Bornholm energy island construction uncovers Viking-era homes

Archaeologists on southern Bornholm are excavating hundreds of homes spanning 6,000 years of history before the site is buried under a transformer station for the island’s renewable energy project, DR reports.

The team of 13 archaeologists, led by Jens Berthold of Bornholm Museum, is working to document settlements from the Neolithic era through the Viking Age. The 21-hectare site, previously used for grain, rapeseed, and corn fields, contains nearly 500 houses from the Late Iron Age to the Viking period, with possible traces of early medieval activity.

Excavations have already uncovered postholes from a Viking-era house, with further digs expected to reveal structures from the Younger Iron Age. Earlier surveys had identified the settlements, but full-scale excavation is now underway.

Berthold called the dig—Bornholm’s largest to date—a rare opportunity to reconstruct population and settlement patterns across millennia. Unusually, few graves have been found, though burned bones from the Neolithic era, roughly 5,000 years old, have surfaced.

Fieldwork will continue through next year, with all archaeological investigations for the energy island project set to conclude by 2028.