economie

Archaeologists found Viking skeletons over 1,000 years old buried with a crystal and other treasures. They’re improving our understanding of how wealthy Vikings once lived.

October 16, 20240
A conservator from Museum Odense holds a brooch from a Viking-age grave.

Reuters/Tom Little

Vikings were avid travelers, using boats to voyage around the coast of Europe and to Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and Russia. They used seafaring for both colonization and trade.

A brooch shaped like an animal head that researchers found illustrates this type of international exchange. The style is unique to Gotland, now a Swedish island hundreds of miles away from Åsum.

“It is very rare and must have been precious to the owner for her to be buried with it,” Borre Lundø said.

The villagers may have also traded with people as far away as Norway.
The Oseberg cart, from the Oseberg Viking ship, on display in Oslo, Norway. It was found in a burial mound in Tønsberg, Norway and belonged to an elite Viking-era woman.

Mel Longhurst/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Being buried with a cart or wagon signified the person was very important or wealthy.

“This type of burial is reserved for high-status women in Viking Age society,” Borre Lundø said.

Excavators also found ornamental nails from a decayed wooden chest that was buried at the foot of the woman’s grave. Archaeologists are still studying its contents.

The woman’s presence at this burial site indicates the village was an important destination or stop for the wealthy who may have been looking to trade goods, Borre Lundø said.

Researchers found the graves before a development project.
Archaeologists excavate skeletons at a Viking-era burial site in Denmark.

Reuters/Tom Little

Because the soil helped preserve the bones so well, the archaeologists hope to learn more about the skeletons’ age, sex, health, and, especially their heritage.

Typically, DNA analysis is only performed on a small number of remains in similar burial sites, Borre Lundø said, but the researchers want to extract DNA from all the skeletons in these graves.

“It will be incredibly exciting to learn where these people came from and whether the same families were buried here across multiple generations,” Sarah Croix, an associate professor at Aarhus University, said in a statement.

The skeletons’ DNA could also reveal more about the Vikings’ health and diets.
A skeleton in a grave at an excavation site of a 10th-century Viking burial ground in Aasum, Denmark.

AP Photo/James Brooks

In addition to their family ties, the skeletons’ DNA could reveal more about their diets and whether they differed from communities farther from the coast.

Borre Lundø is also curious about whether the cart woman’s DNA will reveal that she’s from Gotland, like her brooch. However, this would raise more questions about whether she was a visitor or permanent member of the community and when and how she arrived.

Other tests could also uncover information about the skeletons. For example, the soil may contain pollen that indicates the season in which they were buried.

Every bit of information gives archaeologists a clearer picture of this ancient population.