Scientists have examined human remains found in Trondheim, Norway, at the bottom of an abandoned well. They have determined that the skeleton belonged to a man who lived about 800 years ago and may have been mentioned in the Icelandic Sverrir Saga. DNA analysis of this man has shown that he is genetically close to the population of the south of modern Norway. He probably had blue eyes, fair skin, and fair or light brown hair. This is reported in an article published in the journal iScience.
"Sverrir Saga" is one of the Icelandic "royal sagas", dedicated to King Sverrir Sigurdsson and is the main source for the history of Norway in the second half of the 12th century - a period of political instability, rebellions and civil wars. Among other things, this saga describes the events of how Sverrir's opponents attacked his fortress Sverresborg in 1197, the remains of which are located in the territory of modern Trondheim. They not only plundered valuables, burned buildings, but also threw a dead body into a well to poison the water, after which they filled the well with stones.
In 1938, archaeologists were exploring the ruins of Sverresborg and discovered human remains at the bottom of an abandoned well. In 2014–2016, scientists returned to study the site and found new bones, which, together with older finds, allowed them to assemble approximately 90 percent of the skeleton. Anthropologists determined that it belonged to an adult male who lived for about 30–40 years and had suffered several injuries before his death.
In a new paper, scientists from Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, led by Michael Martin from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, presented the results of a study of these remains. Radiocarbon dating showed that with almost 93 percent probability the find dates back to 1153–1277 AD. This is consistent with the date of the attack on Sverresborg Fortress, so it is quite possible that the skeleton really did belong to the man mentioned in the saga.
Paleogeneticists then extracted DNA from the remains found in the well and confirmed that they belonged to a man. The researchers determined that he was a carrier of the mitochondrial haplogroup H2a2a1, which is today mainly found in Scandinavia and eastern Europe. On his father's side, he was a representative of the Y-chromosomal haplogroup I1a1a3a1, which is currently found mainly in Scandinavia.
Further analysis of the nuclear genome showed that the Sverresborg man falls within the genetic variability of modern Norwegians. Moreover, according to the scientists, he is very close to the population of the south of this country. In addition, the researchers used a program that allows predicting some phenotypic characteristics of this man. He probably had blue eyes, fair skin, and blond or light brown hair.
We recently reported on an unusual burial site excavated about half a century ago in Belgium. Scientists analyzed the ancient skeleton and discovered that it was made up of the remains of at least seven people, most of whom lived in the late Neolithic era.