PNM vol. 20.5 Jelling – The Romanesque Stone Church

Magnetometer surveys and resumed excavations in Jelling, Jutland (Denmark) have indicated that the Viking-Age monuments, since 1994 a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were far more extensive that had previously been believed. The discoveries had implications also for the interpretation of the central area of the complex between the two great mounds, that were traditionally associated with King Gorm and his queen Thyra in the tenth century.

This included the building sequence that had been identified beneath the Romanesque Stone Church in previous research campaign in the 1940s and 1970s. A building-archaeological investigation of the stone church and a new analysis of the early-medieval frescoes were therefore included in the research agenda of the Jelling Project undertaken by the National Museum of Denmark in collaboration with the local museum and partners from the universities of Aarhus and Copenhagen.

Both initiatives involved digitisation of data from the previous investigations and underlined the potential of the old documentation of the church and its frescoes in the National Museum archives. Other studies focus on the use of calcareous tufa as a building material for medieval churches and the transition from the use of wood to stone. In addition, the relationship between medieval churches and ancient mounds of the past are examined, including the reuse of mounds as platforms for timber-built bell frames.