1,000-year-old hall where Vikings once gathered is uncovered in Denmark, museum says
Archaeologists in Denmark uncovered a massive Viking-era structure unlike anything else found in the region so far.
Before construction of a house in Hune could begin, archaeologists came to excavate the area, the North Jutland Museums said in a Dec. 19 news release.
The unassuming plot of land revealed a massive Viking hall.
The hall was about 130 feet long and about 32 feet wide, the museum said. The structure had 10 to 12 rectangular oak posts supporting the roof.
During Viking times, these types of large halls were prestigious buildings used as a gathering place for political meetings and large guilds, Thomas Rune Knudsen, the excavation’s lead archaeologist, said in the release. Archaeologists in North Jutland, the northernmost region of Denmark, have never before seen anything like this hall.
The hall may have been built by an important and powerful Viking family that left their names on a 5-foot-tall rune stone near the excavation site, the museum said. Although it’s difficult to prove which family, experts are confident an elite family owned the hall, Knudsen said.
The design of the hall is similar to other structures found at castles belonging to Harald Bluetooth, indicating the hall was also built during the late Viking age, a period from 850 A.D. to 1000 A.D., experts said.
Bluetooth, who ruled from around 958 A.D. to 985 A.D., was the first king of unified Denmark and is also credited with conquering Norway, according to Britannica.
Bluetooth also came from a royal family in North Jutland, according to Britannica, the same region as the newfound hall.
The hall provides archaeologists with more evidence North Jutland played an important role in helping Bluetooth rise to power, Torben Sarauw of the North Jutland Museums told Nordjyske Stiftstidende, a Danish paper in North Jutland.
Because Viking halls were rarely isolated structures, Knudsen suspects other houses are buried nearby. Archaeologists plan to finish excavating the hall in the new year, according to the release.
Hune is about 195 miles northwest of Copenhagen.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from North Jutland Museums and an article from Nordjyske Stiftstidende.
This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 2:26 PM with the headline "1,000-year-old hall where Vikings once gathered is uncovered in Denmark, museum says."
