Vikings have a reputation as hardy, healthy folk. But scanning 15 of their skulls with modern imaging revealed they likely lived with a host of maladies.
CT skull scans revealed that 15 individuals — whose ages ranged between 20 and 60 years — suffered from a broad range of diseases. The scans showed pathological bone growths in the cranium and jawbone. Such growths point to oral and maxillofacial disease, sinus and ear infections, and osteoarthritis, among others, the researchers reported in the British Dental Journal Open.
Studying Viking Health
A study of Viking teeth a year earlier piqued the interest of the University of Gothenburg’ researchers who conducted this study. They read a research article based on the examination of a large number of teeth from the Viking Age town of Varnhem. The town’s thousands of ancient graves hold many well-preserved Viking skeletons.
The Gothenburg researchers decided to scale up the technique from single teeth to entire skulls. The CT scans provided 3-D images that enabled researchers to find bone damage in a variety of layers and areas in the skulls.
“There was much to look at,” Carolina Bertilsson, a University of Gothenburg researcher, dentist, and co-author of the study, said in a news release. “We found many signs of disease in these individuals. Exactly why we don’t know. While we can’t study the damage in the soft tissue because it’s no longer there, we can see the traces left in the skeletal structures.”
Read More: Genetic Analysis of Viking Settlers Challenges Historical Saga
A Host of Diseases
The study provides a greater understanding of how Vikings lived — and also sometimes suffered.
“Everyone knows what it’s like to have pain somewhere, you can get quite desperate for help,” Bertilsson added. “But back then, they didn’t have the medical and dental care we do, or the kind of pain relief – and antibiotics – we now have. If you developed an infection, it could stick around for a long time.”
The researchers described their work as a pilot study. Now that the dental researchers have shown that CT scans can lend insight into ancient Vikings’ lives, archaeologists might turn to this technique, since it is both less invasive and more informative than chipping away bone fragments to study.
Read More: How Viking and Germanic DNA Spread Through the Iron Age Migrations
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Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
