Viking DNA Dispersal Points to Babel

It is easy to assume that the stereotypical Scandinavian today indicates how the Vikings of centuries past appeared. While it is known that the Vikings were explorers and reached North America long ago, there is other evidence of how much they got around.

Credit: Flickr / Katherine (take a look at the caption for background) (CC BY-ND 2.0)

It seems to be human nature to move around, as we have seen with the Neanderthals, Denisovans, Celts, and other ancient people groups. Modern researchers raided Viking burial grounds and conductive intensive research, and saw that like other folks, they managed to spread their DNA around. However, they also discovered that DNA was shared into Scandinavia. Trace genetics, culture, history, and so on back far enough and you'll find support for the biblical narrative of the dispersal at Babel.

The activities of the Viking Age (793–1066 AD) radically shaped the demographic landscape of Europe—along with its politics, culture, and demographics—in ways that are still playing a major role to this day. Viking explorers developed trading partners and established colonies that stretched across the Atlantic to North America and even to locations in the Asian steppe.

In this new study, researchers sequenced the DNA of 442 different individuals from a diversity of Viking archaeological sites spanning Europe and Greenland. The new genetic data was then analyzed together with published data from 3,855 modern individuals of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

To read the entire article (I think you'll take a Viking to it...see what I did there?), sail over to "Viking DNA Highlights Post-Babel Genetic Diversity".