A 1000-year-old Viking toolbox has been discovered by scientists inside a mysterious, ring-shaped fortress in Denmark. A set of extraordinary iron tools has been found inside the toolbox. It appears the tools may have been used in making ships, jewelry and houses:
A 1000-year-old Viking toolbox has been Found by scientists inside a mysterious, ring-shaped fortress in Denmark.
A set of extraordinary iron tools has been Discovered inside the toolbox.
It appears the tools may have been used in making ships, jewelry and houses.
The tenth -century Danish king Harald Bluetooth is believed to have ordered the construction of the fortress.
Specialists said now only traces of the wooden chest that once held the tools have remained.
At least 14 iron tools from a gatehouse building of the fortress were unearthed by archaeologists.
A craftsman lived in a workroom in the gatehouse until it collapsed in the late tenth century, said researchers, adding, the tools may have belonged to him.
A few sophisticated hand tools and other metal items were identified by the researchers.
The tools include a set of ‘spoon drills’ utilized to make holes in timber; a pair of tweezers or small pliers; a ‘clink nail’ used to fasten wooden planks together.
4 chains links attached to an iron ring, and a drawplate to make metal wires that may have been used in jewelry.
Nanna Holm, a curator at the Danish Castle Centre, who is leading the excavations of the ringed-shaped fort, said that this is the first occasion that an entire set of tools has been discovered in a Viking workplace.
“Not many tools are Discovered in Scandinavia, but the others found before this have all been left for the gods, by being put down in a swamp,” Holm told Live Science.
The newfound tools are special because they were found where the craftsman would have been working, she said.
“That is why it is so exciting for us to see what’s inside because we can see what one man has used at this specific site,” Holm added.
The cache of iron tools was first located by amateur archaeologists using a metal detector near the eastern gate of the buried fortress at Borgring.
