Published On 7/6/2026
For centuries, the Viking people were viewed as fearsome invaders who terrorized Europe and ruled the seas until their stories mixed with legends. However, recent and successive discoveries by archaeologists have gradually revealed facts that revealed another facet of these peoples that was no less prosperous than their European neighbors. Indeed, they were the first to make many discoveries.
Today, the city of Soften – located ten kilometers north of Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark on the Jutland Peninsula – reveals new facts that may prompt a radical review of the lives of the Viking peoples and their international network of relationships, including with the Middle East region in ancient times.
Craftsman weaving center
In contrast to the history of the Viking Age, which is filled with accounts of raids and theft of peoples and lands, excavations at the sprawling site in which scientists excavated in Soften indicate the remains of a huge craft complex, extending over an area estimated at approximately 100,000 square metres, and containing production facilities that can be clearly identified, according to what experts from the Moesgaard Museum examined, including:
- Special area for processing linen.
- A large number of loom weights, spindle axes, glass beads and pottery.
- More than 80 houses semi-buried in the ground were used as workshops and residences.
According to the excavations, archaeologists attributed the history of the site to the beginnings of the Viking Age, which, according to historians, extended between the years 793 and 1066 AD.
Museum experts believe that the discoveries indicate that textile production at the site was likely carried out in quantities that far exceeded the needs of the local population, as they appear across the entire production chain from fiber processing to the final fabric.
Casper Andersen, a historian at the Moesgaard Museum, said in a comment to the Euronews network that the discoveries in Soften are a “new piece” to understanding the “puzzle” of the local economic, cultural and political structure at that time.
To understand this interconnection, the city of Aarhus, near the town of Sofiten – which was known in ancient times as Aros – was a center for the royal family and international trade. A year ago, scientists discovered another site 4 kilometers away, which was likely home to members of the nobility.
It is therefore widely believed that goods and resources were most likely brought from the countryside and settlements such as Sofiten, before being marketed within a vast international trade network. This sheds light on an aspect of the Vikings’ foreign connections and trade relations.
Knights of the sea
These relationships contradict what many people have about the stereotype of bloodthirsty bandits, and the fact that the word “Viking” in the Old Norse language symbolized sea knights and sea expeditions seeking money.
In confirmation of this, researcher Andersen says – based on Soften’s discoveries – that the Vikings “were not just primitive, uncivilized hordes roaming Europe.” This is evidenced by the size of the production and marketing plans in the craft complex in Soften, which go beyond the local market to broader foreign markets.
Researchers at the site found Arab coins whose origins date back to the Middle East, in addition to coins dating back geographically to present-day France and Germany, which confirms that the people of Sofiten were part of vast trade networks that extended as far as Asia.
Returning to a documentary broadcast by Al Jazeera entitled “The Viking Age” as part of the “Historical Scenarios” series, it is clear that the movement of commercial ports and the beginning of their prosperity occurred at the end of the second century AH/eighth AD, with the exchange of seal skins, walrus tusks, and slaves as currencies with European kingdoms, before the Scandinavians expanded eastward in search of new trade routes and found themselves on the way to Constantinople and Baghdad.
Despite the importance of the discoveries announced so far, experts at the Moesgaard Museum still need more reliable information to answer some questions, such as the type of textile products in Soften, whether the Vikings were active on the Silk Road, and what markets they actually dealt with other than their exchanges with European kingdoms.
It is expected that the analysis of the discoveries will continue for several more months before these and other questions are answered.
