PAUL SIEVEKING digs up the latest discoveries, including a Viking hall and an intact Roman egg
VIKING DISCOVERIES
Danish archæologists in Hune, North Jutland, have uncovered a massive Viking-era hall, about 130ft (40m) long and 32ft (10m) wide. The structure had 10 to 12 rectangular oak posts supporting the roof. These types of large halls were prestigious buildings used as a gathering place for political meetings and large guilds. The design is similar to other structures found at castles belonging to Harald Bluetooth, indicating the hall was built during the late Viking age, (AD 850-1000). Nothing like this hall has ever been found before in North Jutland, the northernmost region of Denmark. Bluetooth, who ruled from around 958 to 985, was the first king of unified Denmark and is also credited with conquering Norway. Hune is about 195 miles (314km) northwest of Copenhagen. kansascity.com, 27 Dec 2023.
• An analysis of two groups of runestones, dedicated to the first known queen of Denmark, hints at the possibility that Thyra, Harald Bluetooth’s mother, may have once been even more beloved than Bluetooth or Thyra’s husband, ‘Gorm the Old’, whose name only features on a single stone. Scholars have credited Thyra’s rule with the expansion of the Danevirke fortifications, which succeeded in holding off German invasion. Other than that, however, her story is a bit of a mystery. It’s not clear where her family came from, or how she ruled as queen. On one group of memorial stones found in Jelling – the royal seat of the Viking monarchy – Thyra is commemorated as ‘Denmark’s strength/salvation’. In fact, fewer than 10 runestones that have been found to date are dedicated to women, and four of these seem to be dedicated to Thyra. In recent years, archæologists have confirmed that female Viking warriors fought
GALLOWAY HOARD
Buried around the year 900, a Viking find known as the Galloway Hoard was discovered in 2014 on Church of Scotland land in Dumfries and Galloway by metal detectorist Derek McLennan. Described by the National Museums of Scotland as the “richest, most varied and well-preserved collection of precious and exotic objects” in British history, it contained around 100 items including silver, gold, and jewellery. Soon after the discovery, a row emerged over exactly how the haul would be divided, but this has now been settled out of court. The National Museum of Scotland was a
