Hedeby was founded in 770 AD as an important Viking Age stronghold in Southern Jutland. Second to Birka in Sweden, it was the most important Viking trade center in Europe. Its old Norse name Heidabyr means heath settlement. It began as a series of jetties and workshops constructed by Danish Vikings - the first written records date from 804 AD. Hedeby was located at the crossroads of Saxon, Slavic and Frisian territories at the end of the Schlei River in a series of bays connecting to the Baltic Sea. The city quickly attained great wealth as a mercantile settlement with extensive trading ties to western Europe, Scandinavia, Slavic lands, the Byzantine east as well as the Arab World. Trade was flowing but these were dangerous times.

By 790 AD, the Franks were busy expanding northwards against the Frisians and Saxons. They were allied with the Slavic Obotrites who had defeated the Saxons in 798 AD at the battle of Bornhoved. The great Charlemagne, King of the Franks, handed over Saxon lands to the Obotrites putting them on the Danish doorstep. However the Danes had been preparing for such a challenge - behold the Danevirke - a combination of walls, ramparts and marshland running across the Jutland Peninsula built specifically to mark the end of Danish lands as well as keep out invaders. The ramparts were up to 5 meters high and about 30 km long and coupled with the impassable moorland further west his sealed off Jutland from the South.

In response to the arrival of the Obotrites, King Gudfred of Denmark extended the Danevirke fortifications and in 807 AD he led an invasion to destroy the Polabian Slavic settlement of Reric (of course relocating the merchants to Hedeby) and to kill the Obotrite leader Drozko. Gudfred proceeded to plunder the Frisian coast before dying himself a few years later. The Danevirke enabled the Viking metropolis Hedeby to grow as it secured the trade routes. By 1050 Hedeby was set ablaze by the Viking King Harald Hardrada during a conflict with King Sweyn II of Denmark. and what remained was razed by a Slavic army in 1066. Longships sunk to the bottom of the harbor and runestones toppled to the ground.

This same year marked the offical end of the Viking Age - the population was relocated to the other side of the river and the city of Schleswig was born. Our DNA spotlight samples are from exactly this time period. The Danevirke remains today as shown here and is the largest ground monument in Northern Europe. In 1163 Danish King Valdemar I extended the wall - up to 7 meters tall now - and once again the Danevirke secured the Danish border. Over the centuries that followed the walls would repeatedly be put to use during conflicts as recently as 1850. The Viking Museum is one of the most significant archaeological museums in Germany. Seven reconstructed houses from the Viking Age have been reconstructed directly on the site of Hedeby.