Cool Finds

Archaeologists in Denmark Discover Rare Fragments of 1,300-Year-Old Clothing Preserved Inside a Viking Age Grave

Researchers found the textile traces on a pair of metal brooches. When the accessories corroded, they released metallic salts that inadvertently preserved the fabric for centuries

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

August 31, 2026 10:52 a.m.

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Archaeologists in Denmark have uncovered a rare find: a Viking Age grave containing clothing fragments that have survived for roughly 1,300 years.

The burial is located near Varde, a historic market town in southwestern Jutland, at the Skonager archaeological site. In 2024, excavations at Skonager revealed a cemetery where people of all ages had been buried alongside grave goods such as iron knives and glass beads.

Researchers found the fabric scraps in a grave that held two oval brooches strongly associated with Viking Age women’s dress. According to a Facebook post from Archaeology West Jutland, traces of textiles clung to both the front and back of the jewelry. As the metal used to craft the brooches corroded, it released salts that inadvertently preserved the fabric fragments. The textiles’ positioning on the brooches may help archaeologists determine whether they came from different layers of clothing and perhaps even how those garments were arranged.

Surviving Viking Age clothing is extremely rare, with most physical evidence limited to “small pieces of material preserved by chance,” the National Museum of Denmark notes on its website. “Our knowledge about Viking clothes is supplemented by written sources, as well as clothes depicted on small figures and tapestries.”

To learn more about the Skonager fabric remnants, the archaeologists have recruited textile expert Lise Ræder Knudsen. She will investigate the weaving techniques used to create the material, as well as its possible pattern.

The researchers also plan to use radiocarbon dating to estimate the textiles’ age. One of the brooches found in the grave shows signs of repair, suggesting it might be a family heirloom that is far older than the fabrics.

Ulla Mannering and Charlotte Rimstad, researchers at the National Museum of Denmark who lead the Textile Colors of the Viking Age project, will analyze the samples to identify any remaining traces of pigment.

As Mannering writes in an overview of the project, “Wool pigmentation and the use of fiber colors in textiles is a method as old as weaving technology in Denmark.” Although archaeological evidence for Viking Age textile dyes and color use is fragmentary, surviving finds indicate that both dyed textiles and naturally pigmented wool were part of Scandinavian textile culture.

In Denmark, the Viking Age is usually dated to between 800 and 1050 C.E. It was a period of extensive Scandinavian trade, migration, settlement, seafaring and raiding across Europe and the North Atlantic. Viking Age communities also farmed, raised livestock, fished, and produced textiles and other goods that sustained everyday life.

Archaeologists know that Viking clothing varied according to gender, age and economic status. Most clothing was made from wool and flax woven by Viking women. Men typically wore trousers and tunics, while elite women wore dresses over undergarments, with oval brooches securing the straps.

The fragments from Skonager represent only the faintest traces of a much larger textile economy. At Søften, another site in Jutland, archaeologists recently uncovered an enormous Viking textile-production site dated to between 600 and 950 C.E. The settlement boasted an area for processing flax; excavations also unearthed spindle whorls and loom weights.

As archaeologist Michèle Hayeur Smith told Scientific American’s Francine Russo in 2022, textiles were fundamental to Viking communities’ ability to withstand the harsh climate of the North Atlantic.

“Textiles and what women made were as critical as hunting, building houses and power struggles,” Hayeur Smith said.

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.