A GIANT HALL FROM THE REIGN OF HARALD BLUETOOTH, KING OF DENMARK AND NORWAY FROM AD 958 TO 986, HAS BEEN FOUND BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS.
The find was uncovered during housing construction work close to the settlement of Hune, which is part of the Danish municipality of Jammerbugt, in North Jutland.
The hall is up to 40 meters long and 8 to 10 meters wide, and it likely serves as a significant location for political gatherings, for hosting visitors, and as the hub of social activity in the neighborhood.
The architecture is reminiscent of the Fyrkat in Hobro and the Aggersborg in Aggersund, two of Harald Bluetooth’s ring castles.
The hall is tentatively dated to the latter half of the ninth century or the very beginning of the eleventh century, but it was probably in use during the reign of Harald Bluetooth.
A rune stone close to the excavation site has a date that fits this time frame. The stone, which dates from between 970 and 1020, is located in Hune Kirke and is carved with the words “Hove, Thorkild, and Thorbjrn placed their father Runulv den Rdnilde’s stone.”
“This is the largest Viking Age find of this sort in more than ten years, and we have not seen anything like it here in North Jutland,” Thomas Rune Knudsen of the North Jutland Museums remarked.
Since structures of this kind rarely stand alone, the researchers suspect that further structures and features are still hidden beneath the surface to the east of the hall, where they have only been able to excavate a portion of it.
In order to date organic remains more accurately, excavations will resume in the new year. The findings of the Carbon-14 analysis should be available by the end of 2023.
