Inspired by UrbNet’s high-definition approach to settlement archaeology, colleagues from the Polish Academy of Science invited Søren Michael Sindbæk in 2022 to discuss plans for a joint exploration of Poland’s most important ‘Viking’ town – AKA early medieval maritime emporium. Between them, they raised support from the Salling Foundations and the Aarhus University Research Foundation, who joined forces to support the newly established collaboration.

Researchers from Aarhus and Wolin will carry out a major excavation in 2025-2027 in Wolin's Viking Age harbour, exploring the shared heritage of Denmark and Poland's Viking Age history. At the centre of the project are the exciting new excavations, but it will also form the basis for museum exhibitions, among other things. The work will also involve students from Denmark and Poland.

For this year’s excavation, fellow UrbNet veteran Søren Munch Kristiansen joined his namesake Sindbæk, together with the most recently arrived UrbNetter, geoarchaeologist Gian Battista Marras, who will form part in the Wolin project over the next two years. Other Danish colleagues and a number of Aarhus students joined the excavations over the two months’ season, which was completed on 29 August.

The preliminary results are highly impressive, with a group of intact house floors and a flood of artefact finds. The excavations will continue in 2026, when the team expect to reach waterlogged levels with organic preservation.