Authentic Viking DNA Retrieved From 1,000-year-old Skeletons

ScienceDaily (May 27, 2008) — Although “Viking” literally means “pirate,” recent research has indicated that the Vikings were also traders to the fishmongers of Europe. Stereotypically, these Norsemen are usually pictured wearing a horned helmet but in a new study,  Jørgen Dissing and colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, investigated what went under the helmet; the scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers.

Analysis of the Viking DNA showed no evidence of contamination with extraneous DNA, and typing of the endogenous DNA gave reproducible results and showed that these individuals were just as diverse as contemporary humans.

New Research Refutes Myth Of Pure Scandinavian Race

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2008) — A team of forensic scientists at the University of Copenhagen has studied human remains found in two ancient Danish burial grounds dating back to the iron age, and discovered a man who appears to be of Arabian origin. The findings suggest that human beings were as genetically diverse 2000 years ago as they are today and indicate greater mobility among iron age populations than was previously thought. The findings also suggest that people in the Danish iron age did not live and die in small, isolated villages but, on the contrary, were in constant contact with the wider world.

Archeologists and anthropologists know today that the concept of a single scandinavian genetic type, a scandinavian race that wandered to Denmark, settled there, and otherwise lived in complete isolation from the rest of the world, is a fallacy.

Photograph by P. Ethelberg/Sydsjllands Museum, 2000 

At the beginning of the Danish iron age, the roman legions were based as far north as the river Elbe (on the border of northern Germany) and it is thought that the man of arabian descent found in the burial grounds in Southern Zealand would have either been a slave or a soldier in the roman army. It is probable that he possessed skills or special knowledge, which the people in Bøgebjerggård or Skovgaard settlements could make use of, or he could have been the descendant of a female of arabian origin, who for reasons unknown, had crossed the river Elbe and settled down with the inhabitants of Zealand.

“This discovery is comparable to the findings of a colleague of mine, who found a person of siberian origin on the Kongemarke site,” continues scientist, Linea Melchior. He was buried on consecrated ground, just as the circumstances of the arab man’s burial was identical to that of the locals. The discovery of the arab man indicates that people from distant parts of the world could be and were absorbed in Danish communities.

“Another interesting feature of the approximately 50 graves assessed so far on the two sites and also from other burial sites and time periods in Danish history is that none of the individuals seem to be maternally related to one another”, explains Linea Melchior. “We couldn’t see any large families buried in the same location. This suggests that in the Danish iron age, people didn’t live and die in the villages of their birth, as we had previously imagined”.

The Vikings Had Children With Native Americans

Scanpix/Granger

The Vikings brought Native Americans to Iceland  a thousand years ago. Or so says Spanish and Icelandic researchers, who in 80 Icelanders have found a special type of DNA found only in Native Americans and East Asians.

Originally  the researchers considered that this exotic DNA came from Asians, who in modern times have settled in Iceland, but when the researchers examined the 80 Icelanders’ family tree, it turned out that all originate from the same area in southern Iceland, and that their DNA profile is at least 300 years old.

“Iceland was isolated from the rest of the world from the 900s onwards. The most likely explanation is that the genes originated from an Indian woman, brought in from America by the Vikings around the year 1000, “said DNA expert Carles Lalueza-Fox, who has participated in the new

analyzes.

The investigation  responds in historical circles, as researchers long believed that the Vikings came to America 500 years before Columbus.

Original Swedish Article: http://varldenshistoria.se/vikingarna/vikingarna-fick-barn-med-indianer

This is old news to any historian,archeologist, linguistic or anthropologist and probably most of you, but i publish it all the same.

Blood tests taken over the past year may help show part of Cumbria in northwest England was a Viking stronghold 1,200 years ago.

Geneticists discovered the area around Penrith has clear evidence of Norwegian influence.

However, the study also confirms that Vikings settled in large numbers in the Shetland and Orkneys and the far north of the Scottish mainland.

The research is part of a ground-breaking project commissioned by the BBC to uncover the UK’s Viking roots.

Vikings revealed

In the first large-scale genetics survey of its kind, experts from University College, London, studied the DNA of 2,000 people.

The full results of the project will be revealed in the final programme of the series, Blood of the Vikings, on Tuesday at 2100 GMT.

The study shows the genetic pattern of the Vikings remains in some parts of the UK population.

The research confirms the Norwegian Vikings did not just raid and retreat to Scandinavia, but actually settled in Britain.

Genetic markers

Of all the English test sites, only Penrith in Cumbria had clear evidence of Norwegian influence.

Surprisingly, mainland Scotland had a similar Celtic input as the population of southern England, showing that not only were the English never “homogenous Anglo-Saxons”, but neither were the Scots predominantly Celtic.

Geneticist Professor David Goldstein, from the University College London (UCL), led the study. He said: “Modern genetics has opened up a powerful window on the past.

“We can now trace past movements of peoples and address questions that have proved difficult to answer through history and archaeology alone.

Men only

“I’m delighted that we have been able to distinguish clear markers to indicate the genetic inheritance from the Norwegian Vikings.”

Scientists at UCL took mouth swabs from 2,000 people from 25 different locations across Britain.

They only tested men because information they were interested in was contained on the Y chromosome - which women do not have.

The genetic material in the samples was compared with DNA taken from people in Scandinavia where some locals are thought to be most similar to the Vikings.