It turns out they usually practiced DNA-unfriendly cremation of the dead. A surprise slaughter resulted in burials and intact DNA a millennia later. With DNA you can sort out relations and begin to make sense of migration.
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His team managed to decode ancient genomes from six men and one woman killed at Sandby Borg. Their DNA, along with samples from a handful of other early sites, showed Iron Age Scandinavians a few centuries before the Viking Age were genetically similar to each other and related to modern-day Swedes, the researchers report today in Cell.
More genomes from other sites confirm that around 750 C.E., as new sailing techniques enabled Scandinavian merchants and raiders to range far beyond their corner of the Baltic, Scandinavia saw an influx of immigrants. People with genetic ancestry from the British Isles, the eastern Baltic, and “Uralic” ancestry from Siberia appear in different parts of Scandinavia. There’s more western ancestry in Sweden and Denmark, for example, and an eastern influence on the island of Gotland.
“They vindicate the idea that there is an upturn in contact with people overseas in the Viking Age,” Sindbæk says.
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a tip of the hat to Sukie
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