Jelling – med et lille af stik til Marokko og Iran

Her i juni måned summer atmosfæren af udgravningsfeltliv herinde i Ungdomshuset (NNU). Enten ved at kollegaer nedpakker graveudstyr til Grønland, eller de tager ud og besigtiger udgravninger i forbindelse med gravningen af den nye Metro, eller også er de allerede draget i felten, som min kollega Mads Dengsø Jessen, ansvarlig udgravningsleder på udgravningen i Jelling.

This picture shows Jelling from above. The red colour shows where the palisade was placed around Jelling during the Viking period. The white square shows were Mr. Jessen and his teams are going to dig this year. All the yellow sections show earlier excavations. Photo: Mads Dengsø Jessen.

Mads har siden 7. juni været i gang med gravningen som et led i forskningsprojektet på Nationalmuseet om Jelling, denne store magtkoncentration, en forestilling vi baserer ud fra de gedigne gravmonumenter som findes på stedet.

På oversigtkortet kan I nogenlunde danne jer et billede af, hvor i området Hr. Jessens team graver lige nu, og hvor der er fremkommet tre hustomter af Trelleborgtypen.

This is the first Kufic coin found at Jelling. (FP 6509) The coin is from the Idriss Dynasty, today’s Morocco. [Walila?”]A.H. [ca. 176-192] = 792-808 AD. The weight is 1.00 gr.This coins is also number five of these Idriss coins found here in Denmark. Photo: Nadia Haupt

Jelling er en yderst interessant plads og samtidigt med temmeligt komplekse anlæg. Enorme bygningskonstruktioner, gravanlægget, huskonstruktioner, samt palisaden rundt om selve Jelling-anlægget. Men samtidigt er området besynderligt fundtomt. På nuværende tidspunkt er der kun fremkommet to kufiske mønter, der begge er fra 800-tallet, men fra forskellige dynastier samt forskellige egne af Mellemøsten, nemlig Marokko og Iran.

Here in June, at NNU there is an atmosphere if excavations and fieldwork in the air. Some colleges have been packing their dig equipment for Greenland, other are inspecting excavations in connection with the construction of the new Metro in Copenhagen. And some of us are already in the field, for example Mads Dengsø Jessen, who is responsible for the excavations right now at Jelling, which is part of the research and publicity project at the National Museum of Denmark about Jelling.

Mads has been digging at Jelling since June 7th and the map shows where he and his team are going to excavate this season. Right now they have found tree Viking houses of the Trelleborg type. Here you can hear Mads himself talk about the excavation in Jelling (in Danish).

This Kufic coin was found last year during the excavation at Jelling. This coin has only been classified from this picture. It’s an Abbasid coin minted by Hârun al-Râshîd from al-Muhammadiyya (old Tehran) A.H. 193 = 808/9 AD. Photo: Vejle Museum.

Jelling is a very interesting settlement but at the same time very complex. We have these great constructions from the Viking period, such as the two burial mounds, house structures and the Palisade around the actual Jelling monument. But at the same time, this settlement is actually poor on metals objects, iron, silver and gold. Until now only two Kufic coins have been found, both of which are from the 7th century, and from different dynasties in two different corners of the Middle East; Morocco and Iran.