Multi-isotope variation reveals social complexity in Viking Age Norway.

ABSTRACT: Multi-isotope studies from human remains from Viking Age graves throughout Norway allow for a deeper understanding of mobility, livelihood, and social organization during the Viking Age (750-1050 CE). Based on a framework of radiocarbon dates (¹⁴C), the studied inhumation graves are distributed across a broad chronological and geographical scope, covering the Late Iron and Viking Age (c. 500-1050 CE). Results of multi-isotope analyses (δ¹⁸O/δ¹³C/δ¹⁵N) in tandem with a cultural historical approach question the hegemonic masculinity associated with the "violent Vikings" and the apparent preconception of stationary women and mobile males in Viking Age Norway, thus challenging conjectural behavioral distinctions between women, men, and children. The

SUBMITTER: Strand LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9579023 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature