Viking woman’s clothes preserved by her jewellery for 1,300 years

Credit: Arkæologi Vestjylland Danish archaeologists have unearthed rare textile remains from a Viking woman's grave near Varde, in the heart of Western Jutland. During excavations at the Skonager site (ARV 661), a team of archaeologists discovered a Viking Age burial in which fragments of clothing survived against all odds. This discovery gives a rare glimpse into Viking dress from around 1,300 years ago. The fragments of wool and linen were still preserved, thanks to the two brooches that once fastened the clothing of the Viking woman. Radiocarbon dating will now determine whether she wore a newly woven dress with a repaired family heirloom, or if both pieces belonged to the same era.When metal became a time capsuleCredit: Arkæologi VestjyllandThe discovery at Skonager in Western Jutland, Denmark, has given researchers something almost impossible to find: textile scraps from an 8th-century burial, preserved not in some ideal climate-controlled cave but in soil so acidic it normally dissolves cloth to nothing. So what prevented this? It turns out that metal became the time capsule. The two scoop brooches, with their concave shape, did the heavy lifting. The bronze and silver corrod...