The Vikings werenât all Nordic natives. They comprised multiple distinct groups of different peoples, according to a major study of ancient DNA.
âViking genetics and Viking ancestry is used quite a lot in extremist right-wing circles,â says Cat Jarman at the University of Bristol in the UK, who wasnât involved in the study. Many white supremacists identify with a âvery pure Viking race of just people from Scandinavia, who had no influence from anywhere elseâ.
In fact, the DNA evidence suggests the Vikings were the product of a diverse melting pot.
Advertisement
We know that the Vikings were a seafaring people from Scandinavia who were a major force in northern Europe from about ADÂ 750 to 1050: the Viking Age. They are famous for their violent raids on the British Isles and elsewhere, and their epic sagas.
To better understand their origins, Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues studied DNA from Vikings and their contemporaries.
The researchers analysed DNA from the remains of 442 people from Europe and Greenland who lived between 2400 BC and AD 1600. This allowed them to reconstruct Viking populations as well as their movements.
âWe have an embarrassment of riches in the archaeogenetics world at the moment,â says Martin Richards at the University of Huddersfield, UK. âThis is another very rich work, and the first one to focus on the Vikings. Thereâs a huge amount of new data.â
The team found that, in the centuries preceding the Viking Age, Scandinavian peoples acquired many new gene variants from elsewhere in Europe. This suggests a major migration from the region around what is now Germany into Denmark, Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
âAlthough the basic genetic pattern of Europe was established by the Bronze Age, around 4000 years ago, there were myriad migrations taking place across Europe in the subsequent millennia,â says Richards. âThe first millennium AD was a time of massive upheaval,â partly because of the Western Roman Empireâs collapse.
It is a bit early to speculate on who the people who moved into Scandinavia were, says Richards, but we do know that invading nomadic Huns caused a lot of population displacement in Europe around this time.
Diverse Vikings
The DNA also shows that not all Vikings were alike. There were three major groups, centred in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and they sailed to different places. Danish Vikings tended to visit England, Swedish Vikings roamed the Baltic, while Norwegian Vikings went to Ireland, and further afield to Iceland and Greenland. The term âVikingâ is therefore an umbrella term for several groups.
âItâs always been an oversimplification, but I doubt if people are going to stop using it,â says Richards. âClearly there was a common pattern embraced by many coastal communities across Scandinavia, but equally across the whole region there were many people who had very little to do with it.â
Whatâs more, the study also found that some people buried in Viking regalia had distinctly unâViking DNA, such as two belonging to the Sami people who now live in northern Norway, Sweden and Finland. âViking identity isnât necessarily a genetic ancestry,â says Jarman. âThey had a couple of individuals who were buried as if they were traditionally Viking, but they had Sami DNA.â
The DNA findings line up with newer archaeological evidence that Vikings lived in more advanced societies than previously thought, says Jarman.
âYou have these centres that are really quite urban,â she says, like Sigtuna in Sweden and Hedeby, which was part of Denmark but is now in Germany. It isnât clear how many people lived in them, but the towns had widespread trade, diverse populations and centralised organisation.
Willerslevâs sample included 34 members of a Viking expedition buried at Salme in Estonia, along with their boats and weapons. Four were brothers, accompanied by a more distant relative. Many other members had similar genetic profiles. This implies that such expeditions were undertaken by groups of close relatives. Based on their expensive weapons and clothes, they were high-status.
The expedition may not have been a raiding party, as the Vikings were wearing ceremonial clothes and were ânot really dressed for a fightâ, says Jarman. She says it may have been more of a diplomatic mission, as Viking leaders often formed alliances with one another. âYou agree to support this particular person in that place if they agree not to attack you or whatever,â she says.
žé±đŽÚ±đ°ù±đČÔłŠ±đ:ÌębioRxiv,
