New research suggests that when Vikings moved to new areas, the men and women traveled together.
Researchers found similarities between ancient Norse and Icelandic mitochondrial DNA and that of modern Northwestern Europeans, and the results suggested women were integral in Viking migration, Phys.org reported.
"The medieval Norsemen or Vikings had an important biological and cultural impact on many parts of Europe through raids, colonization and trade, from about A.D. 793 to 1066. To help understand the genetic affinities of the ancient Norsemen, and their genetic contribution to the gene pool of other Europeans, we analyzed DNA markers in Late Iron Age skeletal remains from Norway," the researchers wrote in their study abstract.
It is a widespread belief that Viking expeditions, reaching as far as North America, consisted of entirely male parties. This was correlated with the belief that Viking men raped women in whatever region they docked in. Earlier genetic studies have also suggested Viking men went to "pillage and plunder," leaving the women behind to join them later on.
To make their contradictory findings, researchers looked at mitochondrial DNA carried in egg cytoplasm, which passes though the maternal line. The DNA was taken from the teeth and skeletons of 45 Norwegians who died between 796 and 1066 A.D. The results of the analysis were found to be similar to those previously determined from ancient Icelanders.
This DNA was compared with mitochondrial samples taken from 5,000 modern people from the Scottish mainland as well as "Norway, Sweden, England, Germany and France," Phys.org reported. The team determined the ancient mitochondrial DNA was closely related to modern people's from the Orkney and Shetland Islands, which are close to Scandinavia. The findings demonstrate the path that Viking women took during their spread across Northern Europe.
"Our combined analyses indicate that Norse women were important agents in the overseas expansion and settlement of the Vikings, and that women from the Orkneys and Western Isles contributed to the colonization of Iceland," the researchers concluded in their abstract.
The findings were published Dec. 8 in the journal The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions B.
