Not only Scandinavians
The results of a complete genetic study of Vikings have been published
Scientists who have been studying Viking DNA from graves throughout Europe and Greenland for six years have published sensational results of their research in the journal Nature (Margaryan et al., Population genomics of the Viking world).
It turned out that Vikings and Scandinavians are not synonyms, and outwardly they were not very similar to modern Swedes and Norwegians. The word "Viking" comes from the Scandinavian vikingr, which means "pirate". So initially it did not indicate nationality.
The heyday of the Viking age covers the period from the 800s AD, when the chronicles recorded the first Viking raids on European settlements, until the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066. Scientists have always been wary of the literary and artistic version, which represented the Vikings as cruel sea robbers from the shores of Scandinavia.
The role of the Vikings in the medieval history of Europe was much broader: Cnut the Great became king of England, Leif Ericsson is believed to have been the first European to reach North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus, and Olaf Tryggvason is credited with spreading Christianity in Norway.
Researchers from different countries, led by Eske Willerslev, professor at St. John's College, University of Cambridge and director of the Center for Geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen, using cutting–edge DNA sequencing methods, recovered the complete genomes of 442 Vikings – men, women and children - from numerous graves scattered throughout Europe and Greenland.
In terms of time, these burials cover a huge period from the Bronze Age – approximately 2400s BC, to the early Modern period - 1600s AD, which allowed scientists to trace the genetic evolution of the Vikings and better understand their origin.
"We have an image of Vikings mixing with each other, trading and raiding, fighting kings all over Europe, because this is what we see on television and read in books," the press release says. Cambridge University words by Willerslev. – Based on genetic research, we showed for the first time that this was not such a world. Our work gives an idea of who the Vikings really were."
Firstly, scientists have found out that the Viking community was formed on the territory of the Scandinavian Peninsula under the influence of a large influx from outside. "We found out that the Vikings were not just Scandinavians by their genetic origin, because we found in their DNA a genetic influence from Southern Europe and Asia that had never been thought of before.
Many Vikings both inside and outside Scandinavia have a high level of non–Scandinavian origin," says another author of the study, Professor Martin Sikora from the University of Copenhagen. Secondly, the Vikings from the famous burials in Scotland were actually local Picts who looked like Vikings and followed their traditions.
By the way, researchers estimate that up to six percent of UK residents have Viking DNA today. The Swedes, for comparison, do not have much more – only ten. On the other hand, among the Viking skeletons in Norway and on the Orkney Islands in the North Sea were pure-blooded Britons.
Now it has been genetically proven that Vikings from the territory of modern Norway visited Ireland, Scotland, Iceland and Greenland; Danish Vikings raided England, and Swedish ones raided the Baltic countries.
Many expeditions included raids on monasteries and coastal towns, but the Vikings were no less active in trade. The main commodities were furs, tusks and seal oil. Often the raids were entertainment, in which large groups of close relatives participated. So, in one burial of those killed during the Viking raid, scientists identified four siblings, the rest of those buried were also genetically close.
Regarding the appearance of the Vikings, the authors concluded that most of them actually had brown hair, and not blond or red, as is traditionally believed.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru