Kirke Hyllinge

Situated almost in the middle of Hornsherred peninsula, you get to route 53 via Kirke Hyllinge. Here, the Vikings lived in a safe location slightly inland, but with the advantage of access to the fjord and closeness to Royal Lejre. The Romanesque limestone church, from around 1100, is one of the oldest churches on Zealand. It was built on the highest point in the area (43m a.s.l.) and until the mid1960s, stood high in splendid isolation. In particular, the burial mound at the cemetery wall to the north catches the eye, and though much older than the Viking Age, it’s probably the reason why the Vikings buried their own dead here. In 2000, archaeologists excavated the area and this produced some new and fascinating observations regarding Viking burial customs. Conventional wisdom states that all Vikings were buried in or beneath a ship full of special grave gifts and then covered by a burial mound. But it seems this custom was only for the elite. A burial site for ordinary Vikings was found in Kirke Hyllinge. Here the Vikings buried their dead in a similar way to that seen in many other places in the Viking world: a high location that had been used as a burial site for over 1000 years. In total, the archaeologists found 28 tombs. The grave goods found indicate burial dates from the middle of the 700s to the early 900s. The grave goods given to the dead included knives, spindle whorls, whetstones, belt buckles and glass beads. There were also animal bones, almost certainly food gifts to the dead. The grave filling around the deceased contained small bones from animals and humans. This can be explained as a result of cremation practices prescribed according to Odin’s Law that were still prevalent in the early part of the Viking period. Finds from Kirke Hyllinge are on display at Roskilde Museum.