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Authentic Viking DNA From 1,000-Year-Old Skeletons

Posted by timothy on from the unless-that-was-really-ullyses-s.-grant dept.

FiReaNGeL writes "Scientists were able to extract authentic DNA from ancient Viking skeletons, avoiding many of the problems of contamination faced by past researchers. Analysis of DNA from the remains of ancient humans provides valuable insights into such important questions as the origin of genetic diseases, migration patterns of our forefathers and tribal and family patterns. Using freshly sampled material from ten Viking skeletons from around AD 1,000, from a non-Christian burial site on the Danish island of Funen, Dissing and colleagues showed that it is indeed possible to retrieve authentic DNA from ancient humans."

7 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Go look up the definition of Ancient... by IronMagnus · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wait... so 1,000 years old is ancient? And here all along I thought the western roman empire ended in 476 AD, not 1008 AD. Time to re-write those history books.

    1. Re:Go look up the definition of Ancient... by Petrushka · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm guessing you come from the New World somewhere. Yes, 1000 years is fairly recent. But you're partially right, it wasn't quite "modern" either, which is why I said "not far from" modern.

      I'm not quite sure why you're bringing up Spain and East Asia; I'm perfectly happy to agree that Western Europe was a barbaric wasteland at the time, but for some reason I thought we were talking about Scandinavia. The eastern Roman empire continued to exist into the Modern period, by the way; when Constantinople fell the Renaissance had been well under way for some time in various European countries. But the Byzantine Empire was neither ancient, mediaeval, nor modern, but somewhere in between and all three at once.

      Unlike the rest of your points, that one is actually kind of (tangentially) related to the basic rationale for my earlier statement, as cultural and political links between Constantinople and Scandinavia were unusually strong, as European states of the time went. Scandinavians had already discovered and were attempting to colonise three separate New Worlds (Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador), something that Italians like Columbus didn't even think of for nearly another half millennium; and it was only going to be a couple more centuries before a sort of Renaissance started in Scandinavia, long before it got going anywhere else in Europe. So, I stand by my statement: "not far from modern". In the same way that the Italy of Boccaccio's time could be considered "not far from modern".

  2. Digging places by Borathian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So why would it matter if the burial site is Christian or no-Christian? Last time I checked one dead body is as dead as another, wouldn't just saying "from a burial site on the Danish island of Funen" be more textualy efficent ;)

    1. Re:Digging places by Gat0r30y · · Score: 2, Insightful

      More importantly wouldn't it be better to state that the weren't Viking Funerals?

      --
      Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
  3. Re:So by Collective+0-0009 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Funny how you use 'reincarnate'. Now you aren't laughing at that pharaoh that wrapped himself tightly for some crazy trip to reincarnation (aka a few thousand years til science catches up).

    --
    I finally updated my sig, but now it's lame.
  4. Whatever by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Chuck Norris could so kick that guy's ass.

  5. Re:Do you NEED velociraptors? by ozbird · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One guy. Vs the whole freaking Saxon army.

    Allegedly one guy - but most importantly a bridge. The right terrain can be a huge force multiplier e.g. the Battle of Thermopylae.