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LiveScience
LiveScience
Perri Thaler

Viking Age burial of chieftain with 'enormous power' found in Denmark — and he may have served Harald Bluetooth

A bird's-eye view of an excavation team digging in soil.

Archaeologists in Denmark have discovered 30 Viking Age graves likely of an elite family that may have served under Harald Bluetooth, the famed king of Denmark and Norway who ruled during the 10th century. The remarkable graves contained coins, pearls and ceramics, according to a translated statement from Moesgaard Museum, which ran the excavation.

Burials from the Viking Age (A.D. 793 to 1066) are not uncovered very often, Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg, an archaeologist at the museum and excavation leader at the burial site, told Live Science in an email. Most graves from this time are found with few or no grave goods, she added. These newly unearthed burials in Lisbjerg, near Aarhus, however, came with an unusual number of lavish items, suggesting that the people buried in them were prosperous and of high status.

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