South
Sweden Tour - Day 28
After having bad luck visiting the Viking Museum in Sweden, we drove the 30 kilometers from Satrup to Busdorf this morning and visited the Haithabu Viking Museum there.
First, we were in the exhibition and then in the outdoor area, where the Viking houses were set up.
The Haithabu Viking Museum is one of the most significant archaeological museums in Germany. In 2018, UNESCO designated the Viking Age trading site and the border structure Danewerk as a World Heritage site. The exhibition hall and the seven reconstructed houses located on the historical grounds vividly illustrate how people lived there in the early Middle Ages.
Haithabu was a significant settlement of Danish or Swedish Vikings. The site is considered an early medieval town in Northern Europe and was an important transshipment point for long-distance trade between the Baltic region, Scandinavia, and Western Europe. It was founded around 770 and destroyed by 1066 at the latest.
From the outset, the conditions for the work of archaeologists in Haithabu were favorable: the site had never been built over, and due to the moisture, the areas near the shore were still very well preserved, allowing the excavation field to reveal many details. In 1897, Danish archaeologist Sophus Müller hypothesized that the area within the semicircular wall was the settlement site of old Haithabu. This was confirmed by Johanna Mestorf in 1900. She initiated the first excavations within the wall, and the initial findings supported the hypothesis.
Since 1959, the entire southern settlement in front of the semicircular wall, as well as a large part of the old settlement core within the semicircular wall, has been excavated. The investigation of the 11-hectare harbor basin was also advanced. Successful diving expeditions occurred in 1953, during which further remains of the harbor palisade and the wreck of the Viking ship Haithabu 1 were discovered. In 1979, it was recovered after the construction of a salvage structure.
Haithabu is the best-researched early medieval harbor in Germany.
After our visit, we headed a bit further towards home.
For one night, we have now landed at the Elbe riverbank near Hamburg.
