The Vikings, history’s legendary seafaring explorers, are often portrayed as long-haired men with blond hair and blue eyes. A new study, however, reveals that they were surprisingly diverse.
Scientists from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark recently determined that the Vikings were made up of several ethnicities.
The Vikings lived in Scandinavia—a region that today includes Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. From the late 700s to about 1100, they traveled along the coasts of Europe and beyond. Most Vikings sailed to trade goods and explore, but some had a reputation for plundering and killing.
The researchers collected the remains of more than 440 humans buried between 2400 b.c. and 1600 a.d. at archaeological sites across northern Europe, Greenland, and Italy—all areas where the Vikings journeyed.
By performing DNA testing on the ancient bones, the scientists found that many of those Vikings had ancestry from southern Europe. Some had DNA from a group of people called the Sami—reindeer herders from Asia. What’s more, many of the Vikings in the study were found to have had dark hair and dark eyes.
Now researchers want to collect more Viking remains to continue studying the seafarers’ backgrounds.
“The results of this study change the perception of who a Viking actually was,” explains Eske Willerslev, a DNA scientist who led the research. “The history books will need to be updated.”