Viking helmets with horns are a myth that has long been dismissed by science. Nevertheless, the image of the brutal Viking lives on in films and comics, first created in the late 19th century and later reinforced by Hollywood. But research has broadened and nuanced our view of the Vikings, especially in the last decade.
It makes probably no sense to take the population of Birka as a sample of "Swedish" population. Birka was a trading town, reasonably with a lot of foreign tradesmen among its inhabitants. It would be more interesting to check peasants' graves if there are any.
According to Karin Bojs, Scandinavia has experienced three waves of immigration – one when the ice melted some 10000 years ago, another, made up of agriculturalists, 5000 years ago, and a third, of cattle raisers, some 500 years after. Later findings has established that the "first" wave – of hunter-gatherers – in reality were two, one from the south and one from the east.
So of course there were mixtures. A thousand years ago they should have mixed quite a lot.
The Viking towns were so small so that they alone could not have filled all of the Viking raids with fighting men. Probably many farmer vikings went raiding as well and brought home people of mixed origin as well
Quite possible that they did. But I suppose those wo were buried in this little town were people who belonged there, i.e. merchants and perhaps artisans. Those who took part in travels were not only merchants but mostly gentry and aristocracy, who were probably buried elsewhere.
It makes probably no sense to take the population of Birka as a sample of "Swedish" population. Birka was a trading town, reasonably with a lot of foreign tradesmen among its inhabitants. It would be more interesting to check peasants' graves if there are any.
According to Karin Bojs, Scandinavia has experienced three waves of immigration – one when the ice melted some 10000 years ago, another, made up of agriculturalists, 5000 years ago, and a third, of cattle raisers, some 500 years after. Later findings has established that the "first" wave – of hunter-gatherers – in reality were two, one from the south and one from the east.
So of course there were mixtures. A thousand years ago they should have mixed quite a lot.
The Viking towns were so small so that they alone could not have filled all of the Viking raids with fighting men. Probably many farmer vikings went raiding as well and brought home people of mixed origin as well
Quite possible that they did. But I suppose those wo were buried in this little town were people who belonged there, i.e. merchants and perhaps artisans. Those who took part in travels were not only merchants but mostly gentry and aristocracy, who were probably buried elsewhere.