When people picture Vikings , they often think first and foremost of fierce seafaring warriors. But a sprawling 1,000-year-old site unearthed in Denmark shifts the focus from raids and conquests to a far tamer pursuit — the textile production that likely made those expeditions possible.

At a 100,000-square-meter Viking settlement in Søften, just north of Aarhus , Denmark’s second largest city, archaeologists with the Moesgaard Museum have uncovered evidence of a well-organized, industrial-scale textile production hub. They surmise that goods made there helped bolster the powerful Viking Age town of Aros (the old Norse name for what is now Aarhus). Aros was a center for royalty and a Viking trade powerhouse that linked Scandinavia with commercial hubs across Northern Europe.

As part of an ongoing excavation in Søften, the team found remnants of the entire textile production chain, from flax processing to thread spinning. They found traces of numerous pit houses, small sunken buildings typically used as workshops for crafts like weaving or woodworking during the Viking area.

They unearthed scissors and areas where workers would have separated flax fibers from the plant’s woody core. They uncovered spindle whorls and loom weights used to maintain thread tension. The varying sizes of these tools suggest threads of different thicknesses, and that indicates both finer and coarser textiles, and likely the use of a range of raw materials.

“Perhaps the most surprising aspect was the sheer size of the site and the intensity of production taking place there,” excavation leader Liv Stidsing Reher-Langberg said in an interview. “It is reasonable to assume that a production site of this scale was not primarily focused on everyday clothing or household items, which would typically have been produced within individual families. Rather, we should think in terms of production on a much larger scale.”

The Moesgaard team doesn’t know exactly what kind of textiles emerged at Søften, as they have yet to find remains of finished products. One likely possibility is sailcloth used to make the sails that powered Viking ships on expeditions into the wider world, Reher-Langberg said. Further research could confirm this.

The excavation not only offers a window into Viking daily life, but specifically into Aros and the surrounding communities that helped it maintain its position as a Viking Age stronghold by supplying manpower and essential resources. In addition to remnants of textile production, the Søften dig turned up silver scraps, coins and pearls that testify to trade and economic activity in the region.

Towns near Søften have produced other notable Viking Age discoveries in recent years. These include an elite Viking Age burial site unearthed near Lisbjerg and engraved 9th century silver bangles , found in Elsted, that functioned as currency whose value was determined by the jewelry’s weight.

As for who, exactly, wove fibers into fabric at Søften, there’s no clear evidence, Reher-Langberg said. “However, it is reasonable to assume that both men and women took part in the process, which overall would have been a lengthy chain of activities, from handling the raw materials to the final weaving,” she added. A single residence found at the location suggests one manager oversaw operations there.

While the warriors of the Viking Age often dominate the historical imagination, this research makes room for their spindles and looms too.