Until quite recently it was universally accepted that Aarhus was founded as a town around the year 900. However, new excavations within the old ramparts in central Aarhus have revealed that the Vikings had actually arrived in Aarhus far earlier than this. In the area around the small ’Pustervig Torv’ square, archaeologists have found the remains of a Viking settlement dated to as far back as circa 770, thus moving the year on the city’s "birth certificate" back at least 100 years. This means that Aarhus is one of Scandinavia’s oldest cities – although Ribe in South Jutland still retains the title as Denmark’s oldest town.

If you ask Curator Jan Skamby Madsen of the Moesgård Museum of pre-history in Aarhus whether we now know the final truth about Aarhus's age as a city, he says smilingly: “It is certainly possible that further excavations will reveal even older evidence of Viking activity here at the river’s mouth in the bay. Who knows, in the end we may be able conclude that Aarhus is in fact Denmark’s oldest city.”

The Vikings called the town ‘Aros’, which simply means the ’mouth of the river’. And the history of Viking Aros is now portrayed in a fascinating exhibition at the Moesgård Museum. The exhibition has caused such a stir that the museum has just decided to extend the exhibition’s run until the end of the year.

The Vikings did not pick Aarhus as a town and trading post by accident. Thanks to its position in the bay it was easy to reach from the sea, and by using the river the fine-lined Viking ships could sail many kilometres into the hinterland, where they were well protected against possible hostile attacks from the sea.

At the Viking exhibition in the Moesgård Museum you can see a range of artefacts which were found during the latest excavations in Aarhus. In addition a brand new model of the city of Aarhus has been designed, as it is believed to have looked around 980. A series of large-format drawings show events from the Viking Age, and in an animated cartoon you can experience how it was to enter Aros from the sea at the end of the 10th century. The large number of different artistic effects used provides an extensive and atmospheric experience of Aarhus in the Viking Age more than one thousand years ago.

In connection with the exhibition a book on Aros during the Viking Age has been published with a preface written by Queen Margrethe II who takes a great interest in the world of archaeology and is the patroness of the Moesgård Museum.