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Authentic Viking DNA From 1,000-Year-Old Skeletons
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."
Now we can reincarnate the vikings. Good job.
-- (this is a sig) My Computer Programming Forumhttp://www.programers.co.nr/
This should be interesting. I wonder if we'll find out one of the Native American Tribes was heavily interbred with some vikings.
In any case, the really interesting thing is that this will really show us how each race of humans developed and spread, and who came from who.
Of course, we'll find that it all started 6,000 years ago, in a garden in the Middle East...
How drastically would their DNA differ from that of current Norweigians, Swedes, and Danes? I dare not mention the Finns, lest some the Scandinavians go viking-shit on me.
But seriously, though; has the modern gene pool been dramatically changed due to southern neighbors migrating north?
For the lazy, the samples found were:
All of those are found in Europe to varying degrees; the only item of note is that the K and one of the H samples had no exact matches when compared to a database containing over 15,000 mtDNA sequences.
And like someone else here said - just make them all female.
Any missing DNA could be taken from frogs.
And then, with some luck, Trekkies will finally be able to have their green-skinned Orion slave girl fantasies based on actual, real life girls.
Associating with them, James T. Kirk style, would naturally remain a fantasy for nearly all of the Trekkies.
There are some things even unscrupulous genetic crimes against nature can't help with.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Probably no change at all. Scandinavia has never been pillaged or conquered with mass invasions by foreign soldiers.
:)
However, There are a high percent of foreign female(!) genes in Scandinava. Apparently, 30% of the females in Iceland have Irish genes (mtDNA), whereas less than five per cent of the men (Y-chromosome) have it. We can probably guess how the women came there, but I'm not so sure about the men...
At the Battle of Stamford Bridge, allegedly one single Berserker held the bridge and blocked Harold Godwinson's advance long enough for Harald Sigurdsson's army to assemble. Essentially denied Godwinson the element of surprise.
One guy. Vs the whole freaking Saxon army. What was _left_ of that Saxon army after the battle, was still enough to put up a battle at Hastings, so the original size must have been even more impressive.
I dunno, I'd vote that this is one of those cases where one should resist trying to improve what's perfectly good as it is. I'm not sure if the velociraptor genes wouldn't actually make it worse. And not in a good way.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
My mtDNA is T2 so I guess that means mom was descended from Vikings... The Vikings were raiding Ireland before AD 1000 and carrying out the most winsome lasses so I'd guess that's where some of the mtDNA came from. Ancient Celtic Warriors: Vikings and Irish at War Viking Settlemnent in Ireland
You're kidding, right? Let's look at the world of 1008 AD, and you tell me if it sounds ancient:
The English language didn't exist.
There were no ocean-going trade routes between Europe and East Asia.
Iceland had just had their first allthing, but other than that there were no democracies or republics in existence.
Spain was a Muslim province. Oh, and the Spanish language didn't exist, either.
The wild notion that the earth orbited the sun, and not the other way around, would not have scientific and mathematical constructs to support it for another 531 years.
The Roman Empire still existed (at least its Eastern Half).
The only religion in most of Europe was Roman Catholicism (the Vikings converted in the previous century).
The average person never traveled more than seven miles from the place of his or her birth, and could not conceive of communicating with people more than shouting distance away. They couldn't even write, only priests could (Charlemagne was notable as one of the only medieval rulers who could sign his own name).
About 33 generations have passed since 1008. If you don't think that's a long time, when was the last time you spoke with your great-great-grandfather in person? He was only four generations removed, and he was probably dead before you were born. 1000 years is a freakishly long time in terms of human life, culture, and advancement.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
For instance Leif Eriksen's sister Freydis Eriksdatter who attacked the Skraeling (Indians) while pregnant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freydís_Eiríksdóttir
I've heard that until recently there were still Vikings in Britain. A community of shepherds in a remote area still spoke an private language amongst themselves. When WW2 broke out, some of them ended up being based in Iceland, and discovered that they could understand the Icelandic speaking locals. Their 'private language' turned out to be Old Norse, handed down from their Viking ancestors.
A lot of people in remote northern parts of the UK have been shown to have Viking DNA.