Archaeologists in Denmark have unearthed 50 “nearly intact” human bodies from a “rare” and “unusual” burial site from the Viking Age. Live Science reported.
Experts at the Odense Museum have spent the last six months excavating the site near the small village of Åsum on the island of Funen after a team preparing to lay electrical cables came across a surprising find. The Viking Age lasted from the late 700s to the late 900s in Åsum, but due to the acidity of the Norse soil, which eats away at human bones, it is extremely rare to find any burials from this period.
“It is truly unusual to find such well-preserved skeletons at the same time as those found in Åsum,” said Michael Borre Lundø, the museum's curator and archaeologist who worked on the excavation. “This discovery offers extraordinary opportunities to carry out a wide range of scientific analyzes that could provide more information about the general health, diet and origins of the buried.”
Odense Museum
Borre Lundø and the rest of the museum team believe that those buried in Åsum were wealthy, based on the burial rituals found in their coffins. The remains of a female Viking were particularly significant. “The woman was probably buried in the wagon in which she was traveling,” Borre Lundø said. “She was given a beautiful glass bead necklace, an iron key, a knife with a silver fluted handle, and most importantly, a small piece of glass that may have served as an amulet.”
The woman was also buried with a small, jeweled wooden chest that scientists have not yet opened. Another grave contained a brass clothes buckle and a small piece of rock crystal not typically found in the area. “Rock crystal does not occur naturally in Denmark and is probably imported from Norway,” Borre Lundø said. he said. “Several items recovered from many burials at Åsum indicate that buried Vikings were linked to international trade networks that developed during the Viking Age.”
Odense Museum
Odense Museum
Borre Lundø and the rest of the team are currently carrying out further analysis, which he explains “could reveal whether the buried Vikings were related, which is particularly important because this has not been studied in similar burials before.”