We tend to imagine of the Vikings as a fugacious culture , taunt the high seas , pillaging settlement , and then make off with the spoilation . Yet more and more evidence is being discovered thatfundamentally changes this imageof the Norse seafarers , with fortresses discovered in Denmark suggesting that there was far more to the Vikings than many have previously appreciated .
Archaeologists have now draw an impressive fortress in the journalAntiquity , ramp up in a perfectly circular agreement , that they have dated to having been built by the infamous Viking and Danish King Harald ‘ Bluetooth ’ Gormsson . This is now the 5th such castle key in Denmark since the thirties and has shifted the universal opinion of the Vikings , show that they during the Middle Ages they formed complex , technologically in advance settlements .
This latest fort , called Borgring , has been regain just south of Copenhagen on the island of Zealand . While there is nothing much to see at ground level apart from a few mounds , as the earth has been plowed and till for century , aeriform surveys using LIDAR have intelligibly show the remains of the closed chain fortress in unbelievable detail . Using this as a template , the researchers have been able to uncover a whole legion of amazing artifacts expose just how complex this structure was , and what the culture and society at the time must have been like .
The perfect circular placement of the bulwark , build from world and timber and 144 meters in diameter , shows an astonishing accomplishment , especially as it was not strictly necessary . The researchers have uncovered paved wooden roads and four gate , as well as jewelry and an surprisingly well - keep carpenter ’s boxwood complete with planes and chisels . tree diagram rings from the timbers day of the month the fortifications to between 970 and 980 CE , during the reign of Harald Bluetooth .
The grounds suggest , however , that the fort fill a beastly end . The archaeologist found sign of the zodiac that the structure seems to have been attacked , with two of the gates having been significantly burned . Whoever was behind the dismissal of the fortification is still not recognise , but Harald Bluetooth did not ascend to the can without making at least some enemies .
The researchers suggestthat an old contention with Swedish Vikings may have had some bearings , as the fort is located within close proximity of the southern steer of Sweden . Not only that , but just decennium later there are reports that the Danish and Swedish battled it out on the icy Baltic Sea that separates the two country , not far from the pillaged fastness .
presently , this is purely speculation , but perhaps with time and further excavation , more could be gleaned about the circumstances of this once telling fortification .
