AARHUS, DENMARK—According to a statement released by the Moesgaard Museum, more than 50 burials have been discovered near the eastern coast of the Jutland peninsula in what was once the Viking town of Aros. Some of the graves are estimated to date to the tenth century a.d. A cemetery was established at the site in the twelfth century and linked to St. Oluf’s Church, which collapsed in 1548 during a storm. The cemetery remained in use into the early nineteenth century. “The cemetery marks the tangible entry of Christianity into the city at the end of the Viking Age and the beginning of the Middle Ages—a transition that is clearly reflected in burial customs,” said archaeologist Mads Ravn of the Moesgaard Museum. Scientists at the museum will examine the skeletons and samples of the bones will be radiocarbon dated. To read about excavations of a medieval cemetery in Denmark's oldest town, go to "Secrets of Life in the Soil."
