Genetic heritage of the Vikings

2001/03/19 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika
• Historia

In the North Atlantic islands, mitochondria DNA has been studied and 60% of women have British origin, although most of the colonizing men were from Scandinavia.

VIII-XI. For centuries, the Vikings conquered vast territories of Northern Europe and the British northwest. From there they colonized the islands of the North Atlantic. Some of these islands inhabited small Gaelic populations (Celts of Scotland and Ireland). Studies so far have used genetic markers to determine the proportion between Gaelic and Viking ancestors of the Icelandic population. But the proportion of Scandinavians ranged from 2% to 86%.

The new research involves analyzing the DNA of mitochondria. Since the DNA of the mitochondria is inherited through eggs, one can know what the maternal immigrant is. The geneticists of Reykjavik and Oxford have analyzed the mitochondria DNA of 1,664 people from Britain, Scandinavia and the North Atlantic islands, as well as from other European countries. According to the results of the study, it can be concluded that 60% of the first women in Iceland were of Gaelic origin. But another of the most surprising results was that the Vikings were the ancestors of some of the inhabitants of the British Isles. For example, 35% of the island of Orkney, according to mitochondrial DNA, was of Scandinavian origin and 12% of Syke and the Western Islands.

Researchers also studied the Y chromosome and found that 80% of Iceland's first men were from Scandinavia. Both studies show that men and women did not migrate together. Researchers believe that Viking men took Gaelic women before migrating to Iceland and North Atlantic islands.

The mitochondrial DNA study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, as well as the Y chromosome study, is part of a broader project to analyze the genetic diversity of the population of the British Isles ("Oxford Genetic Atlas Project").