New Viking 'ring fortress' is being unearthed and resembles others found in Denmark.
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A new Viking ‘ring fortress’ has been discovered, the first to be found in over 60 years, reported The Telegraph, Sept. 6. This is the fifth such site found and historians believe that this one and others may have been built by Sweyn Forkbeard. The sites may have helped Forkbeard to become the first Danish King of England.
Archaeologists from The Danish Castle Centre and Aarhus University made the discovery in fields of Vallø Estate, a manor house or castle near the Zealand seaport of Køge. The fortress is described as “massive” and was “built with heavy timbers and earthen embankments.”
Viking ‘ring fortresses’ are centuries old constructs that historians believe were facilities in which warriors trained for a takeover of England. The ring fortresses seem to be “unique to Denmark,” though Vikings have lived and trained in other countries.
The ring fortress has been dubbed “Vallø Borgring” (or the Vallø Ring Fortress) and resembles another found in the old market and railway town of Hobro. Vallø Borgring is the third largest known fortress of its kind. It is approximately 1560-square-feet in diameter and “consists of a 35-foot wide circular rampart surrounded by a palisade of wooden spikes.”
The site has not been completely unearthed, but the fortress's design resembles that of the other fortresses found to date. The fortress adheres to a “strict geometric pattern” that has four gates aligned with compass directions and a courtyard that is equally divided into four parts.
The four other fortresses have been dated to have been constructed during the reign of Harald Bluetooth in the late 900s. While some historians believe Bluetooth was the builder of these fortresses, others believe that the fortresses were in fact built by his son, Sweyn Forkbeard. If Forkbeard indeed built these fortresses, history will be rewritten.
This archeological discovery will help those who study it “gain new knowledge about Viking war and conflicts, and we get a new chance to examine the Vikings’ most famous monuments,” explained Søren Sindbæk a professor of medieval archaeology at Aarhus University. “The Vikings have a reputation as berserkers and pirates. It comes as a surprise to many that they were also capable of building magnificent fortresses.”
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
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