Viking Women With Elongated Skulls Were Found On An Island In Sweden, And Their Body Modification May Have Meant They Were Socially Elite
People in ancient societies have been known to perform body modifications, so it’s not a surprise when archaeologists find bones that have been altered.
For example, the Vikings carved grooves into their teeth to represent status or intimidate others. But there is another form of intentional body modification that is much more extraordinary.
A team of researchers examining Viking skulls from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea found that three of the skulls had been modified to achieve an elongated shape. They all belonged to women who lived about 1,000 years ago.
Gotland is Sweden’s largest island. It is located off the southeastern coast of the country. It is famous for being a place rich with Baltic history.
The island used to be independently ruled by Vikings, so it is home to many burial grounds from the Viking Age, such as Kopparsvik, which holds approximately 330 burials dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries.
Within these cemeteries, examples of elongated skulls were discovered. According to the researchers, the findings provide a window into how Viking groups interacted with other civilizations.
Cranial modification has been observed in multiple parts of the world. It is still practiced in certain remote cultures today.
But before this discovery, cranial modification had never been previously associated with Viking culture. The research team thinks the practice was learned during trade travels.
“We do not know where these three women grew up and where their heads were deformed,” said Matthias Toplak, a co-leader of the study from the Viking Museum Haithabu.
Olga Miltsova – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
“Whether their heads were deformed in their early childhood in the region around the Black Sea, for example, and how they came back to Gotland is unclear.”
Cranial modification was practiced regularly in the Black Sea region. The women’s skulls were elongated, which was usually done by wrapping bandages around an infant’s head while the bones were still malleable.
This type of modification would not have affected cognition or development. However, more aggressive techniques, such as pushing on the skull with straps or weights, could put too much pressure on the brain.
The researchers can’t determine anything about the three women’s cognitive function just from analyzing the skulls, but they can learn about the importance of the practice and how it was adopted by other cultures.
The women stood out from their Viking counterparts. It appeared they were foreigners on the island and symbolized the Vikings’ commercial success.
Their elongated skulls were likely a sign of social status. They may have also represented beauty or membership of a particular social group.
“It is possible that all these aspects came together, and the deformed skulls were an expression of a social elite and thus signaled status, and inevitably, attractiveness,” stated Toplak.
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