Archaeologists Discover Viking Age Textile Site in Søften Denmark

Archaeologists uncovered a 100,000-square-meter Viking Age textile production site in Søften, Denmark, 10 kilometers north of Aarhus on the Jutland peninsula. The settlement dates between A.D. 600 and 950 and contains an area for processing flax along with more than 80 pit houses used as workshops.

Fortune reported that the dig, led by Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg over 10 months, also yielded spindle whorls, weight looms, silver coins, glass beads and pottery. Separate zones for production and crafts were identified alongside a single residential home, indicating oversight by one powerful individual.

” Metal-detector finds of silver coins over the past three decades and a trial excavation 1½ years ago ahead of road construction prompted the full investigation.

Moesgaard Museum historian Kasper Andersen described the site as “another piece in the puzzle” for understanding the local economic, cultural and political structure. He noted that goods from settlements like Søften likely fed into trade networks centered on Aarhus, then known as Aros.

Last year archaeologists found another Viking site in Lisbjerg, 4 kilometers away, that was probably home to nobility.

Andersen said the scale of production at Søften points to an organized society with access to wider markets rather than isolated activity. Reher-Langberg said future carbon dating and pollen analysis may clarify the exact textiles produced. The Viking Age is dated from A.D.

793 to 1066.