Vikingeborgen Nonnebakken i Odense. Status og perspektiver

Abstract

Until a few years ago, the Nonnebakken Viking fortress in the heart of Odense had been considered more or less eradicated by the modern city. However, new dedicated archaeological investigations in 2015 and 2017 indicated that the fortress, in several places, was extremely well-preserved with considerable potential for research and dissemination. With the help of experts from the research institute Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI ArchPro) at the University of Vienna in March 2019, an opportunity arose to have large areas of the fortress surveyed using ground-penetrating radar. The results were good and demonstrated with a high degree of probability the existence of the blocks of buildings characteristic of Harold Bluetooth’s other Viking fortresses. A minor excavation in August 2019 supported the interpretation of the results of the ground-penetrating radar. Concurrently with the new pioneering research results, work is currently in progress to present the fortress on site in a 1:1 scale, to give the finds from, and the history of, Nonnebakken more space at the museum, and to link the museum with Nonnebakken via a so-called Viking route through Odense. All in all, recent years’ efforts on the research and dissemination front have reclaimed Nonnebakken from virtual oblivion to the present efforts to make the fortress world heritage in a collective nomination including Harold Bluetooth’s other Danish Viking fortresses.

Publication
Årborg 2020