AARHUS, DENMARK—A new study suggests that the coastal town of Ribe, the oldest town in Scandinavia, is older than had been originally thought. “If Ribe began as a city in the early 700s, then it was long before the Vikings and thus casts new light on our understanding of this period,” Sarah Croix of Aarhus University told The Copenhagen Post. She reviewed archaeological data collected in the 1980s by archaeologist Stig Jensen, who died before compiling the results of his partial excavation of a house on St. Nicholas Street. Croix found that tools, such as millstones for grinding grain, show the wear and tear of daily use. She thinks additional houses, perhaps with fire places, could be found nearby, indicating that Ribe was a more permanent habitation site, in addition to being a harbor and commercial area. To read in-depth about the oldest evidence for Viking raiding in the Baltics, see "The First Vikings."
