The fusion of history, archaeology, and genetics is cracking an 800-year-old Nordic mystery. Researchers from Norway used ancient DNA to corroborate a story from the Sverris Saga, where a man’s body was thrown into a well. Genetic analysis reveals what the man might have looked like and where his ancestors came from. The findings are described in a study published October 25 in the Cell Press journal iScience and the methods used could help scientists identify other historical figures.Â
“This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” Michael D. Martin, a study co-author and genomicist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said in a statement. “There are a lot of these medieval and ancient remains all around Europe, and they’re increasingly being studied using genomic methods.”
[Related: Stone circles unearthed in Norway mark ancient children’s graves.]
The Sverris Saga
The Old Norse Sverris Saga details the reign of King Sverre Sigurdsson and is an important source of knowledge about the region in the late 12th and early 13th Century CE. One of the passages describes a raid on Sverresborg Castle outside Trondheim in central Norway that occurred in 1197 CE. The writer mentions a dead man thrown into the well, but the reason why he was thrown into the well is much more sinister than just a run of the mill drowning. Historians suspect that the body was thrown in as a way to poison the local main water source.
In 1938, the bones believed to be that of the “Well-man” were found within the castle’s walls, but scientists at the time couldn’t do much beyond visual analysis. Today’s scientists have radiocarbon dating and advanced gene-sequencing technology that allowed them to craft a more solid picture of the Well-man’s identity.Â
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