richard

Hodges TRAVELS to

Richard Hodges is President of

the American University of Rome.

photo: Trelleborg, the National Museum of Denmark

right The Viking round
fortress at Trelleborg, in western
Zealand, was excavated in the
1930s when it was threatened
with redevelopment as a
racing circuit. Today, it is one of
Europe’s iconic archaeological

denmark's
monuments. What lessons do
Denmark’s approaches to site
presentation hold for Tuscany?

viking fortress
A Tuscan Challenge

M
odern archaeology cannot turn a blind eye to
its importance in contemporary society. There
is a huge and growing appetite for visiting
archaeological sites as global tourism grows
at an extraordinary pace. So, although my
European Research Council project under the Tuscan sun does
not envisage a popular archaeological outcome for our main
excavations at Vetricella, there is nonetheless, a compelling need
to think about making something permanent at the site that will
attract tourists and serve the local community.
Of course, the name – Tuscany – equates in most minds to
tourism. Chianti-shire and San Gimignano, let alone Florence,
Pisa, and Siena, play host to millions in the summer months.
Unsurprisingly, the tourists tend to be drawn to honey-pots,
and smaller places miss out. Western Tuscany – the Maremma
– is typical in this sense. Some beaches are packed all summer;
hill-towns like Massa Marittima similarly. But the majority of
Maremma villages rarely attract more than a handful of the
curious who are either avoiding the crowds or taking advantage of
cheaper lodgings.
Which brings me back to our dilemma. Our project is
uncovering the earliest medieval origins of the metal extraction
industries, their commercial histories, and their importance
underpinning the extraordinary wealth of later medieval and

44 CurrentWorldArchaeology Issue 92

Renaissance Tuscany. The main excavation at Vetricella is a triple-
ditched fortress of an unusual, dare I say exceptional kind, once
situated close to a lagoon that opened out onto the Tyrrhenian
Sea. Our triple-ditched fortress was briefly one of Europe’s
9th-century marvels. The architect must have arrived with a piece
of rope and from a central compass point charged his work-force
with digging deep V-shaped ditches into the soft prehistoric
lagoon silts at 44, 88 and 132 Liutprand (early medieval Lombard)
feet from a central point. Quite why the precision was necessary
remains a mystery. Was the architect copying somewhere he
knew: circular fortresses in Flanders or the Rhineland, or even
the round city of Baghdad? Any conclusion will be speculation,
of course, and we’ll never really know his motives. But one thing
is certain: only a 9th-century aerial photographer would have
appreciated the symmetry.
Happily, the site is stuffed with finds: storage pottery vessels
galore, over a thousand iron tools, animal bones showing
a dietary preference for piglets, and a cemetery of many
malnourished infants and tall, well-nourished males. The
below The 1930s excavations at Trelleborg revealed that the interior contained the
postholes of Viking halls. After the digging concluded these holes were packed with
concrete, tracing out the remains of the distinctive structures.
www.world-archaeology.com
Skagerrak sweden
620N
Aggersborg
Kattegat
70W
Fyrkat
de n m ar k
TR AVEL denmark
Copenhagen
Trelleborg
Borgring
germany
left Under the right conditions, our
9th-century triple-ditched fortress looks
impressive from the air, but the archaeology
is less inspiring when viewed from across
the fields at ground level (inset). Could this
site be presented effectively to visitors?
documentary sources help us to shape an intriguing narrative
as coastal Tuscany found its feet in the late 1st millennium AD.
But truth be told, the ups and downs of the Tuscan kings and
their Aldobrandescini counts is hardly a Netflix saga. Italian
post-classical growing pains are not unlike Italian politics, full
of in-fighting and seldom as appealing as a good Tudor saga. So,
with little more than concentric ditches in a large ploughed field,
an academic narrative that connects Tuscan mines to the making
of the Mediterranean, and a good range of unglamorous artefacts,
is it really even worth thinking about presenting Vetricella and
its story to visitors? Who would invest in such a presentation?
Would visitors really come? Wouldn’t we do better to piggy-back
on an existing museum in nearby Massa Marittima or the nearest
village, Scarlino, with its monumental fortress?
Reluctantly facing up to the bare facts and fairly convinced that
the destiny of Vetricella is to be unceremoniously back-filled and
known simply to a small cadre of archaeologists and historians,
I pondered alternatives. That’s how I came to visit Harald
Bluetooth’s legacy in Denmark.
CurrentWorldA rchaeology 45
Trelleborg
The Danes have long valued their patrimony and, more to the point,
there is a strong tradition of bringing the past to life. The popular
archaeology magazine, Skalk, for years out-sold glossy rivals in
Britain, France or Italy. Unsurprisingly, re-enactment archaeology is
all the rage since a Viking hall was burnt down as an experiment at
Lejre decades ago. Archaeology is in the Danish blood.
My pilgrimage to seek ideas for Vetricella began at Trelleborg,
a round fortress in western Zealand. This is a canonical site in
European archaeology. It was excavated in the later 1930s by Poul
Nørlund when a local car society threatened to make it into a race
track. Once the dig began, Nørlund was astonished to discover
that the circular fortress contained the post-holes of bow-shaped
Viking halls arranged in four quadrants. The first explanation
for the martial precision of the place was that it was designed
by Sven Forkbeard as a jumping-off point for his invasion of
England in the late 10th century. This was unashamedly a
nationalist interpretation formulated during the dark years of the
Nazi occupation of Denmark. Nørlund went further, hence my
visit: he reconstructed one of the Viking houses, having already
placed cement in all the post-holes to provide a sense of the
topographical lay-out of Trelleborg. From these simple if daring
innovations much has happened.
Once recognized, other fortresses were soon found. Excavations
at peer fortresses at Fyrkat and Aggersborg in Jutland followed.
Thanks to dendrochronological dating, these subsequent above This reconstructed Viking hall is a masterpiece of carpentry and a relic
excavations showed that the system of round fortresses was earlier of 1930s attempts to understand how such buildings would have appeared. It
than Nørlund had believed. The new dates showed the architect is now known that the ring of outer posts resembling a colonnaded aisle was a
could not have been Sven Forkbeard, but his father, Harold means to reinforce the hall’s high walls.
Bluetooth with whom he had had a difficult relationship. Harold
reigned between c.958-87 and is best known for Denmark’s birth below Viking-style lifestyles can still be experienced in these reconstructed
certificate: the inscribed standing stones beside Jellinge church. buildings at Trelleborg. There, a community can play and cook, while warriors
still amble through the settlement (right).
Rather than the conquest of England, with the new dates, the first

46 CurrentWorldArchaeology Issue 92

interpretation was that the circular fortresses were Harold’s bold
efforts in building a Danish state, versions of King Alfred’s early
towns, the so-called burhs. Now, as I shall describe below, new
ideas are being thrown up and debated.
Irrespective of the history, Trelleborg set a benchmark. The
reconstructed Viking hall is a wonder of masterful carpentry. Like
their art and metalwork, these Vikings had an extraordinarily
rich culture. But Nørlund made one mistake. He reconstructed
the great hall with outer posts as if aisles ran along either side.
Subsequent studies soon showed these outer posts reinforced the
high bow-shaped walls.
above &BELOW The entrance to the archaeological park dedicated to the
recently excavated ring fortress at Borgring is perhaps a little unconventional for
a heritage site. From the viewing point, though, visitors can enjoy a sweeping
view over the park, with the former fortress site picked out with red steel
uprights in the middle distance.
www.world-archaeology.com
TR AVEL denmark
On my first visit in 1977, Trelleborg was a monument
surrounded by fields slipping down towards a shore. A decade
or so later the National Museum won funds to erect a museum
here. Subtly low in form, it does not intrude on the scale of the
fortress or the weathered Viking hall. Now, on returning with my
Tuscan mission in my mind, I am at first irritated to discover the
museum is closed (on Mondays!) but, a young man with a long
beard in Viking attire tells me, the site is open. Having completed
my pilgrimage I discover that behind the museum is a whole
community in reconstructed Viking-period dwellings. Children
are playing (with hoops not iPhone games) as mothers earnestly
attend to cooking on a reconstructed Trelleborg hearth. A
Viking warrior with his long spear and shield is ambling around,
nattering to all.
Trelleborg today serves different audiences. What Nørlund
would make of it, we can only speculate. What matters, though,
is that it lives in the minds of modern Danes. It is a gentle and
bucolic place where the militarism of the 10th century has been
eclipsed by the fascination for the civilized cultural life-ways of
the age.
Borgring
Over dinner later with Søren Sindbæk, Professor of Viking
archaeology at Aarhus University – a veteran of excavations at the
Viking circular fortress at Aggersborg, I begin by asking him if he
has had any vacation. A Tuscan villa with a pool, perhaps? Søren
smiles: he and his children spent a week re-enacting Vikings at
Lejre in Zealand. I could not conceal my quizzical look. ‘My kids
wanted to do it,’ he says defensively. ‘I thought it would be awful
but actually it was great fun. No cell-phones, no internet, only a
Viking community and Viking activities to pass the days, and the
days were filled – restfully.’ This modest intellectual looked like
someone who’d had therapy and was much the better for it.
Excavating at Aggersborg, the largest of the fortresses, planted
CurrentWorldA rchaeology 47

the seed in Søren’s mind that these fortresses were not for
planning attacks but refuges for a community menaced by
invasion. If so, if Harold Bluetooth was intent on safeguarding
his community, Trelleborg on the west coast of Zealand was not
sufficient. Another fortress was needed on Zealand’s exposed
eastern side. That was how he came to Borgring, close to
Køge on the coast, 60 kms south of Copenhagen. There, with
extraordinary inventiveness and Danish determination, working
with three colleagues, Søren has pulled off something worthy of
Nørlund’s legacy, and more to the point, this is a viable template
for my Tuscan puzzle at Vetricella.
Søren was making a television broadcast when I arrived at
Borgring. Actually, I drove past the site at first. The confection
of containers piled high simply did not fit with my notions of
an archaeological site. Still, google maps put me right and after
a warm welcome, I passed under a high viewing platform and
was presented with a wide gravel path aiming for a distant, low
bluff beyond a brook (where I could make out Søren and the film
crew). On the bluff was a hint of an earthwork given a post-
modern makeover by red steel uprights arranged in a large circle.
Advancing down the path in the summer sunshine, large panels
illustrated fortifications from the Cold War back to the Viking
age. Short texts did their work in giving me context. Bi-passing
the television team, I arrived below the low bluff. Here, huge
panels introduced the archaeologists in serious poses asking
reality television questions about Borgring. These explain how
the fortress was found and then, panels in which the four featured
archaeologists – including Søren, of course – debate its meaning
and significance. The effect is full frontal, but actually successful.
The archaeologists put questions into your mind as you stride up
to the bluff. Open excavations show that the rampart was low
without a ditch (unlike Trelleborg, for example). Here, though,
buildings were absent. Intriguingly after a short occupation the
fortified entrances were burnt down. Apart from a smith’s tool kit,
on display in the little exhibition at the entrance, finds were few.
Søren and his collaborators have published ample reports about
this intriguing fifth fortress. In plan it resembles the beginnings
of Trelleborg, but it never housed any militia. Instead, if Søren
below Søren’s point of view. Huge panels spell out what different
archaeologists make of Borgring and the wider fortress network, drawing
visitors into the ongoing debate about the wider implications of the site.
48 CurrentWorldArchaeology
Xxxx xxxxx xxxxx x xxxxxx
xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxx xxxxx
xxxxxxxx xxxxxx xx xxxxxx.
is right – and his peers debate with him about his ideas on the
huge panels – this was a refuge for the families left behind by
their menfolk as they took up defensive positions to confront
the militarism of the German emperor, Otto II who reigned from
973-83. Once the menace subsided, Borgring lost its purpose.
I am here on a Tuscan mission. I needed to understand how
this new park came about. Being part of a group of five fortresses
helps. So, too, does the intention to seek Unesco World Heritage
status for these Viking strongholds. This said, the outlay on the
entrance, its exhibition, the viewing platform, the trails, and
the site presentation (aside from the excavations) is impressive.
About a million euros has been invested in making this exemplary
research project into a place for visitors. The reality television
theme provides a puzzle to lure you around the trail in an informed
state of mind. Quite as important is the sense of place, contrived
by a skilful landscape architect. The path passing through vast
cultivated fields, the neatly channelled brook with its tufts of
foxgloves, and above all the exaggerated steel uprights shaped in
your mind to form the timber-lacing in the lost fortress rampart
work as well as the big ramparts and house plans at Trelleborg.
And who made all this possible? The containers at the entrance
are the clue. The A.P. Møller Foundation, a charitable arm of
Maersk, the global Danish shipping firm, provided the support
in honour of their Viking forebears. Visitors so far seem pleased.
Whether the park will last remains to be seen, but one idea, based
on the visitor experience so far, is that re-enactment days and
festivals attract thousands.
Could this be done in Tuscany? Would the Danish post-modern
concept cleverly hitched to modern scholarship work in the
Mediterranean? I wonder. There is so much competition for
visitors in Italy.
Bringing the Vikings into the 21st century, beyond
nationalism, beyond their legacy of piracy in popular media, is
hugely important. Europe today needs narratives that make its
community appreciate how diverse and strategic its founding
fathers were. Dwelling upon violence belongs to another age;
dwelling upon how families protected themselves and enjoyed
life in the Viking age deftly explains how these people had such
majestic architecture, and extraordinary metalwork, as well as
vaunting ambitions to be peerless explorers. This said, would I
ever attend a re-enactment, I ask myself as I head back to Italy,
having sent iPhone photographs of this spell-binding experiment
to my Tuscan friends?
Further information
Read more by Søren Sindbæk at http://sciencenordic.com/
danish-viking-fortresses-were-designed-fend-other-vikings and
for site information: https://www.visitkoege.com/ln-int/koege/
borgring-viking-castle-koege
Issue 92