St John's College, University Of Cambridge -- DNA from a female skeleton named Kata found at a Viking burial site in Varnhem, Sweden, was sequenced as part of the study[credit: Västergötlands Museum]
Posted on 09/16/2020 9:53:55 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...the research team extracted and analysed DNA from the remains of 442 men, women and children... from archaeological sites in Scandinavia, the U.K., Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland and Russia, and mostly date to the Viking Age (ca. 750-1050 AD).
The team's analyses yielded a number of findings. One of the most noteworthy is that contrary to what has often been assumed, Viking identity was not limited to people of Scandinavian ancestry -- the team discovered that two skeletons from a Viking burial site in the Orkney Islands were of Scottish ancestry.
They also found evidence that there was significant gene flow into Scandinavia from the British Isles, Southern Europe, and Asia before and during the Viking Age, which further undermines the image of the Vikings as 'pure' Scandinavians.
Another discovery that runs counter to the standard image of the Vikings is that many had brown hair, not blonde hair.
The analyses' results also shed light on the Vikings' activities. For example, consistent with patterns documented by historians and archaeologists, the team found that Vikings who travelled to England generally had Danish ancestry, while the majority of Vikings who travelled to Scotland, Ireland, Iceland and Greenland had Norwegian ancestry. In contrast, Vikings who headed east were mostly from Sweden.
Interestingly, says Collard, data revealed a number of close kin among the 442 individuals. Four members of a Viking raiding party interred in a boat burial in Estonia were found to be brothers, while two individuals buried 300 to 400 kilometers apart in Sweden were found to be cousins. Perhaps even more strikingly, the team identified a pair of second-degree male relatives (i.e. half-brothers, nephew-uncle, or grandson-grandfather) from two sites, one in Denmark and one in England.
(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...
St John's College, University Of Cambridge -- DNA from a female skeleton named Kata found at a Viking burial site in Varnhem, Sweden, was sequenced as part of the study[credit: Västergötlands Museum]
The Pirates of Penzance?
They also found evidence that there was significant gene flow into Scandinavia from the British Isles, Southern Europe, and Asia before and during the Viking Age, which further undermines the image of the Vikings as ‘pure’ Scandinavians.
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Dayum. Academics are odd folks.
Never heard of slaves? and the children they might spawn that earn their way up out of slavery? Or genetic “contributions” left behind on raids through rape?
Also, those who went on the Vik were not necessarily the creme de la creme -- any cutthroat who could make himself understood and liked the action would wind up in the crew.
The German ancestry might also be from the Saxons.
Those were a Germanic tribe.
Angles, Saxons and Jutes.
[New Viking DNA research yields unexpected information about who they were]
They came from the land of ice and snow
where the hot springs blow?
...oh my!
Like Johnny Sacks :-)
Since the Vikings were a bunch of colonizing northern Europeans, no matter what this massive DNA conspiracy theory sez, the Minnesota NFL team needs to repudiate its name and call itself The Floyds hereafter.
“Never heard of slaves? and the children they might spawn that earn their way up out of slavery? Or genetic “contributions” left behind on raids through rape?”
Silly Rabbit! Only Americans ever practiced slavery.
Actually, I am writing a paper on the world-wide practice of slavery (which will assuredly never be presented or accepted at my current institution). Slavery existed in every culture on every continent at some point (excluding Antarctica, at least so far, but no doubt some explorer dragged a slave along with him at some point and I’ll find a reference to it), sometimes their own people, sometimes enemy prisoners, sometimes both.
Nobody has “clean hands”. But looking at the aggregate data, the Anglosphere led the way in eliminating the scourge of slavery. And it is an ongoing battle. Muslims still widely practice slavery, as do the Chinese and North Koreans. And assorted other groups.
Also, don’t buy the line that serfs weren’t slaves. They were simply slaves tied to the land, and not even that in some cases (Russia and Poland). Many American blacks that were slaves had more rights than most serfs. Indentured servants were not much better off (sometimes worse). The enslavement of “whites” by Arabs and Berbers preceded any practice of the enslavement of blacks by Europeans. Chinese, Africans, Persians, Mongols, Aztecs, Ottomans, Japanese, Mayans, Incans and countless other cultures practiced slavery and in fact slaves in those cultures were often sacrificed. While atrocious, it’s just a thing that was, a barbarism from our (collective human) history.
So I am not making excuses for anybody, but it is a gross distortion of history to say that Americans are more to blame, or, in fact, to claim that Americans were not at the forefront of eliminating the practice (once we had our own house sorted). Example - the Portuguese slave trade from Africa to Brazil was still ongoing after the American Civil War (even though it had been outlawed in Portugal proper) until American and British navies actively disrupted and interfered with it. Slavery in Brazil was gradually abolished and was finally completely outlawed in 1888. Not that that actually stopped it completely. There are claims that it still exists in the remote jungles to some degree today.
The “Viking” in my photograph is from Australia.
Good luck trying to figure out where his DNA belongs on the family tree!
Australia? So, lots of rapist DNA.
Within the last week, I read an article about slavery in New Orleans.
They had all kinds of unexpected rights...
Sunday off - could own property, live on it, and farm it for personal profit - established families could not be broken up.
I'm a bit surprised at the huge drop in Germanic Europe. I never even knew I had any ancestors from there until I had my DNA done. My father was born in Holland, and my mother was born in Canada.
DNA proved that even hundreds of years ago, the Vikings were punking the Saints...
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