Were Vikings Really ‘Uncivilized’ Barbarians? Large Textile-Production Site Discovered in Denmark Challenges That Stereotype

Moesgaard Museum 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).