[Josh Gates] Where is he?
Well, that is the big mystery.
[Gates] This is like a key.
This could lead to his burial.
I understand you have some sort of artifact I need to see.
Yes, I have something very, very special.
You Vikings can't hide forever.
[Jacek Godlewski] Somebody actually dug into this mound,
and we would like to find out why.
All right, well, let's see if there's something down here.
This is extraordinary.
This is a Viking rune stone.
Oh! Big hit.
Are these mounds?
[Godlewski] They are manmade mounds.
Whoa! What is this?
Hey, Josh! We have something!
Please come!
Look at this.
Are you kidding me?
What George Washington is to the United States,
the Viking King, Harald Bluetooth Gormsson,
is to Denmark.
A founding father who shaped the history of Europe.
In the bloody game of thrones that defined the Viking age,
Bluetooth united warring tribes,
conquered Norway,
and brought Christianity to a pagan superpower.
He was so influential
that the wireless technology we all carry around with us today
bears his name.
Yet despite his unprecedented power,
Bluetooth is violently deposed by his own son.
According to legend,
the king and his royal treasure
flee to a distant fortress known as Jomsborg
where Bluetooth dies of wounds sustained in battle.
But the saga of Harald Bluetooth is unfinished.
Neither the king's tomb nor his treasure
have ever been found, and Jomsborg itself
has been lost in the mists of time.
But now, over a thousand years later,
a mysterious golden artifact
is leading experts to a hidden crypt,
and modern technology may have revealed a Norse city
reclaimed by the forest.
So, put your wireless devices in airplane mode
as we take off to connect with the original Bluetooth,
hunting his tomb and his treasure.
My name is Josh Gates...
Hello!
...explorer...
Here goes nothing.
...adventurer...
Whoo-hoo!
Oh, that's a long way down.
...and a guy who ends up in some very strange situations.
[screaming]
I'm alive. For now.
With a degree in archaeology,
and a passion for the unexplained,
I travel to the ends of the Earth
investigating the greatest legends in history.
Very rock and roll!
This is Expedition Unknown .
Welcome to Denmark.
Today, vessels like this aren't exactly a common sight,
but back in the 10th Century
when Roskilde was a major trading port
at the heart of Bluetooth's kingdom,
this harbor would have been filled with Viking ships.
These vessel were always on the move.
Assuming the Vikings put their backs into it.
Josh, row faster!
I'm doing the best I can!
It's supposed to be a safe workspace.
What we call Vikings
were not a single people from a single place,
rather tribes spread throughout Scandinavia,
what today is Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
But the Vikings weren't content to stay there.
As Christianity spread through Europe,
Scandinavia, home of the Vikings,
was north of the wall.
Seen as a wild, dangerous land
of myth and legend,
Vikings strived for Valhalla,
feared Ragnarok, and worshipped colorful mercurial gods
including Odin, Loki and Thor.
Fortunately, before Marvel had a chance to copyright them.
From the 8th Century,
the Vikings conquered and settled an impressive swath of Europe,
even reaching North America hundreds of years before Columbus.
They were famously fierce explorers,
and with swift, adaptable ships,
wherever there was water, there was Vikings.
As my ship sails to the docks of Roskilde,
I make my way ashore
into a city that was once the capital of Denmark
as well as a major Viking stronghold.
Among Norse leaders, one name is legendary.
The uniter of Denmark,
conqueror of Norway,
son of Gorm, father of Forkbeard,
deposer of Greycloak,
founder of the Minnesota Vikings.
That might not be right.
The Viking king, Harold Bluetooth Gormsson.
Harold Bluetooth Gormsson is born into a Viking dynasty
around the year 910.
One of three sons of King Gorm the Old.
Once in power, he immediately sets out
to radically reshape the Viking world.
Uniting the warring tribes of Denmark,
minting the nation's first coins,
and overseeing massive civil engineering projects,
including a series of immense ring-shaped fortresses.
But when it comes to Bluetooth,
the greatest mystery is the whereabouts of the king himself.
Because his grave and royal riches are lost.
Or maybe not.
According to my guidebook here,
Bluetooth is actually buried right here
in Roskilde Cathedral.
If so, this is gonna be our shortest episode ever.
Come on.
Magnificent Roskilde Cathedral
was built in the 12th Century.
Legend has it it's on top of an older wooden church.
Here in the back of the church,
we have this painting of Bluetooth,
and beneath it we have an inscription that says,
"Harald king of Denmark, England and Norway,
and the first founder of this church,"
and local legend says
that Bluetooth is buried right here.
So, that's it, folks.
Case closed, thanks for coming.
Oh, there is one small problem,
it's almost certainly not true.
You see, in 1911,
there was a major restoration of the church,
and when archaeologists tore up the floors,
well, they found nothing.
No Bluetooth, no treasure, nada.
So, where is this Viking king of kings?
And you might be asking yourself,
"Why would a pagan Viking
be buried in a church in the first place?
Didn't these guys worship Odin?"
Well, something is definitely rotten
in the state of Denmark.
That's a Hamlet reference.
Alas, poor Bluetooth isn't in Roskilde,
but my next stop to find him is close by.
I drive 150 miles
to the sleepy Danish town of Jelling.
[Nordic melody on violin]
[Gates] You'd never suspect that this quite place
was once the heart of the Viking kingdom.
But in Bluetooth's day,
it was one of the most sacred places in their empire.
At the Jelling Necropolis, I meet an old friend,
archaeologist Soren Sindbaek,
who leads me to a historic Viking document.
One that isn't written, but rather chiseled.
Well, he we are, Josh.
This is the Jelling Rune Stone.
Rune stones are a Scandinavian tradition
going back to the 4th Century.
Elaborately painted monuments
built to stand the test of time.
Not just any Viking rune stone...
By Harald Bluetooth.
Bluetooth himself erected this.
He had this put up.
Do you wanna have a closer look?
-Behind the glass? -We can go in.
-We can? -Yes. Surely.
-Yes, I do. How do we get into this thing? -Yeah.
[Soren Sindbaek] Well, come along.
[Josh] Soren has gotten us ridiculously special access
to the Jelling Stone.
This is the equivalent of getting to ring the Liberty Bell.
So, we unseal the door,
and pass into what feels like a very large fish tank.
Are you kidding me?
Look at this!
Can I... Can I touch it?
[Sindbaek] Yeah, sure.
Just a thousand-year-old monument.
Okay, this is...
This is in old Norse and runes, yeah?
So, you can recognize...
Do you recognize this shape?
There's, there's a line, and then there's a little cross across here.
-[Josh] A line with a cross through it. -[Sindbaek] Yeah.
-[Josh] This is, um... -Have you seen that before?
-That is... -It's on your phone.
-Oh, this is the modern Bluetooth symbol. -Exactly.
-[Josh] So, this is the H. -[Sindbaek] This is the H.
And then it's combined with a B.
And we've got a B over here.
-[Josh] And this is the B. -[Sindbaek] Yeah.
-[Josh] Right here. -[Sindbaek] Put them together, you get Harald Bluetooth.
[Josh] Bluetooth technology was originally developed
by the Scandinavian company Ericsson.
And so, they layered the two initials
of the great ruler who united the Vikings
as the symbol for the standard that brings us together today.
So, these rune stones serve what purpose?
Because you find them all over the Viking world.
They were commemorating deaths of relatives or friends.
These are like ancient Wikipedia entries.
Yeah, you could say that.
-[Josh] Right. -Very brief, but it's got the essential details.
So, obviously, we have his name on here.
[Sindbaek] Yeah, it says,
"That Harald who won for himself all of Denmark."
This monument is really, like...
-The foundation of Denmark is happening right here. -[Sindbaek] Yeah.
This is... This is the birth certificate of Denmark.
Okay, and there's more on the other side.
[Sindbaek] Yeah, so, it continues here,
-we gotta come around here. -[Josh] Okay.
[Sindbaek] There's this magnificent animal figure here,
and then at the bottom here, it says,
"And Norway."
[Josh] And this is important because it says,
"I'm not just the king, I'm expanding the empire."
-"I'm a strong king." -Right, exactly.
And on the final face of the stone
is something shocking.
And on the third panel is...
-[Sindbaek] A figure. -[Josh] Is a figure, yeah.
[Josh] This is Christ.
[Sindbaek] And it comes with this inscription down here,
"And made the Danes Christian."
Because that was Harald's last great deed.
He converted his kingdom to Christ.
-[Gate] No more Odin, no more Thor. -[Sindbaek] No more.
"This is our guy now."
"This is our guy. He's our protector."
-[Josh] This is a really big deal here, right? -Yeah.
This is, like, casting off these pagan gods
that we see as so ingrained
in all aspects of Viking life, right?
Yeah, I mean, it's breaking with all the past.
[Josh] All of the Vikings powerful neighbors to the south are Christian.
So, whether he converts his people
as a political calculation to keep the peace
or because of a genuine conversion of faith
remains an unknown.
The amazing thing is that he actually pulled it off.
-You would think that there would be riots coming on... -Right.
...but this conversion is very expedient with him at the time.
-[Josh] Right. -He gains a very strong ally in heaven,
but he also gets a very strong ally on Earth.
[Josh] Right.
So, how does this monument help us understand
where Bluetooth might be buried
or where his treasure might be hidden?
I mean, how does this help us in that search?
If we want to understand where Bluetooth was buried,
we have to understand where his father was buried.
-Gorm. -Gorm, yes.
And where was he buried?
I'll show you.
[Josh] The answer is this huge burial mound
where Gorm was interred in 958.
But when scientists looked inside,
neither he nor a treasure was there.
Dating timbers inside the tomb,
they determined the mound was reopened
in the year 964,
and that Bluetooth had moved his father's body
while keeping it very close by.
So, Josh, welcome to Jelling Church.
[Josh] So, this has been here for how long?
[Sindbaek] This building is from the 12th Century.
Down here under the floor in the middle of the building,
there was another burial chamber.
So, the idea that we have
is that Harald took his pagan father,
pulled him from the mound and reburied him here
in his church right in front of the alter.
So, understanding where Gorm is
probably does tell us a lot about where Bluetooth is.
[Sindbaek] Yes.
If he goes to the length to have his pagan father
reburied in his church here,
you can bet that he wants to be buried near the church.
Exactly, but not in Roskilde.
No, not in Roskilde,
not in any of the other great cathedrals that's been excavated.
But somewhere in a church.
[Sindbaek] Yes.
Just recently, something very strange came up,
which might relate to the Bluetooth story.
Which is...
Well, it's an artifact that came up in Sweden,
so, you'll have to go there.
-It's in Sweden. -It's in Sweden.
Okay, but it might have something to do with Bluetooth.
Well, the jury's out.
It's something that you'll have to go and see for yourself.
Okay.
To Sweden.
But to see it, I have to travel 175 miles
over immaculate highways,
tunnels and bridges...
...as I go from Denmark to Malmo, Sweden.
Malmo has been voted the happiest place in Sweden,
though that might have something to do with the fact
that they created Absolut Vodka near here.
I didn't travel all this way just to do shots, though,
I am here to meet with a guy named Tomas Sielski
who's in possession of an artifact
that may write the final chapter in the Bluetooth saga.
Tomas believes the artifact to be so precious
that he's taken heightened security measures
before agreeing to show it to me.
[door lock buzzing]
[Josh] Upstairs at a discreet location,
I find the man I'm looking for.
Tomas.
-Hello. -Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too, Josh.
[Josh] So, I understand you have
some sort of artifact I need to see.
Yes, I have something very, very special.
A Viking artifact?
[Josh] The object, whatever it is, is accompanied by security
who transported it here from a vault.
-Hello. -Hello.
[speaking in Swedish]
It's kept in a lockbox.
Okay. Please...
Whoa! What is this?
In Malmo, Sweden,
Tomas Sielski has revealed an artifact
normally kept under lock and key
that may lead to the treasure-laden tomb
of the Viking king, Harald Bluetooth.
-[Josh] The Curmsun Disc. -[Tomas Sielski] Mmm-hmm.
-May I? -[Sielski] Yes.
[Josh] This is a Viking artifact.
[Sielski] Yes, a thousand-year-old disc made of gold.
[Josh] This is unbelievable.
I'm speechless.
-[Sielski] Yeah. -Honestly.
[Josh] The Curmsun Disc looks like it fell out of an Indiana Jones movie.
It's only a couple of inches across,
but it feels heavy in my hand.
One thing is certain,
this is no simple piece of currency.
So, we have our Christian Latin cross here.
[Sielski] Mmm-hmm.
[Josh] And it is covered in writing.
The top line, I can read clear as day,
that's "Harald".
[Sielski] Exactly.
[Josh] And then the word you just said.
[Sielski]
Oh, so, this is, this is Gormsson, this is...
[Sielski] Harald Bluetooth.
So, this is definitely Bluetooth.
This is, definitely, and we read it here.
-[Josh] "Rex", which is king. -[Sielski] King.
-[Josh] What' after "Rex"? -[Sielski] ...
This is, uh, "King of the Danes".
[Josh] Of the Danes.
So, "Harald Gormsson, King of Denmark," and...
[Sielski] It's, it's...
[Josh] Bluetooth reigns for about 30 years,
and makes significant campaigns abroad.
The Viking Sagas , written a couple hundred years after Bluetooth's death,
tell of a fortress called Jomsborg
on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea.
It reportedly housed Bluetooth's fearsome battalion
of loyal Joms Vikings.
Merciless warriors gathered from all over Europe.
According to that legend,
this is where Bluetooth is killed, right?
[Josh] Bluetooth's son, Sweyn Forkbeard,
objects to the Vikings' conversion to Christianity,
and in a stunning act of betrayal,
raises an army to usurp the throne.
According to legend,
Bluetooth is struck by an arrow in the ensuing battle.
He and his men withdraw to Jomsborg.
There Bluetooth dies and is buried by his loyal followers.
But his tomb has never been located.
Okay, so, where did this come from?
Where did you find this?
-No! -[Sielski] Yeah.
My daughter found it in a box
with my grandmother's stuff.
She just waltzes down from the attic with this.
Yes.
And did you have any idea that it was significant?
Nothing. No, not at all.
So, what...
I just, I just found it for her to go to school with this.
-You let her take this to school. -Yes.
Sure.
Her teacher, uh, got very interested,
and actually, eventually, also, um,
a Swedish archaeologist.
And the analyses from the archaeologist is it's authentic.
Yes, it's authentic.
[Josh] As for where it came from,
Tomas has a story about that,
and it starts in a churchyard in Poland
in the town of Wolin.
Who finds this first?
Okay.
In 1841,
Boldt is playing near the construction site
of a new church in Wolin
when he comes upon loose earth.
He digs into it and makes a remarkable discovery,
an ancient crypt.
Climbing inside, he finds a collection of Norse artifacts
and this, the Curmsun Disc.
Out of respect for the dead,
the priests of the church order the crypt sealed
with the disc and artifacts inside.
So, help me understand this,
how did this get from Poland to your attic in Sweden?
My grandfather, uh, in 1945,
at the end of the World War II,
gets in the same crypt and finds the disc.
If this is authentic, this disc is like a key
that could unlock this mystery.
This could lead to Bluetooth's burial.
Do we know where this church is today?
Yes.
And what about the crypt, do we know where that was?
We suspect that the crypt is under or near the new church,
and there is a team that are trying to find it.
-Can you connect me with them? -Yes, of course.
-Can I keep this? -No.
Okay, worth a try.
The disc stays in Sweden.
But not me.
I'm off to rediscover the crypt where the Curmsun Disc was hidden,
where Harald Bluetooth and his royal treasury
may be interred.
To get to the church on time,
I drive aboard a ferry in Eastern Sweden.
'Kay, here we go.
I'm in a car on a boat...
...for a 175-mile journey
across the Baltic Sea to Poland.
Twelve hundred years ago,
to take to these waters was to risk your life
as the Vikings ruled the seas with an iron fist.
Today, it's another kind of gamble.
[upbeat music playing]
Okay, come on!
Come on!
That's three Aladdins,
how's that not a win?
If this keeps up, I'm gonna have to find Bluetooth's treasure
just to buy a plane ticket back home.
Come on!
Last bet, here we go.
Totally rigged.
Is there an ATM on this ship?
A couple hundred Euro later, we arrive in Poland,
and drive just outside of the town of Wolin.
I'm here to meet the lead members
of the team searching for the crypt
where the mysterious Curmsun Disc was reportedly unearthed.
Jacek Godlewski and archaeologist, Wojciech Mazurek
-Jacek? -[Godlewski] Oh, hi!
-Hi. I'm Josh. -[Godlewski] Hi.
-Wojciech, nice to meet you. -Wojciech? Nice to meet you.
Good to meet you. Welcome.
Nice to meet you.
This is a beautiful church.
This is the church.
-Yeah, it's stunning. So, okay... -Yeah.
...this building dates from what year?
1841.
1841. So, this is when this golden disc
gets found by this kid.
And he finds this disc in a crypt,
but we don't know where that is today.
We don't know where it is. It could be under the church
or it could be adjacent to the church.
We presume there was an older church standing somewhere,
-we don't know exactly where. -[Josh] Right.
And this area does have a Viking connection.
They were here. This was a significant place for them.
Wolin was a center of trade here...
-[Josh] Right. Right. -...in the south part of Baltic Sea.
And another place that comes up a lot,
and especially on this disc,
-is this idea of Jomsborg. -[Godlewski] Yes.
It's a legendary Viking location.
-Yes. -And we now have it associated on this disc
with the name Bluetooth.
Could we be in the area of what was Jomsborg?
It is for sure around here somewhere.
We are in the heartland of...
The Nords called this Wendland.
The land of the Wends.
And there is this story also
that Bluetooth has a Slavic wife, right?
[Godlewski] Yes, we know Bluetooth had a real connection to this area
because he married a Slavic princess.
-[Josh] Right. -[Godlewski] This is beyond any doubt
because it's actually written in stone.
[Josh] The Curmsun Disc and the crypt in which it was found
could be part of this remarkable story.
The only questions left to answer now are,
"Can we find the crypt once again,"
and, "Does it belong to Harald Bluetooth?"
So, how do we figure this out?
I presume we're not gonna tear down this beautiful church.
-No. -No, I don't think so.
-That wouldn't be a good idea. -No.
So, what do we do?
We should do some geo-radar.
-[Josh] Okay. -Of the church on the inside and the premises,
and see if we find any anomalies.
[Josh] To look beneath this hallowed ground,
we go behind the church where a geophysical team
waits to get to work.
Stephan, Stefan from OKM Detectors,
our friends from Germany.
You're both named Stephan.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Okay, two Stephans for the price of one,
nice to meet you guys.
Great to meet you.
Okay, this, I kind of recognize.
this is a GPR unit.
[Stephan Grund] It is.
Okay, I'm used to more of the lawnmower style.
-[Grund] Yeah. -[Josh] So, what is this?
This is portable ground-penetrating radar system.
-[Josh] Okay. -So, basically, this is a system
you can use everywhere on the globe,
and not just on flat surfaces.
Got it. And how powerful is this?
It's very powerful.
It can detect anomalies in up to 120 feet.
This can see 120 feet underground?
Exactly.
Okay. And it's guaranteed to find a Viking king, is that correct?
-Well, let's see. -[Josh] We'll see. Okay.
But if there is something under this mound...
Then we will see it.
All right, let's do it.
We split up.
Jacek and one the Stephans will scan in the church yard,
while Wojciech, the remaining Stefan, and I
will scan beneath the church floor itself.
Okay.
Wow, here we are.
-So, start with the aisle? -Yup.
And where should we be? Out of your way?
-That would be better. -[Josh] Should we pray?
We could pray.
You can pray that...
-[Josh] That it works. -Yeah.
-Okay. -Okay, you ready?
Oh, wait, hold on.
Turned my Bluetooth on.
Yeah, here we go.
This isn't just a fact finding mission,
the archeologists here have exclusive access
to excavate this floor if we find something.
[Stefan Wildhagen] We're gonna do the whole room.
We're not givin' up.
We make a final push to cover the church floor
without any disturbances to report.
The team working outside, however,
may have a different story to tell.
[Godlewski] Josh, you there?
Go for Josh.
Listen, I think we found something,
I think we got a hit,
uh, you better get out here.
You got a hit on the, on the GPR?
[Godlewski] A definite anomaly,
you gotta see this,
we don't what it is yet, though.
-Check it out. -[Gates exclaims]
-Big hit. -[Godlewski] Yeah.
-[Josh] This is where? -This is just right, uh, behind us.
[Josh] In a church yard,
outside of the Polish town of Wolin,
I'm working with a team
searching for the lost tomb of the Viking king, Harald Bluetooth,
and our ground penetrating radar is indicating
there's something large beneath us.
How deep down is that?
Well, it's six to ten feet down.
-[Josh] Oh, it's huge. -[Grund] Here it is.
-[Josh] So this, this runs this whole area here? -[Grund] Exactly.
How wide is it?
Well, it's three, three feet wide
and three feet, uh, height.
[Josh] Ten feet is a pretty big hole.
-You think we can dig down to that? -I think we can.
We can bring in the equipment.
-Equipment? -Equipment.
We have a koparka.
Oh, I love a koparka.
A koparka is what the locals call an excavator,
and it just so happens to be the only word I know in Polish.
Hey, not my first rodeo here, people.
The koparka goes to work next to the anomaly.
Believe it or not, as I watch,
the only word for this I can come up with is gentle.
Even though he got this piece of heavy equipment here,
he is using the excavator like a scalpel,
just shaving off an inch or two top soil at a time,
so we carefully go down, creating a profile,
and not damaging whatever is buried here.
While this hole is being dug,
-let's assume that Bluetooth is here. -[Godlewski] Yeah.
What would we be looking for?
What do we expect to find here?
Well, first of all, we're looking for a crypt.
[Josh] Right, he is not just gonna be laid out in the ground.
No.
Ideally, he'd be in a chamber of some kind.
[Godlewski] In a chamber,
uh, we would expect to find a place for treasure.
We would expect that he would probably be in finery and armor.
Maybe with a sword on his chest.
-[Josh] Right. -Other weapons.
In other word, I think we'll know it when we see it, yes?
[Godlewski] Absolutely.
[Josh] The excavator slowly digs deeper and deeper,
but nothing is visible in the profile of the earth,
until...
-Stop the job. Stop. -[Josh] Hey, stop.
Whoa! Wait, wait, wait.
-That's ceramic? -Okay, something.
[Josh] Is that ceramic?
[Godlewski] No, I don't think so.
-[Josh] Oh, is that bone? -[Godlewski] Bone, yeah.
-It's a skull. -It's a skull.
This is part of a human skull.
Wojciech, skull, yes?
Yes, skull.
We're not in a burial here, though.
[Wojciech Mazurek] No.
[Josh] There are not preserved graves,
the layers of soil near the surface have been
churned like a laundry machine for centuries,
and bone fragments, both animal and human,
are littered all over the area.
Hey, but we may find more bones then.
-Yeah, we could expect, we could expect more. -I mean--
All right, let's continue.
As we move deeper,
we continue to find scattered remains from long ago.
We got another bone here, it looks like.
This is arm bone, yeah, this is from the arm, yeah?
This is humerus.
It's... There's nothing funny about this, Wojciech.
Sorry, that's a little skeleton humor.
The GPR disturbance we're following
lies several feet further down,
we keep digging in the hopes of finding Bluetooth's crypt.
Oh, stop!
We, we have wood here, yes?
[Mazurek] Yes, these are woods.
[Josh] It's coffin, you think?
I think so.
[Josh] I think we're certainly
at the top of a coffin, it looks like.
Have a corner here for sure.
You can see the edge of this right here,
and it goes up that way.
So we're coming down on a top of a coffin, it looks like.
What's the alignment here?
-This is aligned to the east, then the west. -[Josh] Oh, east?
We've reached a new layer
that is clearly the church's graveyard,
one that is very old, but more modern than the Vikings.
It means, we can't excavate further
without disturbing these preserved burials.
Our GPR hit, however, is still a few more feet down,
so to make sure we're not missing a crypt below our feet,
we bring out an auger...
Okay, we're going for 10 feet, guys, we got this.
...to drill a minimally invasive hole
outside the coffin and down to the target.
One.
Two.
Three.
Up.
When we hit the 10 foot mark,
we bring up the auger.
Okay, so we are...
...at 10 feet.
We are at our target depth,
and we got
nothing.
[Mazurek] Nothing.
We have this white,
featureless sand here,
and we have this, this looser sand above.
So the anomaly is not an object,
it's a change in the soil.
-Yeah, exactly. -[Josh] Yeah.
The GPR has done its job,
but there is no crypt to be found.
As to the Curmsun Disc,
it is a terrific story,
but without physical evidence
to connect it to a specific site,
that's all it is.
So in terms of the location where this disc was found,
this supposed burial area,
still a mystery.
-Still a mystery. -Mmm-hmm.
So where does that leave us?
[Godlewski] Well, we still have the forest site.
What forest site?
It's a site we started investigating
about 10 minutes away from here,
uh, which could be the, uh,
ancient mythical fortress of the Jomsvikings.
And you're working out there?
We have people digging there.
[Josh] Jacek and Wojciech think they're on the trail
of the legendary Jomsborg,
Bluetooth's strong hold mentioned in the Viking Sagas
which has never been found,
this is potentially huge.
And, and it's how far from here?
It's not far, it's 10 minutes.
Okay, if it is a Viking site,
that would be hugely significant.
That would be groundbreaking.
That would be very significant.
[Josh] We quickly pile into my car and head to the site.
In moments, we're driving into dense forest
and away from civilization
in search of GPS coordinates
that Wojciech hopes are part of Harald Bluetooth's legacy.
And so, finally, we arrive at our destination...
Okay, perfect.
...in the middle of nowhere.
Let's go.
Welcome to the circle.
-The circle? -Yeah.
Okay.
I do not see a circle.
No, you can't see it from here,
you actually can only see it from above.
From above?
Okay, so if I was up above, what would I see?
You'd see a, uh, almost perfect circle in the forest.
From above?
I'm in a forest in Poland,
where archeologists believe they may have found
a legendary Viking fort known as Jomsborg.
To get a birds-eye view of this site,
we launch a drone through the thick canopy,
and what we see from on high is astounding.
That is a huge circle, incredible!
A circle this size could represent a ring fortress,
which would be a major clue that
this is the lost city of Jomsborg,
where King Harald Bluetooth is said to have died.
And a recent LiDAR scan may give
Jacek and Wojciech
even more to be excited about.
This is clearly a huge circle here.
-Clearly, and look inside of it. -[Josh] Uh-huh.
More circles. Are these, are these mounds?
[Godlewski] They are manmade mounds, and, uh...
I mean, there's like, what? Like, a dozen of them here.
[Godlewski] Uh, I think over a dozen,
but some of them are hard to see or detect.
And the thing that really jumps out
-is they are perfect circles. -[Mazurek] Yeah.
These have to be manmade, yes?
Yes, yes, I'm sure.
[Josh] This forest is a treasure.
Within the massive hidden ring
are circular mounds that have
blended with the landscape for centuries.
Without the LiDAR, they may never have even been discovered.
And so where are these from here?
3000 meters, so it's not far away from here.
-Shall we go? -[Mazurek] Yeah, of course.
-Yeah, let's go. -[Josh] Okay.
This is what archeologists call
a target rich environment,
the ring could not only be Jomsborg,
but the smaller mounds inside may contain
a wealth of Viking artifacts and treasures.
We quickly head over to where their dig team is excavating
between two of the larger mounds at the site.
You guys are obviously hard at work here,
so you've done a trench here
from one mound to the other.
In the large mound over here,
have you found anything significant?
No, nothing significant.
Okay, but it is a manmade mound?
Yes, this is manmade.
[Josh] Wojciech has managed to date the mounds to the Bronze Age
or about 2000 BC,
but that doesn't mean they weren't later used by the Vikings.
And what about in the smaller mound?
It seems like you've dug a much larger trench.
-[Mazurek] Yes, yes. -[Josh] Why is that?
You know, this mound was disturbed.
Disturbed, you mean, somebody has already dug into it?
-Yeah, exactly. -[Josh] Can you show me?
[Mazurek] Yes, of course. Please.
Let's see.
Once again, someone has dug a hole in the ground,
and I can't wait to get in it,
I have a very strange job.
Okay, so the mound is from the Bronze Age, originally.
Bronze Age, yes.
The Bronze Age is this big period of time way before the Vikings...
[Mazurek] Yes.
[Josh] ...so we're talking, nearly 4000 years ago.
So we are 1500 years or more before the Vikings.
-Before the Viking, yes, -[Josh] Right.
If that's the Bronze Age,
why are you digging even deeper?
Well, at some point after the Bronze Age,
somebody actually dug into this mound,
and we would like to find out why.
Could it be that this is a Bronze Age mound
that the Vikings then came to use,
which is something that happened, right?
And then they dug into it?
It's possible, what we know now is that somebody dug into it,
and it was a long time ago.
All right, well, let's see if there's something down here.
-[Godlewski] Yeah. -Yeah.
Wojciech and his team carefully carve away layers of the mound,
hoping to find evidence
that it was repurposed in the Viking Age.
While they work, Jacek and I fan out with metal detectors
capable of sensing up to 10 feet
into the smaller mounds at the site.
So as you can see here,
maybe you can't see here 'cause it's really discreet,
there is this slight mound,
and it looks natural when you're standing on it,
but on the LiDAR, it comes up as perfectly circular,
so definitely worth searching.
It is, as always, a process that requires patience.
Are you sure you're is on?
Of course, it's on.
[Godlewski] That's great.
[Josh] But then our patience is rewarded.
[metal detector beeping]
There is something here.
[device beeping]
Aha!
Look at this.
We have a shell casing.
You can see here,
firing pin,
right there, probably a rifle.
This could be from a hunter or from the war
or the war before that or the war before that.
There's been, there's been a lot of wars around here.
But...
...that is definitely not Viking.
So far, so meh.
Beer can.
Until some good news finally arrives.
Hey, Josh!
-Yeah? -We have something.
Yeah?
Yes, please come!
-[Josh] Find something? -[Mazurek] Yeah, please.
Iron and pottery.
-Pottery? -Yes, you can see here.
-[Josh] Iron, did you say? -[Mazurek] Iron...
-[Josh] And pottery? -[Mazurek] ...and pottery, yes.
-Can I go down? -Yes.
Yes? Okay.
This is amazing.
There appears to be both pottery and metal artifacts
resting together inside the mound.
I climbed down to see what they might be.
So...
Oh, that is metal, look at that.
Is this maybe, like, a knife?
[Mazurek] Like a small knife.
Like a small sickle.
-A sickle? -Yeah.
[Josh] For what purpose?
Probably for shaving.
-For shaving? -Yeah.
-[Josh] Very personal item. -[Mazurek] Yes.
But somebody dug all the way down to place this here.
this feels like it must be
-ceremonial or an offering, yes? -Yeah.
Maybe small hoard, also.
A hoard? Now you're talking.
So keep cleaning?
-[Mazurek] Yeah. -[Josh] All right.
With some careful work, I'm able to gently free the blade form the earth.
Look at that.
So you can actually see the blade here,
underneath all that rust.
And this would have slotted into a handle.
I'm not sure I would like to shave with that, but beautiful.
This is coming out
very carefully.
Wojciech isn't ready to speculate about the blade's age,
so we begin to clear the earth from around the pottery,
hoping that it can pinpoint when this mound was reused.
Look at that.
Look at that, beautiful.
So based on the pottery type,
what do you think, how old is this?
This, this is earlier than the Vikings, yes?
-It's much earlier than the Viking Age. -[Josh] Yes.
It will be, uh, probably about
three century Before Christ, BC.
-300 BC? -Yes.
This is a 2300 year old vessel.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[Josh] And what culture is that?
This is the Jastorf culture.
[Josh] The Jastorf culture thrived during the Iron Age
in what is today Denmark, Germany, and Poland.
Meaning, the blade and pottery
come from 1000 years before the Viking Era,
but wait, there is more.
A mystery object.
Beneath the pottery is another artifact.
Whatever it is, it's out.
We gingerly remove it from the earth,
and bring it up for examination.
It was placed underneath the vessel,
it looks something organic, like leather.
With a closer look,
we see that the leather is wrapped around something
even more mysterious.
What do you think this is?
[Mazurek] It's Iron.
It's iron, but what, we don't know.
It's not ornamental, it's not, like, jewelry or anything.
[Mazurek] No.
-That's tool, but little-- -[Josh] A tool or something.
Still a mystery.
Still a mystery, yes.
[Josh] The items we uncovered are so fragile,
they'll need to go to a lab for further analysis,
but it's clear that this Bronze Age mound
was considered a sacred place.
So they came here
hundreds of years after this mound was built,
dug down, and made this offering.
Yeah, it's exactly what has happened here.
Whatever this is, it's very purposeful,
intentional, an offering, or, or a burial.
[Mazurek] Yeah, no question.
It's not Bluetooth and the Vikings,
it's more than 1000 years earlier.
History upon history here.
So the question is, is there more here?
There is more.
Toward the outer edge of the ring,
there is another trench that the team has been carving out,
which contains potential evidence
of a Viking Era structure.
Okay, so what do we have here?
So you can see here, in this corner,
the fireplace.
-Oh, where the stones are. -Yes, exactly.
[Josh] And we can see all that charcoal material there.
[Mazurek] Yes.
It means, it could be the fireplace from the,
from the house, from the pit-house.
[Josh] Pit-houses sat partially beneath ground level
to keep them warm in winter and cool in summer.
These remains mean that there were people living
inside the protection of the ring.
The question is, where they Vikings?
So this might have been a habitation,
right where we're standing.
-Yes, the part of the settlement. -Okay.
When?
This is good question.
We have to find something here, some,
-uh, shards or something like this. -[Josh] Okay.
And then we can date it.
Okay, can we dig?
-[Mazurek] Yeah, we can continue here. -Let's get to work, come on.
I joined Wojciech's team in the trench
to see if we can find evidence from the Viking Age.
-Pottery? -Pottery, yes, see.
-Oh, look at that. -[Mazurek] Yes.
-Here, you can see its striations on it. -Yes.
Wojciech.
-What do you think? -Yes, we have luck.
It's Viking Age pottery.
Viking pottery, for sure?
[Mazurek] Yes, I'm sure.
You know, from the time of Harald Bluetooth.
[Josh] That is amazing!
The Vikings are often painted
as grungy, barbaric, marauders,
but it turns out, they loved bathing in hot springs
and they even invented the comb.
In other words, they were suckers for a spa day.
And that tradition has lead to the latest Norse invasion,
it's called hygge.
Hygge doesn't really have an English translation,
though the word cozy is close,
it's where we get the word hug,
and it is a way of life here in Copenhagen,
defined by a relaxed, intimate comfort
that I'm trying to embrace.
Like this wool sweater,
which isn't at all itchy.
Hygge is a state of mind,
free from stress and steeped in warmth.
Of course, hygge is probably a lot easier in Denmark,
where they leave work at, like, 4.00 p.m.
and have five weeks of paid vacation every year.
All right, this is insane, I have things to do.
I'm keeping the sweater.
Wojciech.
It's Viking Age pottery.
Viking pottery, for sure?
Yes, I'm sure.
You know, from the time of Harald Bluetooth.
Hey, nice work.
At a Polish dig site,
searching for evidence of a 10th Century
Viking settlement called Jomsborg,
we've just turned up a relic
that finally puts us in the right era.
All right, we dig, here we go.
The find also energizes us
to keep digging in this trench,
which we hope has more Viking secrets to reveal.
Okay, so...
That ceramic came out of right in here,
so just underneath this,
this more modern dark soil here
and this yellowish sand beneath,
right in there, that's the Viking Age.
Come on, Vikings.
[whispers] You Vikings can't hide forever.
The only way to find more is to get our hands dirty,
and the hard work eventually pays off.
Hold on, oh, something here.
Is it ceramic?
No.
-It's a stone. -It's stone, yeah.
-[Godlewski] What have you got there, Josh? -Piece of stone.
Oh! No! Look at this!
It has a hole in it.
This is drilled out, look at this.
This is not just a piece of stone.
This is completely flat on this edge,
and it had, it's worked, look at this.
-Yes, yes, yes. -What is that?
-[Mazurek] We're in luck. -What is this?
It's wet stone
from the Viking Age.
-That's a Viking wet stone? -[Mazurek] Yes.
Are you kidding me?
No, no.
-Look at this. -This is amazing.
-Amazing. -[man] Yeah, amazing.
So this is for the, this is for, uh, sharpening, yes?
For sharpening a little knife or something, yeah.
And this hole would be, like, for a string, right?
[Mazurek] Yeah.
No question.
[Josh] These wet stones are something
that we really associate with the Vikings.
-[Godlewski] 100%. -Yeah, no question.
-[Josh] Right? -[Godlewski] 100%.
This is such a Viking thing.
Absolutely.
[Josh] This wet stone is an intensely personal find.
An essential item in the life of any Viking.
This would keep their blade sharp and ready for action.
It's strong evidence that this region was part of Bluetooth's kingdom.
And the stone is really beautiful.
This is, like, a kinda slate?
[Godlewski] Yeah, it's, uh, a slate with some kind of quartz in it.
[Josh] Right.
And the stone is imported from Norway.
-This is not local? -This is not local stone.
And, uh, the owner of that piece must have bought it from
someone who brought it from Norway.
Someone lost it here.
-Yeah, somebody lost it. -[Mazurek] Yeah.
Must have been looking for it.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Well, it's been found. -It's been found.
-[Mazurek] Yeah. -So we don't have Bluetooth here,
but we have Vikings here now.
You think Jomsborg is close?
I think Jomsborg is definitely
somewhere in the area.
Very close to this place.
And getting closer.
And Bluetooth?
Uh, I think we're one step closer to Harald.
-[Josh] Yes. -One step closer.
Oh, he is somewhere, he is close.
We'll find him.
Well, we still have a few perfectly good hours left in the day.
-Can we continue, guys? -[Josh] Should we dig?
-Yeah. Get to it, come on. -Yes! Why not?
-[man 1] Of course. Let's go. -Yes? Okay.
[man 2] Let's go.
-This is for you. -Thank you.
Let's keep working, come on.
We continue to work until dusk.
Somewhere in the western glare of the setting sun
is Denmark, King Bluetooth's home...
...but is this ring in which we're working
his legendary Jomsborg fortress?
Only time will tell.
Right now, though, I can be sure that in this moment,
we stand among the Vikings.
And a few weeks after our visit,
we learned that we may have been
in the presence of Romans as well.
X-rays of the object we discovered in the mound
revealed, wrapped in leather,
this, a small iron key,
the kind frequently used in Roman chests.
This one may date back
to the first or second century,
a stunning demonstration
of how the Jomsborg mounds
have been repurposed over and over
for thousands of years.
In a time when kings imagined themselves as giants
looming over history,
Harald Bluetooth was one of the few to walk the walk.
A ruler of extraordinary importance,
a uniter of men,
and the agent of a momentous cultural evolution.
To find him, his treasure,
and his fortress city,
I've travelled throughout his kingdom
and met the descendants of his people.
These researchers show signs of Bluetooth's wisdom,
his ingenuity, and his determination.
If anyone will one day discover his secrets,
they will.
For now, though, Bluetooth and his achievements live on
in every one of our homes,
offices, and pockets.
His material remains may be lost for the moment,
but with enough time,
I know we'll make the connection.