Ground-breaking DNA study finds Vikings weren't all Scandinavian

[Judi Lynn]

Invaders, pirates, warriors – the history books taught us Vikings were brutal predators who travelled by sea from Scandinavia to pillage and raid their way across Europe and beyond.

Now cutting-edge DNA sequencing of more than 400 Viking skeletons from archaeological sites scattered across Europe and Greenland will rewrite the history books as it has shown:

• Skeletons from famous Viking burial sites in Scotland were actually local people who could have taken on Viking identities and were buried as Vikings.
  
  
• Many Vikings actually had brown hair not blonde hair.
  
  
• Viking identity was not limited to people with Scandinavian genetic ancestry. The study shows the genetic history of Scandinavia was influenced by foreign genes from Asia and Southern Europe before the Viking Age.
  
  
• Early Viking Age raiding parties were an activity for locals and included close family members.
  
  
• The genetic legacy in the UK has left the population with up to six per cent Viking DNA.

More:
https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/ground-breaking-dna-study-finds-vikings-weren-t-all-scandinavian

[William Seger]

1. I recently read an article that said "Viking" should be used as a verb, not a noun

Maybe "life style" is closer.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Another white supremacist origin theory gone to hell.

[Samrob]

3. Not all of it....

Vikings were largely marauding criminals in boats and on sleds and skis instead of horses and motorcycles.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Let's remember the Celts and their eastern European origins

They were marauders before Vikings

[hlthe2b]

5. Destroying many a fantasy.... You mean they didn't all look like:

Tell me it isn't so.

[mopinko]

6. interesting

i am 93% irish, w a bit of scandanavian and a high % of neanderthal.
i have to assume there are a lot of celtic 'vikings'.

[wnylib]

7. They took slaves in their raids

and also spread their genes through raping as they pillaged.

They sailed the Mediterranean and for a while were in Sicily.

So I guess their genetic variation reflects their travels.

[Wicked Blue]

8. Estonians and Finns were Vikings too

https://estonianworld.com/knowledge/the-baltic-finns-were-vikings-too-but-the-world-ignores-it/