Borgring

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Viking castle Borgring
Borrering in an aerial photo on the E47 west of Køge on Køge Å

Borrering in an aerial photo on the E47 west of Køge on Køge Å

Alternative name (s): Borrering, Borgerring, Borring, Burgring, Lellinge Ringborg, Vallø Borgring
Creation time : Middle Viking Age
Castle type : Niederungsburg
Conservation status: small wall remains
Construction: Palisades, gates, ramparts (and ditches)
Place: Lellings
Geographical location 55 ° 28 '10.8 "  N , 12 ° 7' 20.6"  E Coordinates: 55 ° 28 '10.8 "  N , 12 ° 7' 20.6"  E
Borgring (Denmark)
Borgring

Borgring (also Borrering or Vallø Borgring - not to be confused with Troldborg Ring in Vejle Ådal) is a Viking Age ring castle near the town of Køge on the Danish island of Zealand .

The first excavations took place in 1971/72. Initially, the site was dated to the Iron Age of Denmark based on finds in the ground ; in 2014, new excavations and dendrochronological investigations revealed a date to the 10th century. It could thus have been built during the reign of Harald Blauzahn , possibly also under his predecessor or successor.

Location and execution

The Viking castle was built on a hill by a small fjord that was navigable until the Middle Ages . The circular rampart has an outer diameter of 145 meters, the rampart itself reached a width of about 11 meters and was crowned by a palisade . Equipped with V-shaped trenches and four gates (two of which have been exposed), Borgring corresponds to the " Trelleborg type ".

The archaeologists Nanna Holm from the Danish Center for castle research and Søren M. Sindbæk from the University of Aarhus analyzed in 2013 new precision laser measurements ( LiDAR scans ) of a terrain from which they assumed that it could be a candidate for a Viking Age fortress. Sindbæk, who is mainly researching the Viking castle Aggersborg , had previously argued that another facility on the island of Zealand has not yet been discovered. At Lellinge it seemed to be the right place in the landscape: Holm pointed to a place where two old main routes merged and ran in the river valley of the Køge towards a navigable fjord in the Viking Age and one of the best natural harbors in Zealand.

In the summer of 2014, Sindbæk and Holm, supported by Helen Goodchild from the University of York in England , then examined the almost invisible survey. Sindbæk's assumption was finally confirmed geophysically : with Goodchild's gradiometric measurements with the magnetometer , the archaeological structures of the wall were recorded. A detailed computer model was created within a few days, which helped the archaeologists to determine targeted excavations. The excavations confirmed the circular wall remnants, stable wooden paneling along the front and massive wooden gates. Archaeologists uncovered two of the gates. It was found that the gates had been destroyed by fire: massive charred oak posts were found at the north gate.

Dating

Borgring was dated to the 10th century using the C14 method . The samples used come from the outermost tree rings of the charred oak posts from the north gate of the facility. The results of both samples are almost identical: the castle complex was built between 900 and the beginning of the 11th century. The C14 dating was done by the AMS 14C Dating Center at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University in Denmark, in close collaboration with the Accium Biosciences laboratories in Seattle , USA.

Naming

In Denmark, the naming of archaeological sites is carried out by the research institute that is entrusted with the initial archaeological development. The place where it was found has been known as Borgerring / Borgring since the 19th century ; Since it is now owned by Vallø Abbey , Vallø became part of the name of the castle complex. The nearby village of Lellinge also wanted to be mentioned, as did the municipality of Køge ; however, neither was heard.

After thorough research of old maps and databases, the Danish monument authority decided the dispute over a local name addition. Since October 2014 the name of the newly discovered Viking castle Borgring has been set. The short, simple name is correct and, according to the authorities, matches the names of the other Viking castles.

Research history

The original field name Borrering reveals that the existence of a ring wall was still known in the 19th century. It was recorded on a cadastral map by King Christian V as early as 1682 . It can also be found on a map by Lellingegaard from 1805. Sophus Müller , a Danish prehistorian who began to systematically record the antiquities of Denmark, recorded the corridor in the 19th century. However, the designated area and the actual place of discovery differ from each other by a few hundred meters because the exact location in the area was no longer recognizable for contemporaries.

From 1971 to 1972 Thorskild Ramskou from the Danish National Museum led excavations. An exact dating of the ramparts itself was not possible at that time. The traces of settlement and backfilling found were dated to the early Roman Empire (1st – 3rd centuries).

About forty years later, while working on a book on Aggersborg , Sindbæk noticed that the location of the other Viking ring castles followed a clear pattern: the Trelleborg-type castles are usually a day's walk, about 30–40 kilometers, apart. This suggested that there must be a previously neglected castle complex in the east of the island of Zealand. In May 2013, Holm and Sindbæk started the search, and the rediscovered Borgring facility is actually located in the assumed distance from the Trelleborg near Slagelse .

Excavations began in mid-September 2014. Investigations by the Danish Center for Castle Research and Aarhus University, supported by Helen Goodchild from York University , showed that Borgring can be dated to the 10th century. The remains of burned-down gates have also been found, which may be due to armed conflicts.

Further excavations took place from 2015 to 2018. It was u. a. found that, unlike other Trelleborg-type castles, there were no buildings inside.

Visitor center

A visitor center with a viewing platform and a replica of the ramparts was built. A smartphone app gives further impressions on site. The visitor center is open daily between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the summer quarter (June, July and August). The visitor car park is at Ringstedvej 150, 4600 Køge .

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b c Derfor hedder Vikingeborgen Borgring. (No longer available online.) Kulturstyrelsen , October 10, 2014, archived from the original on October 17, 2014 ; Retrieved August 17, 2017 (Danish). On the name Borgring, see also: Lisbeth Eilersgaard Christensen: Stednavne som kilde til yngre jernalders centralpladser ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Dissertation (Ph.d. afhandling) 2010, pp. 147–158 and p. 233 (PDF, 1.4 MB, Danish), accessed on December 31, 2014.
     @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nfi.ku.dk
  2. ↑ a b Cf. Danmarks Borgcenter : Has one of Harald Bluetooths fortresses come to light? Danmarks Borgcenter , November 17, 2014 (DOCX, 17 kB), accessed on December 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c See press release from the Danish Center for Castle Research. Enigmatic Viking Fortress discovered in Denmark . Danmarks Borgcenter , September 3, 2014 (PDF 59.4 kB), accessed on December 31, 2014.
  4. ↑ Angelika Franz: Archaeologists uncover the newly discovered Viking castle . Spiegel Online , September 9, 2014 (German), accessed December 31, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b c See Lisbeth Ammitzbøll: De jagter en trelleborg . magisterbladet.dk , October 8, 2014 (Danish), accessed December 31, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b Denmark has fået en ny Vikingeborg ved Køge. In: Videnskab. September 5, 2014 (Danish), accessed December 31, 2014.
  7. ^ A b Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan: Archaeologists Just Discovered a 1,000-Year-Old Viking Fortress. In: Gizmodo. August 9, 2014 (English), accessed December 31, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b See on finding the name Navnet på vikingeborgen . September 5, 2014 (Danish), University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, accessed December 31, 2014; Borgring was first codified by Sophus Müller in 1875, although no reliable data is available. For the name of the hall, see also: Lisbeth Eilersgaard Christensen: Stednavne som kilde til yngre jernalders centralpladser ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nfi.ku.dk archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Dissertation (Ph.d. afhandling) 2010, pp. 147–158 and p. 233, (PDF, 1.4 MB, Danish), accessed on December 31, 2014.
  9. ^ Nicola Brandt and Jørn Sørensen: Navnekrig om vikingeborg . (Name war for the Vikingerborg.) Danmarks Radio , October 1, 2014 (Danish), accessed on December 31, 2014.
  10. ↑ Local arkiv raser over navn på vikingeborg . Daily newspaper, September 9, 2014 (Danish), accessed December 31, 2014.
  11. ↑ Vallø Stift ser turismemuligheder. Daily newspaper, September 5, 2014, p. 17, (Danish).
  12. ↑ Anders Petersen: Vallø og Omegn. En historisk Skildring. Copenhagen 1877, p. 252 (Danish: archive.org ).
  13. ↑ Danmarks Stednavne - Borrering (0221. Højelse s., Ramsø h.) (Danish).
  14. ↑ See Harald Andersen: De glemte borge . In: Skalk 1, 1992, pp. 19-30, (Danish).
  15. ↑ Stednavne som kilde til centralpladskomplekser i Danmark. (Place-names as a source of information on central-place complexes in Denmark.) In: Namn och bygd 99. 2011, pp. 66-67, Fig. 5, kgaa.nu ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2014 in Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, 10.2 MB, Danish), accessed December 31, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kgaa.nu
  16. ^ Kulturstyrelsen - Fund og Fortidsminder, Borgerring (ved Lellinge). In: Kulturstyrelen. (Danish), accessed May 1, 2019.
  17. ↑ See Ny vikingeborg er dukket op ved Køge. ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Jyllands-Posten. September 4, 2014 (Danish), accessed December 31, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / jyllands-posten.dk
  18. ↑ official website for the excavations , accessed on August 20, 2018.

Web links

Commons : Borrering  - collection of images, videos and audio files