Archaeologists Find Huge Viking Textile Production Site in Denmark

Beege Welborn

Beege UPDATE: For folks who want even more detailed pictures than the few in the NPR story, there are some great ones now available in this new Smithsonian article of the implements used in the 'factory' itself. TRES cool!

The Vikings are often portrayed as fearsome raiders, willing to destroy anything that stood in the way of their conquests throughout Europe. But a new archaeological discovery in Denmark paints a more nuanced picture of these seafaring Norsemen.

Researchers unearthed the remains of a sophisticated textile-production site in Søften, a small town near Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, on the Jutland peninsula.

The discovery suggests the area’s residents were part of an expansive international trade network, a finding that confirms the Vikings were “not just simple, uncivilized, barbaric hordes, rambling about Europe,” Kasper Andersen, a historian at the Moesgaard Museum tells James Brooks of the Associated Press (AP).

“To have a place like Søften, you need a very well-organized society with a production line, and you also need a market to have the production,” Andersen says. “The textiles from Søften go into a market that’s much bigger than just the local area.”