World Heritage Identification Number: 1553
World Heritage since: 2018
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇩🇪 Germany
Continent: Europe
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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The Archaeological Border Complex of Hedeby and the Danevirke: A Key Site for Understanding Viking Age Trade and Society
The Archaeological Border Complex of Hedeby and the Danevirke, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, offers a unique insight into the economic, social, and historical developments in Europe during the Viking Age. Located in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, this site consists of two distinct but interconnected components: the ancient trading town of Hedeby and the Danevirke, a line of fortifications that once separated the Jutland Peninsula from the rest of the European mainland.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
The archaeological site of Hedeby consists of the remains of an emporium – or trading town – containing traces of roads, buildings, cemeteries and a harbour dating back to the 1st and early 2nd millennia CE. It is enclosed by part of the Danevirke, a line of fortification crossing the Schleswig isthmus, which separates the Jutland Peninsula from the rest of the European mainland. Because of its unique situation between the Frankish Empire in the South and the Danish Kingdom in the North, Hedeby became a trading hub between continental Europe and Scandinavia and between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Because of its rich and well preserved archaeological material, it has become a key site for the interpretation of economic, social and historical developments in Europe during the Viking age.
Encyclopedia Record: Hedeby
Hedeby was an important Danish Viking Age trading settlement near the southern end of the Jutland Peninsula, now in the Schleswig-Flensburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Around 965, chronicler Ibrahim ibn Yaqub visited Hedeby and described it as "a very large city at the very end of the world's ocean."Additional Site Details
Area: 227.55 hectares
(iv) — Outstanding example of a type of building or landscape
Coordinates: 54.4619444444 , 9.4541111111
Image
© Matthias Böhm, CC BY-SA 4.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
