Lost and found: Viking Age human bones and textiles from Bjerringhøj, Denmark

Researchers stumbled upon a box of human bones that had been missing for 100 years. They may come from Viking-age royalty.

Ulla Mannering and Charlotte Rimstad are used to studying textiles, not bones. Since 2018, they’ve helped reconstruct Viking-age clothing at the National Museum of Denmark by analyzing fabric from ancient burial sites. But recently, they stumbled across a box of human remains.

These weren’t your average bones, they quickly realized.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘OK, we think we have the Bjerringhøj bones actually here,’” Mannering told Insider, referring to bones from the Bjerringhøj burial mound in northern Denmark.

The gravesite likely dates back to around 970 AD. This particular set of bones is believed to have been lost for more than 100 years.

See the full Antiquity article “Lost and found: Viking Age human bones and textiles from Bjerringhøj, Denmark.”