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VIKING SHIP: The Oseberg ship is considered one of the most important finds from the Viking age and is on display at the Viking Ship House at Bygdøy in Oslo. Excavated in 1904, it contained the remains of two Viking women with beautiful carvings and jewelry. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB
Stereotypical notions of the Scandinavian Vikings as a uniform group must be adjusted after DNA analysis of 442 skeletons. 46 of them have been found in Norway.
The DNA study “Population Genomics of the Viking World” was published in Nature on Wednesday and confirms much of what has been fairly safe for more than a hundred years. As if the Viking era involved a lot of travel, for Norwegians mainly to Iceland, Ireland, Greenland and Scotland, and interaction with other peoples, so the Scandinavian genes spread.
Scandinavians also mixed more with each other around this time, and immigrants came here from eastern and southern Europe.
But there are also some surprises in the study, says Norwegian labor leader Jan Bill, who is a professor of archeology at the Museum of Cultural History.
NEW FINDINGS: Professor of Archeology at the Museum of Cultural History, Jan Bill, has been the leader of the Norwegian work on the DNA study “Genomics of Viking World Populations” which was published in Nature on Wednesday. Photo: Fredrik Hagen / NTB
Little in common
– Before the Viking era, there were, surprisingly, three quite different populations from each other: one in Norway, one in eastern Scandinavia in Sweden, and one in southern Scandinavia in Denmark and Scania. It shows that geography has had a great impact on who she had children with. You became attached to those who lived nearby. We thought all three groups were more integrated due to shipping, even before the Viking Age, but obviously not, Bill tells NTB.
When the researchers looked at DNA that reports appearance, such as hair color and height, they found that there is no typical Viking – they weren’t necessarily tall and blonde. On the other hand, there were quite a few with darker pigments and darker hair.
-The great practical importance of such a discovery may not have, but it can change the view we have of this, says Bill.
Immigrants
With the Viking Age, estimated in the period 750-1050, the journey and mixing of genes began in earnest, especially in Europe. The Vikings settled in other countries and researchers have confirmed that they probably took their wives to Scandinavia.
– Another very interesting finding was that we also analyzed individuals who had nothing of Scandinavian biology, but were buried as Vikings, in full uniform. It must mean that they or the parents had embraced the identity and the culture, which is very exciting, says Bill.
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The two Vikings who do not have Scandinavian origins must be of Celtic descent.
The 46 Norwegian skeletons from which DNA is taken were found in eastern Norway and as far as Trøndelag and date from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, but mainly from the Viking Age, says Bill.
Receive compliments
Several colleagues who have not participated in the research praise the cloud work in interviews with National Geographic.
– It’s a fantastic study. It provides new insights, but strengthens almost everything we already know about the Viking Age, says archaeologist and professor Jesse Byock of the University of California, Los Angeles, who heads the Mosfell Archaeological Project in Iceland.
Baylor University vice professor and archaeologist Davide Zori believes the study will help eliminate the stereotypical perception of the blond, bearded Viking.
Researchers have also studied today’s Europeans and claim that today’s Norwegians and Danes are genetically more similar to their ancestors, more than Swedes, while there are also traces of Scandinavian Vikings in the rest of Europe.
