World's largest ever DNA sequencing of Viking skeletons reveals they weren't all Scandinavian

[Judi Lynn]

Sunday, 22 May 2022

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.

More:
http://viking-archaeology-blog.blogspot.com/2022/05/worlds-largest-ever-dna-sequencing-of.html

[hlthe2b]

1. Ohhh!

You mean they didn't all look like... HIM?





Say it isn't so!

[stopdiggin]

2. those Vikings got around

literally and ...

(also big time slavers - which really helps in dispersing the DNA - but not exactly unique in that either.)

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Did anyone else get the impression that these barbarians hit a

high admiration and likeability factor because images of half naked gorgeous Aryan actors always played the roles of the Vikings?

And now we learn that they were a diverse group. LOL! Exactly what the extreme White Supremacists want to avoid at all cost, today.

[Warpy]

4. If there were many men at any given site they traveled to,

Vikings pulled out their purses and became traders and their trade routes were extensive, stretching from eastern Canada to Afghanistan. When they saw easy pickings and turned into raiders, they took people as slaves. Slaves became part of the household and intermarriage happened often if the slaves weren't redeemed for cash before the Vikings moved on.

What killed the whole enterprise off was Christianity, Vikings found Christians would only trade with other Christians and they had quern stones to unload, preferably for silver. Never mind how prized those grain grinders were, the must-have appliance in every household, they found ports closed to them. So they converted and the church put a stop to all their fun, retribution for all the sacked monasteries and burned libraries.