When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its distribution partners may earn a commission. The skull of a Viking-era woman whose remains were found near Aarhus, Denmark. The skull shows signs of wounds on the head and was later buried in a well. | Credit: National Museum of Denmark Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that men, women and children were subjected to violence within their communities in ancient Scandinavia, and that these victims were buried in unusual locations, such as pits or wells or under a family’s house or yard. During the Scandinavian Iron Age and Viking Age (approximately 500 BC to 1050 AD), violent encounters between individuals and communities steadily increased, resulting in archaeological evidence of burials of elite warriors and mass graves from battles. To better understand the context of violence in the Iron and Viking Ages, researchers analyzed 192 human bones from people buried in domestic areas in settlements in what are now Denmark, Norway and Sweden. “The fact is that not all bodies ended up in monumental burial mounds in the Iron and Viking Ages, or even in more modest urn fields and cemeteries,” the researchers wrote in a study published September 28 in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. Rather, some bodies (or pieces of bodies) were placed on posts, ditches, floors, wells, houses, courtyards, and banquet halls. Archaeologists discovered that at least 12 of the individuals had suffered a violent injury at the time of their death. Half of those cases involved head trauma, while four people suffered multiple injuries. Most of the victims of violence were adult men, but there were also two women and a child. In an Iron Age house in Denmark, built sometime between 500 and 1 BC. C., archaeologists discovered a frontal bone from the skull of a child who died between 2 and 4 years of age. The skull of a 2- to 4-year-old boy from Aalborg, seen from different angles, showing damage caused by a sword cut. The skull was later placed on the floor of a house. | Credit: National Museum of Denmark “Our DNA analyzes show that this is a small child who has been cut with a sword,” the study’s first author, Marianne Hem Eriksen, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Denmark, said in a translated statement. “The child’s skull was placed on the floor of a house where people were still living. This means that someone has walked on a child’s skull day after day.” Radiocarbon dating revealed that the boy’s skull is significantly older than the house itself, up to two centuries, suggesting that the bone may have been preserved for some time before being placed in the floor of the house, according to the study. At a Viking Age site dating from around 750 to 1050, archaeologists found the skull of a young woman in a well near a group of four small houses. “The woman’s skull had traces of blows and was buried in a well,” Eriksen said. She may have been cut or hacked with a sword or axe and, like the boy, her bones may have remained for a significant period of time before being buried in the pit. “These glimpses of lives lived in the past show how fascinatingly different people must have thought about life and death,” Eriksen said. And at the Viking Age site of Gammel Lejre, a royal banquet hall that many experts consider the inspiration for the Old English epic poem “Beowulf,” archaeologists found the burial of a man whose skeleton bore numerous blunt force wounds, several of which had healed, and attested to a difficult and probably painful life. His skeleton was discovered directly south of the banquet hall. RELATED STORIES Studying bones in domestic areas “opens up a completely new understanding of Iron Age society, of the occurrence of violence and the handling of the dead,” Eriksen said. “The results show a much greater complexity in everyday life and the world of imagination of the period than we often attribute to Iron Age people.” But it is unclear exactly why these particular people were victims of violence and why they were buried in such unusual ways. One possible scenario, the researchers wrote in the study, is that they were victims of violent domestic encounters rather than war. Their deaths may also have been the result of socially acceptable corporal punishment or some form of aggression within the community. Given the rise in social inequality and increased violence in the Iron and Viking Ages, researchers suspect that precarious members of the community may have been targeted. “Not all lives were equally mourned and commemorated in the Iron and Viking Ages of Scandinavia,” the researchers wrote. “We can ask ourselves if some lives were already considered disposable.” See how much you know about the ancient Normans with our Vikings quiz!
