Scan Magazine
Culture
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Vejlemuseerne
Vejlemuseerne’s jaw-dropping cache of Iron Age gold, tales of trade and Viking Age alliances Giant sculptures, weaving workshops, an interactive digital museum and an entire Iron Age village: Vejlemuseerne (The Vejle Museums) may be full of historical relics, but a visit is every bit the modern experience. Now, the hybrid museum organisation is lifting the curtain on its latest offering: a major exhibition of Viking artefacts, dubbed Power and Gold. By Lena Hunter
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Photos: Vejle Museums
Power and Gold presents the never-before-told story of Viking-Slavic ties forged via travel and trade between Denmark and Poland. The narrative traces the rule of Harald Bluetooth, the King of the Jelling dynasty, his cultural encounters and political alliances. A staggering one-kilogramme cache of Iron Age gold dating back to the 500s, named ‘The Vindelev Hoard’, will also make its museum debut, after being dis82 |
Issue 145
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August 2022
covered – incredibly – by amateur metal-detectorists. It’s one of the largest ancient gold-hoards ever found in Denmark and grabbed headlines across the world when it was announced last summer. A fresh perspective “I’ve worked on the Viking exhibition for almost ten years. What’s exciting is that we’ve made Power and Gold in collaboration with Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus,” explains museum inspector
Charlotta Lindblom. “Usually, Viking exhibitions are about razing and pillaging and the spoils of war. This one isn’t about that. It’s about how Vikings traded and built alliances, and this exhibition in Vejle focuses particularly on Bluetooth’s alliances in Poland. There has never been an exhibition about that before. It’s a new side of the Vikings – the political side.”
