Søren Michael Sindbæk – författare

When Trelleborg was excavated in the 1930s as the first of the great ring fortresses of the Viking Age, it was a true archaeological enigma. Why was it built, and by whom? Today we know that the strange, circular rampart at Slagelse was built under King Harald Bluetooth in the late 900s. Trelleborg, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has helped reshape our image of the Viking Age in Denmark. The book follows the work of the archaeologists from the first careful excavations and speculations to the sensational discoveries that have led to what we know today about Trelleborg. Viking-Age Ring Fortresses tells the fascinating story of five of the most important monuments of the Vikings in Denmark: Trelleborg, Aggersborg, Fyrkat, Nonnebakken and Borgring. The series is a story of our knowledge about the Viking Age, and at the same time it focuses on the questions and riddles that the fortresses still hold.

Aggersborg. Viking-Age Ring Fortresses tells the fascinating story of one of the five most important monuments of the Vikings in Denmark. The ring fortresses were built under King Harald Bluetooth in the late 900s. This book follows the archaeologists who uncovered the history of the largest of the fortresses – Aggersborg. In 1945 a researcher sat studying an archaeological survey at the National Museum in Copenhagen. The circular earthwork on the plan looked exactly like the strange Viking Age fortress that had been excavated at Trelleborg ten years earlier, but this stronghold was twice as large. Excavations showed that the earthwork on the plan was indeed a ring fortress like Trelleborg. When the 'new' ring fortress Aggersborg was discovered, one of the greatest mysteries in Danish history grew even bigger. What was the purpose and why were they built? Aggersborg is placed in North Jutland close to Norway, and this may be the key to size of this circular giant.

In late Antiquity, archaeology demonstrates lively and far-flung exchange along the river Dniester, through current Poland to the Baltic. By the 11th century the former Barbaricum had been transformed into a string of Christian kingdoms and principalities, whose parallel histories are as conspicious as their differences. From the legendary (if possible real) migrations of the Goths in Antiquity to the Varangian guard at the imperial court of Byzantium in the late Viking Age, trans-cultural interaction complemented important historical development. This book is about aspects of the changing interactions from late Antiquity to the High Middle Ages, from Goths to Varangians, and from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The history and archaeology of these connections have been poorly exposed and investigated in modern times. The papers presented in this volume are a selection of those presented during a series of four meetings organised 2007-2009 by the "Varangian Network", an interdisciplinary network for archaeological and historical research on relations between the Baltic and the Black Sea from late Antiquity to the medieval period.