-soften"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Archaeologists find huge Viking textile production site in Denmark - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2820\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Archaeologists find huge Viking textile production site in Denmark - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"S\u00d8FTEN, Denmark | Archaeologists have discovered a huge Viking Age textile production site in Denmark that dates back more than 1,000 years and underlines the sophistication of Viking society. 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