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Press Room: New dates for Viking trade

About the new research result

An interdisciplinary Danish team of researchers has used new astronomical knowledge to establish an exact time anchor for the arrival of trade flows from the Middle East in Viking-age Scandinavia. The results are published in the leading international journal Nature.

Read the press release

Press photos

Professor Søren M. Sindbæk has directed the Northern Emporium project in the emporium Ribe, Denmark. The archaeological stratigraphy of the sites has secured an improved understanding of global trade flows in the Viking Age. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

The Northern Emporium Project excavated parts of the main street and a plot with houses and workshops in the Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark. The excavations followed the stratigraphy of floors and waste deposits metriculously in order to trace the changing activities and arrival of trade goods at the site. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

The Viking-age emporium Ribe, Denmark, has preserved an extremely detailed stratigraphy of housefloors, workshops and waste deposits from the period c. 700 – c. 900 CE. This has enabled the researchers in the Northern Emporium Project to chart the arrival of trade goods during the time when Viking-Age sea-trade emerged. The layers next to the hand of the archaeologist in the centre of the picture is where the 775 CE Miyaki event is detected by radiocarbon dating. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

A selection among more than 3000 glass beads found at the Northern Emporium project’s excavations in the emporium at Ribe, Denmark. The beads are sorted from oldest from c. 700 CE (bottom) to youngest from c. 900 CE (top). Segmented beads and other types imported from the Middle Eastern begin to appear in the middle rows, after c. 790 CE. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

A selection of imported glass beads from the late eighth and early ninth century CE found in the emporium at Ribe, Denmark. As the new study shows, local glass bead production was largely replaced by long-distance imports around 790 CE. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

A selection of so-called segmented beads found at the Northern Emporium project’s excavation in the emporium at Ribe, Denmark. These are some of the hundreds of beads imported from the Middle East, which began to appear in Ribe after c. 790 CE. Photo: The Museum of Southwest Jutland

The Aarhus AMS lab is a leading facility for radiocarbon dating. Thousands of samples are analysed every year to contribute new research in archaeology, astronomy and environmental history.

Revised 28.02.2022

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Radomir Gluhovic