COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—Conservators Line Bregnhøi and Lars Holten of the National Museum of Denmark have reproduced the bold colors thought to have been used to decorate the largest Viking building known in Denmark, according to a Science Nordic report. The researchers analyzed samples of pigments taken from the remains of the building, known as the Royal Hall at Sagnlandet Lejre. “On the rare occasion that we excavate a piece of painted wood, the color looks nothing like the original,” explained archaeologist Henriette Syrach Lyngstrøm of the University of Copenhagen. Parts of the structure were painted with linseed oil paint, which was the most durable of the binding agents used by the Vikings, but they also used milk products and eggs as binders on other projects. For more, go to “The Viking Great Army.”
