Plate 1: Vendsyssel in ancient times – an uninhabitable wasteland?
Adam of Bremen, a German monk (c. 1040-1081), is one of the most important sources of information about the geographical, political and ecclesiastical conditions in Denmark and the rest of the Nordic region in the period from c. 870 to 1070. Looking at a small excerpt from Adam’s description of Vendsyssel, the text reads as follows:
“Jutland converges at the tongue-shaped corner called Vendsyssel, and that is where Jutland ends. The soil there is barren; except for the stretches near a river, almost the entire area looks like a desert.”
“It is a salty and bare heath. While in Germany every region is covered by gloomy forests, Jutland is even more eerie, and people tend to avoid it, on land because of its infertility, and at sea because of the uncertainty posed by Vikings. It is hardly cultivated here and there, hardly suitable for human habitation. But where the sea embraces it, there are even large settlements.”
Adam thus describes Vendsyssel almost as a wasteland where people can barely live, with a few towns as exceptions. However, if we look at the archaeological finds, a somewhat different picture of Jutland emerges, and not least of Vendsyssel…
Plate 2: Archaeological finds of settlements around Jammerbugten
The map above shows a comprehensive selection of finds around Jammerbugten. The finds date from the Late Iron Age through the Viking Age and into the early Middle Ages. As the map shows, there has been far greater human activity in Vendsyssel than Adam of Bremen would have us believe!
Left: Excavation of a Viking hall in Hune, dating from around 900-1000. The hall was approximately 10 metres wide and 40 metres long. Photo: Nordjyske Museer.
Below: Visualisation of a Viking hall seen from the inside. The image was created using artificial intelligence.
Bottom: A family dwelling and a Viking hall: the centre of power in the settlements. The image was created using artificial intelligence.
Plate 3: The excavation at Sundhedshus Pandrup
Before construction of Sundhedshus Pandrup began in 2012, Nordjyske Museer carried out an excavation of the area.
Here, archaeologists found the remains of 12 buildings, the earliest dating from around 500 BC and the latest from around 1050 – the transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages.
The map at the top shows the excavation area, marked with a blue line. The map on the right shows the finds. The green dots show the longhouse found from around 1050.
The remaining dots represent older buildings and testify to significant activity in the area during various periods.
To the left: A cross-section showing what a longhouse from the Viking Age and the early Middle Ages might have looked like.
Bottom: A visualisation of what a settlement might have looked like in the Viking Age. The longhouse is the focal point of the settlement, surrounded by smaller dwellings and pit houses. The images were created using artificial intelligence.
Plate 4: Coastlines, water levels and trade routes
Denmark has a coastline that is approximately 8,750 km long.
The coastline changes constantly depending on the water level, and from the early Iron Age we have something as rare as an actual dated water level.
This can be found in the Kanhavakanalen on Samsø, where the water level in 726 AD was measured at plus 90 cm compared to today.
Other research shows that in several places in Northern Europe, water levels have been up to 3 metres higher than today, so it is certainly possible that this has also been the case at times for the Jammerbugt area.
The sea and waterways were of invaluable importance to the country and its entire population. There were often not many roads or bridges, so trade and contact with the world took place by ship.
Kanhavekanalen – A shortcut through Samsø. The 500-metre-long depression in the landscape cuts Samsø in two where the island is narrowest. Photo: Samsø Museum.
The map shows a selection of trade routes from the Nordic countries to the rest of the world during the Viking Age.
The sea level at that time was probably higher than today, which explains the location of villages and towns in what we now consider to be the mainland.
Typical imports included glassware, cloth (fabric), jewellery, wine, copper, tin and lead. Typical exports included furs, amber, walrus tusks, ships, slaves and woolen goods. Extremely rare items such as lapis lazuli (blue pigment) from Afghanistan have also been found in the Nordic region.
Plate 5: Far from the landscape we know today
When we raise the water level by three metres, a different Jammerbugt emerges. The blue markings on the map are now land areas, but in the Viking Age they were covered by water.
Areas that are now fields and towns were once fjord arms, wetlands and navigable routes. The water was not a boundary, but a connection: a prerequisite for trade, contact and movement in the Iron Age, Viking Age and early Middle Ages.
On the map, the water level has been raised by 3 metres. The blue areas were under water during the Viking Age. The map is a climate adaptation map showing the consequences of sea level rises and storm surges. Only areas that are currently connected to fjords, the sea and rivers are marked on the map, so it is likely that even more areas were under water during the Viking Age. Source: Klimatilpasning.dk.
Plate 6: Vendsyssel in ancient times – far from a wasteland!
Adam of Bremen described Vendsyssel as a “wasteland” – a remote and almost uninhabited part of the world. But the archaeological finds here in Jammerbugt tell a different story: people lived here, built ships, carved runes and created communities in the landscape.
The finds are more than just old traces of the past – they are traces of life, relationships and actions that have survived for over a thousand years. Vendsyssel was far from desolate; it was a place of life, community and adventure.
When you look a little deeper and further, you can see how the past is hidden in the landscape – and how much richer history becomes when we see and experience it with our own eyes.
History can also be experienced outside the museum setting. The runestones in the pictures are located in Hune Church and Jetsmark Church, respectively – and the runes on the stones are over 1,000 years old!
The text on the Hune stone reads: ‘Hove, Thorkil, Thorbjørn set their father Runulv den Rådsnilde’s stone’, and on the Jetsmark stone: ‘Hove set the stone after his brothers Thorlak and Ride’.