Aerial photos have revealed the location of Gammelborg, the Iron Age fort that was replaced by Nyborg Castle in Funen over 800 years ago.
The long-standing mystery was solved when the aerial photos revealed circle-shaped mounds near the village of Vindinge, just outside Nyborg, prompting archaeologists from Østfyns Museer to dig in the area.
”Vindinge was an infrastructural centre of the kingdom with easy access to the sea by the exit of Funen's most water-rich stream,” Janus Møller Jensen, the inspector from Østfyns Museer, said in a statement.
”The discovery and dating of Gammelborg near Vindinge make the hypothesis that we had a royal centre in east Funen – long before Nyborg Castle was established at the end of the 1100's – far more likely.”
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Important Viking hub
Carbon-14 testing of the digs showed traces of a palisade (a defensive structure made of wood) dating back to the late Iron Age in the 5th and 6th century. The results also showed that the fort was used during the Viking era.
There were no traces found within the mounds of the structure that indicated that the fort was used as a place of refuge, such as when enemies were attacking.
Additionally, the find suggests that Vindinge was an important town during the Viking era, in terms of trade and power.
