Wind the clock back 1,300 years to the beginning of the Viking Age in
Denmark. We find ourselves in Jutland, Denmark, about 15 kilometres
west of Viborg. The river system runs nearby, connecting the area with
the hugely important trade and transport route in Limfjorden.
Somewhere on the horizon, a building stretches up into the sky. It is ten metres high, supported by large, heavy posts.
“It
could be seen from some distance away. It must’ve been an impressive
landmark for the place and for the nobleman who lived there. It’s unique
in its construction and would have required a great deal to build. I
really wonder where they got the idea from,” says archaeologist Kamilla
Fiedler Terkildsen, curator at Viborg Museum, Denmark.
Terkildsen and her
colleagues from Viborg Museum uncovered the historic tower during
excavations of a settlement from the Viking Age back in 2014. They could not believe their own eyes.
It appeared that they had uncovered a Viking Age tower—the first of its kind in Denmark.
The
tower was first spotted as cropmarks on aerial photos, before the
excavation began. But it was a style of construction not previously
known in Danish archaeology, so they sought a second opinion from the
National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen. “They called and asked
if I have ever seen something similar. I hadn’t,” says co-author Mads
Dengsø Jessen, and archaeologist at the Danish National Museum, who
helped Terkildsen excavate the tower.
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