New dye analyses of Danish Viking Age textiles from Bjerringhøj, Hvilehøj and Hedeby

•First systematic dye analyses with HPLC-DAD on textiles in a Viking Age context.•Use of woad or indigo for blue dyeing and dyer’s madder as main red dye source.•First evidence of yellow luteolin and club moss in the Viking Age textiles tested.•Broadening the knowledge of dye import or local application by discovery of exotic kermes and cochineal. This article presents the first systematic dye analyses performed on Viking Age contexts in 30 years. The high-status graves Bjerringhøj and Hvilehøj from Denmark supplemented with a few samples from Hedeby in North Germany have been selected for an in-dept analysis of textile dyes. The results show a wider range of textile dyes and colours than previously known from Danish Viking Age contexts. Further, the presence of highly exotic dyes, such as kermes and European cochineal species, widens our present knowledge of the import of dyes and the implementation of these dyes in local textile production.