Archaeologists in Denmark Discover Rare Fragments of 1,300-Year-Old Clothing Preserved Inside a Viking Age Grave

Archaeologists in Denmark have uncovered a rare find: a Viking Age grave containing clothing fragments that have survived for roughly 1,300 years. The burial is located near Varde, a historic market town in southwestern Jutland, at the Skonager archaeological site. In 2024, excavations at Skonager revealed a cemetery where people of all ages had been buried alongside grave goods such as iron knives and glass beads.

Researchers found the fabric scraps in a grave that held two oval brooches strongly associated with Viking Age women’s dress. According to a Facebook post from Archaeology West Jutland, traces of textiles clung to both the front and back of the jewelry. As the metal used to craft the brooches corroded, it released salts that inadvertently preserved the fabric fragments.

The textiles’ positioning on the brooches may help archaeologists determine whether they came from different layers of clothing and perhaps even how those garments were arranged. A 2022 study led by researchers at Denmark’s Aarhus University found that Viking Age artisans in Ribe created glass beads by melting down glass cubes, or tessarae, taken from Roman and Byzantine temples, palaces and baths. Merchants brought the salvaged tessarae north and sold them in trading towns.

Surviving Viking Age clothing is extremely rare, with most physical evidence limited to “small pieces of material preserved by chance,” the National Museum of Denmark notes on its website. She will investigate the weaving techniques used to create the material, as well as its possible pattern. The researchers also plan to use radiocarbon dating to estimate the textiles’ age.

One of the brooches found in the grave shows signs of repair, suggesting it might be a family heirloom that is far older than the fabrics. Ulla Mannering and Charlotte Rimstad, researchers at the National Museum of Denmark who lead the Textile Colors of the Viking Age project, will analyze the samples to identify any remaining traces of pigment. As Mannering writes in an overview of the project, “Wool pigmentation and the use of fiber colors in textiles is a method as old as weaving technology in Denmark.” Although archaeological evidence for Viking Age textile dyes and color use is fragmentary, surviving finds indicate that both dyed textiles and naturally pigmented wool were part of Scandinavian textile culture.

In Denmark, the Viking Age is usually dated to between 800 and 1050 C.E. It was a period of extensive Scandinavian trade, migration, settlement, seafaring and raiding across Europe and the North Atlantic. Viking Age communities also farmed, raised livestock, fished, and produced textiles and other goods that sustained everyday life.