Haagerup cemetery was abandoned after the Protestant Reformation in Denmark and was in use in the time period approx. AD 1100 – 1555. The cemetery served a rural parish located in the Southern part of Funen, one of the main islands of Denmark.
The abandoned cemetery is placed on private owned farm land and has not been destroyed by modern construction work. Therefore it may be possible to have the area totally excavated with the potential of having close to 3,000 skeletons lifted and further analyzed.
Excavation of Haagerup was run as an international field school from 2017 to 2019, and a total of 105 individuals were excavated. The original plan was to have it totally excavated as an intensive professional excavation running over a couple of years. But the financial resources for the project is still lacking. It would a splendid possibility to get valuable insights into a medieval rural population. With the aid from other archaeological sources from this geographic area, the paleodemographic and paleoepidemiological studies of the skeletons can contribute to understanding of utilization of resources and landscape within this part of Southern Funen throughout the medieval period.
