LEFT: DE AGOSTINI PICTURE LIBRARY/GRANGER, NYC. RIGHT: OMAR MARQUES/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
relied on ancient DNA from a different animal
to chart Viking ingenuity in a 2017 PNAS study.
Through genetic material preserved in fish bones
from archaeological sites, Star and colleagues
uncovered the apparent origin of a trade route
that continues today.
The team’s research showed that Vikings
initially caught cod in the arctic waters off
Norway’s Lofoten Islands, whose climate allows
for preservation through air drying, rather than
more expensive salting. After preservation, the
fish were then shipped south for consumption in
Germany and elsewhere.
“The Vikings were very smart about their
surroundings,” says Star. “They went to the
Lofotens because they knew there was a massive
cod spawn and they could dry the fish without salt,
making it an extremely cheap protein. They used
their environment to its maximum potential.”Onward!
Aside from the occasional academic skirmish
and setbacks due to DNA degradation, genomic-
driven studies of the Viking Age are gathering
momentum and, promisingly, are including more
input from other disciplines.
“We can sequence DNA, but without knowing
the stories, the context, it’s meaningless,” says
Boessenkool. She notes that, despite DNA’s popular
image of objective precision, the data often requires
interpretation, which is based on a researcher’s
assumptions. “Sometimes the [genetic] signals are
very clear, but sometimes they’re not.”
She adds: “The geneticists publish the DNA
data, but too often they don’t actually listen to whatthe archaeologists are saying. We’re very aware of
that, and trying not to be that way. But also, we’re
biologists. We’re from different worlds [than the
archaeologists] and speak a different language.”
The current body of DNA-derived research on
the Vikings is just the tip of the spear. Uppsala
archaeologist Price is two years into a decade-long,
$6 million project to reveal the economic, social and
environmental factors that led to the Viking Age.
Paleogeneticist Eske Willerslev, who gained
fame for using ancient DNA to revise our
understanding of First Americans, is working on
a separate project involving genetic material from
the Viking Age.
Willerslev’s team declined to comment ahead
of any published work, but among the expected
early results: a DNA-based study of multiple men
found buried in two Scandinavian boats on the
Estonian coast. The boats, excavated between
2008 and 2012, have been dated to the mid-eighth
century and are from the Late Vendel Period, the
Viking Age precursor.
Excavation head and Tallinn University
archaeologist Jüri Peets hopes DNA will determine
kinship between the men, which could provide
another clue to how the Viking Age evolved.
As Uppsala University’s Hedenstierna-Jonson,
lead author of the controversial Bj 581 study,
explains, “We need as many pieces as we can get
to get closer to the actual truth, although I don’t
believe we will ever be able to know everything.
After all, it’s all about people and they were — and
are — wonderfully complex and unpredictable.”^ DGemma Tarlach is senior editor at Discover.March 2018^ DISCOVER^31The Vikings
left behind
many burial
sites (left)
and artifacts,
such as the
magnificent
Oseberg ship
(right), now
on display in
Oslo. But the
biggest clues
to who they
were may be
found in their
DNA. Multiple
high-profile
projects are
underway
to uncover
more of the
Scandinavian
adventurers’
genetic saga.