There's an old Viking saying, "A family that pillages together, villages together."
I couldn't think of anything better that rhymed with
"pillages."
Vikings were a fantastic seafaring people from Northern Europe who landed in North America
1000 years ago.
We know they did because of archeology, a science not often covered on DNews, sadly.
In the 60s, a theory was presented that Vikings landed in Canada in 1000 CE, and in 2002 the
finding was confirmed when they found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland.
Once they identified the structure, the claim that Cristobal Colon … a.k.a, Columbus,
was the first from Europe to show up here was debunked.
Thanks, science!
Now, new research shows they didn't come alone, either.
According to research in The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions B, DNA evidence
shows the gentleman Vikings brought lady Vikings with them!
Not necessarily to the New World, but during their conquests, at least!
Previously, research held that Viking women stayed home, while the men headed out to sea
to establish colonies, pillage and plunder around the North of Europe; and then later
they'd move over too, but thanks to DNA, now we know better.
The researchers from the University of Oslo took the mitochondrial DNA of 45 Norwegian
skeletons from 769 and 1066 CE.
Mitochondrial DNA is ONLY passed via the mother, because it comes from the cytoplasm of the
egg cells.
They compared this DNA to previously analyzed DNA of ancient Icelanders -- Norway is 914mi
(1,472km) from Iceland, btw -- so this is a pretty good distance.
They THEN compared the DNA of those two groups to 5,000 modern people from Scotland and their
northern islands, England, France, Germany, Sweden and, of course, Norway!
What they found was the mitochondrial DNA was too similar to be a coincidence.
Viking women would have have been taken along with the men as they spread along the coast,
colonizing and pillaging as a big happy family.
All this is fine and dandy, but before you start picturing people who look like they
came from the Iron Islands in Game of Thrones, MORE research in the journal Viking Archaeology
found Vikings were not defined as dirty, brutal, cruel, people.
They were settlers and explorers, sending their ships across the curve of the horizon
to spread their culture.
Instead of pillaging, this new research showed Longhouses were built to help integrate the
culture of their new land into their own.
The research excavated longhouses dating from 900 CE and discovered the vikings wielded
politics, diplomacy and public relations to show their wealth and power -- not just their
swords.
According to the author of "The Vikings" which was published in 2010, these conquerors weren't
ONLY pirating seafarers (they were a bit), but were also politicians, explorers, navigators
and craftsmen.
Now we know they were family oriented too, and not unlike NASA these were the people
probing the mysteries of the farthest reaches of their world.
No wonder we're still fascinated by them today!
What do you think of Vikings?
Are they cool?
More into Conquistadors?
Byzantines?
Ancient India?
Get historical...