Vikings In Norway Were Much More Likely To Be Violently Killed Than Vikings In Denmark, According To These Skeletons
A new analysis has revealed that Vikings who lived in what is now Norway were much more likely to be violently killed than Vikings in Denmark.
The finding was surprising because experts have long thought that violence rates in Viking Age Norway and Denmark were fairly similar.
A team of researchers compared two groups of Viking Age skeletons—30 from Norway and 82 from Denmark.
Of the 30 Norwegian individuals, 11 Vikings, or about 37 percent, suffered violent deaths from being assaulted with blades or sharp weapons.
In contrast, only six individuals, or seven percent, of the Vikings in Denmark met violent ends, which mostly consisted of hangings or decapitation.
The team conducted deeper investigations into why Viking Age people in Norway died more violently.
They looked at historical and archaeological records from that period in Denmark and Norway. The skeletons from Norway were found across the country, but there were no examples from the northernmost parts of the country.
Many of the skeletons from Denmark came from the eastern or central regions of the country. Overall, the skeletons date back between the sixth to 11th centuries. The Viking Age occurred around 800 to 1050, so some of the skeletons predated the period.
Vikings who were killed in raids were usually buried in the lands they attacked. The Vikings in the study were likely killed in their home territories, not on raids abroad. In Norway, there were more cases of Vikings being buried with weapons than in Denmark.
Andrei Armiagov – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
“A notable feature in Norway was the presence of weapons, particularly swords, alongside skeletons in graves,” said the researchers.
“The study identified more than 3,000 swords from the Late Iron Age and Viking periods in Norway, with just a few dozen in Denmark. These findings suggest weapons played a significant role in Norwegian Viking identity and social status—further emphasizing the culture’s connection to violence.”
In addition, the government in Denmark seemed to have been more centralized than Norway’s during the Viking Age.
In Denmark, the fortifications were larger and more complex compared to those in Norway, indicating that more people and resources were brought together in Denmark than in Norway.
Furthermore, the researchers analyzed rune stones with inscriptions in Norway and Denmark. The rune stones in Denmark revealed more evidence of social hierarchy, such as the use of titles.
Since the government in Denmark was more centralized, it may have been more successful at reducing rates of violence. The violence that did occur may have been organized by authorities in the form of executions.
It’s hard to say whether the skeletons from around Norway and Denmark accurately reflect the populations they came from. The sample size is relatively small, which is a limitation of the study.
The study was published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
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