Archaeologists found Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures. They're improving our understanding of how wealthy Vikings once lived.

<p class="ingestion featured-caption">A drone view of archaeologists excavating a Viking-era burial site in Denmark.Reuters/Tom Little</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Archaeologists found 50 <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-researchers-find-lost-human-bones-viking-age-2021-5">Viking-era skeletons</a> in Åsum, Denmark.</li><li>Dating back to the 9th or 10th century, the graves are evidence of international trade.</li></ul><p>Near the village of Åsum in Denmark, people have been finding bits of metal from the Iron Age for years. They had no idea they were standing on the well-preserved graves of 50 <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/107-skeletons-found-in-1000-year-old-cemetery-in-ukraine">Viking-era skeletons</a>.</p><p>Archaeologists happened upon the graves during a routine survey last year in preparation for a construction project.</p><p>"Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons," Michael Borre Lundø, who has led the site excavation for the last six months, told the <a target="_blank" class href="https://apnews.com/article/denmark-viking-burial-archeology-skeleton-aasum-dna-b8c29620bb78fd618c1d0f345d4dddfb">Associated Press</a>.</p><p>Borre Lundø and his colleagues at the Museum Odense have dated the burial site back to the 9th or 10th century, more than 1,000 years ago.</p><p>In addition to the skeletons, the archeologists have uncovered <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/denmark-viking-coins-discovered-by-amateurs-on-metal-detector-vacation-2023-4">rare trinkets and treasures</a> buried with the bodies that help shine a light on their lives and socioeconomic status. For example, some of the jewelry did not originate in Denmark.</p><p>"As we suspected, the graves tell us a story of people connected to the <a target="_blank" class href="https://www.businessinsider.com/archeologists-find-remains-viking-ship-norwegian-burial-site-2023-11">international trade routes</a>," Borre Lundø told Business Insider via email.</p><p>These routes opened new avenues for exchanging goods, allowing the wealthy to acquire rare and prized items from other communities in distant lands and helped establish nearby Odense, the third-largest city in Denmark.</p>