A diorama at the Nairobi National Museum portrays early hominids processing game with tools.

The species that you and all other living human beings on this planet belong to is Homo sapiens. During a time of dramatic climate change 300,000 years ago, Homo sapiens evolved in Africa. Like other early humans that were living at this time, they gathered and hunted food, and evolved behaviors that helped them respond to the challenges of survival in unstable environments.

Humans (Homo sapiens) are the most abundant and widespread species of primates, characterized by bipedality and large complex brains enabling the development of advanced tools, culture and language. Humans evolved from other hominins in Africa several million years ago.

In his book The history of the human brain, Bret Stetka writes: “By human, I don’t just mean Homo Sapiens, the species we belong to, but any other member of the genus Homo. We have gotten used to being the only human species on Earth, but in our not-so-distant past – probably a few hundred thousand years ago – there were at least nine of us running around. There was Homo habilis, or “the handy man” and Homo erectus, the first “pitcher”.

The Denisovans roamed Asia, while the more well-known Neanderthalers spread through Europe. But with the exception of Homo sapiens, they are all gone.”

Homo sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago, evolving from Homo erectus and migrating out of Africa, gradually replacing local populations of archaic humans.

Early humans were hunter-gatherers, before settling in the Fertile Crescent and other parts of the Old World. Access to food surpluses led to the formation of permanent human settlements and the domestication of animals.

From Homo Sapiens to me (haplogroup A-PR2921 –> I-FGC15105)

My Autosomal origins in Western Europe.

If you look at the map, my Autosomal results indicate that my very early ancestors lived in geographic lands later occupied by Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, Danes, Vikings, Scandinavians and Normans. If you read on you will see that my Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups probably reconfirm these findings.

My paternal cousins (people you can trace to with only this male line) were probably among the first (re)settlers of Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia as the ice sheets receded.

The result of my Autosomal DNA analysis shows that my origins are 100% Western Europe.

From about 44,000 years ago, humans intermittently lived in the northwestern region of Europe between periods of glaciation due to the Ice Age. Around 13,000 BCE, they returned to the northwestern region of Europe including the British Isles via a land bridge connecting them.

Towards the end of the 4th millennium BCE, Hunter-Gatherers cultivated crops, domesticated animals, and made tools such as hand axes and pottery. The construction of large stone monuments, such as those found at Stonehenge, began by 3000 BCE.

Land bridge between the mainland and Britain – Doggerland and Dogger Bank. Comparison of the geographical situation in 2000 to the late years of the Vistula-Würm Glaciation. Map made by: Francis Lima“

Until the middle Pleistocene Great Britain was a peninsula of Europe, connected by the massive chalk Weald–Artois Anticline across the Straits of Dover. During the Anglian glaciation, about 450,000 years ago, an ice sheet filled much of the North Sea, with a large proglacial lake in the southern part fed by the Rhine, the Scheldt and the Thames.

Doggerland was an area of land, now submerged beneath the southern North Sea, that connected Great Britain to continental Europe. It was flooded by rising sea levels around 6500–6200 BCE. Geological surveys have suggested that it stretched from what is now the east coast of Great Britain to what are now the Netherlands, the western coast of Germany and the peninsula of Jutland. It was probably a rich habitat with human habitation in the Mesolithic period.

Around 7000 BC the Ice Age had ended and Mesolithic European hunter-gatherers had migrated from their refuges to recolonize the continent, including Doggerland which later submerged beneath the rising North Sea.

When scientists from Imperial College released a simulation of a tsunami, triggered by a vast undersea landslide at Storrega off the coast of Norway around 6000 BC, it probably came as a surprise to many in north-west Europe that their reassuringly safe part of the world had been subject to such a cataclysmic event.

The researchers suggest that this succession of destructive waves up to 14 metres high may have depopulated an area that is now in the middle of the North Sea, known as Doggerland. However, melting ice at the end of the last ice age around 18,000 years ago led to rising sea levels that inundated vast areas of continental shelves around the world. These landscapes, which had been home to populations of hunter gatherers for thousands of years were gradually overwhelmed by millions of tonnes of meltwater swelling the ocean. Doggerland, essentially an entire prehistoric European country, disappeared beneath the North Sea, its physical remains preserved beneath the marine silts but lost to memory.

The majority of western European males belonged to Y-haplogroup I and northeast Europeans to haplogroup R1a. Other minor male lineages such as R1b, G, J, T and E would also have been present in Europe, having migrated from the Asian Steppe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Anglosaxon migration.
Credit: Jones and Mattingly’s map

Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain spans approximately the six centuries from 410-1066 AD. The period used to be known as the Dark Ages, mainly because written sources for the early years of Saxon invasion are scarce. However, most historians now prefer the terms ‘early middle ages’ or ‘early medieval period’.

It is speculated that Celtic languages arrived in Britain with the influx of the Bell Beaker culture from Central Europe, which was defined by bell-shaped vessels.Anglo-Saxons is the collective name for the various Germanic tribes that settled in England after the departure of the Romans in 407, in the course of the 5th century and later.

The later invading tribes came from northwestern Germany and the Netherlands (the Angles and the Saxons and also the Frisians) and from Denmark (the Jutes).

Climate change had an influence on the movement of the Anglo-Saxon invaders to Britain: in the centuries after 400 AD Europe’s average temperature was 1°C warmer than we have today, and in Britain grapes could be grown as far north as Tyneside. Warmer summers meant better crops and a rise in population in the countries of northern Europe.

At the same time melting polar ice caused more flooding in low areas, particularly in what is now Denmark, Holland and Belgium. These people eventually began looking for lands to settle in that were not so likely to flood. After the departure of the Roman legions, Britain was a defenceless and inviting prospect.

The Saxons settled in the south of the country, the Jutes in the southeast (Kent), the Angles occupied the largest area: the center and north. Around 840 the invasions of the Danes (also called Vikings or Normans) started and at the time of King Alfred the Great they controlled a large part of the country.

Low Countries and Vikings

Map of Magna Frisia in Latin with the capital Dorestad (Richard Prins, Wikimedia Commons)

Before the Netherlands was the Netherlands or even Holland, it was known as Frisia. According to historians, Vikings came to Friesland in the 9th century. They established control over all of Friesland.

During the last years of Charlemagne’s reign (768-814) the emperor took measures against the danger of Viking raids. He stationed fleets in the major rivers and organized coastal defenses. After 820, the defense system in the northern part of the Carolingian state collapsed. Between 834 and 837 the city of Dorestad (near present-day Wijk bij Duurstede, about 70 km from where I live, Dordrecht) was destroyed four times. Without much opposition, Walcheren in Zeeland (where the Kloosterman Family originated) was taken in 837.

Already before 840 the Danish Vikings Harald and Rorik became vassals of Lothar (grandson of Charlemagne) and received Walcheren and Dorestad as fiefs. This tactical move did not bring peace.Until 873 there are regular reports of Viking attacks and in 863 Dorestad was again destroyed. This time the city was not rebuilt, also because the river became sandy. Bishop Hunger of Utrecht fled in 858 to Roermond and later to Deventer. In 873, the Normans in Oostergoo,

Friesland (Friesland) were defeated by an army led by an immigrant Viking. In Flanders, the Vikings regularly sailed up the Scheldt from 851 to 864 and attacked the cities of Ghent and the districts of Mempiscus and Terwaan. countries from Denmark) turned their attention to England.

The impact of the raids on everyday life must have been great, but perhaps not as great as ecclesiastical sources suggest. Churches and monasteries were almost always visited, for the simple reason that they had valuable property. Of course, the clergy described the Vikings as fierce pagans who turned the coastal areas into ruins. Politically, the Vikings stimulated the further disintegration of the Carolingian Empire. Because they encountered little resistance, they preferred robbers to traders. As vassals they played a role in the conflicts between Lotharius and Charles the Bald (ca. 840) and later (ca. 870) between Charles the Bold and Louis the German.

Areas subjected to settlement and raids by Vikings and Normans (Max Naylor, public domain Wikipedia Commons)

After the victory of Alfred the Great of Wessex (878) the Vikings returned to the lowlands. This time they also fought as land soldiers and were equipped with horses. Flanders was particularly hard hit (Ghent, Terwaan, Atrecht, Kamerijk). Louis III defeated the Vikings in 881 at Saucourt on the River Somme. This battle was described in Ludwig’s Lied (Ludwigslied). According to the Fulda Annals, Louis’ army killed 9,000 Danes. As a result, the Vikings returned to Flanders and Dutch Limburg. From Asselt (north of Roermond) they attacked cities in Germany (Cologne, Bonn) and Limburg (Liège, Tongeren). In their attack on Trier they were opposed by the bishops Wala and Bertulf of Trier and by Count Adelhard of Metz. Following the example of Trier, other cities began to defend themselves effectively.

The new emperor Charles the Fat sent an army to Asselt. The two Viking leaders, Godfried and Siegfried, were forced to negotiate. Godfrey chose to stay. He became a vassal of the emperor and, after being baptized, married Gisela, daughter of Lothair II, the first king of Lorraine. Siegfried was paid off with 2,000 pounds of silver and gold and set out for the north with 200 ships. Emperor Charles felt threatened by Godfried and his (Godfried’s) brother-in-law Hugo (Gisela’s brother).

In June 885 Godfried was invited for talks in Spijk, near Lobith. This turned out to be a conspiracy and Godfrey was murdered. Hugo was blinded and transferred to the monastery of Prüm for the rest of his life. Here the monk Regino wrote the story of his downfall. In September 891 the Vikings lost a battle at the river Dyle, near Leuven against King Arnulf of Carinthia. The Fulda Annals tell us that the bodies of dead Vikings blocked the flow of the river. The poor harvest of 892 and the threat of famine caused the Vikings to move north again. After 892 their role in the low countries was limited to occasional raids (particularly in Nijmegen, Groningen, Stavoren, Tiel and Utrecht). After 1010 the raids came to an end.

My Viking Index score is 38% and I most closely associated with the Vikings of Denmark and Sweden

The image of the Vikings that most of us have grown up with – the image in popular culture – is that of a tall, bearded, blond man on a longboat. Probably wearing a style of horned helmet, he’s a battle-hardened warrior heading out on a raiding mission to kill in and to steal from coastal towns or monasteries in the rest of Europe.

In truth, the stories of these terrifying Norsemen (men from the North) are mostly told by their survivors, as in their early years there was no written record kept by Scandinavian people themselves . This means that – until recently – we had to rely on the writings of people from outside of Scandinavia, people who might have had a vested interest in portraying Vikings in a negative light, and later on writings from towards the end of the Viking age after the introduction of Christianity into Scandinavia. These were written by people who – again – might have had an interest in showing the civilising effects of their new, more modern, ways.

While all Vikings were Norsemen, not all Norsemen were Vikings. These raiders were in fact only a subgroup of the Norse population; they all desired the opportunities and wealth that foreign lands could offer, whether through conquest or through trade and settlements for better farming and fishing.

I uploaded my DNA sample to LivingDNA. The test generates two pieces of information.

• My “Viking Index” (a score between 0 and 100%) and it represents the amount of DNA that I share with ancient Vikings and a “Viking Population Match” which identifies which of four Viking populations I most closely match.
• The four choices are Norwegian Vikings, Swedish and Danish Vikings, British and North Atlantic Vikings, and Eastern European Vikings.

According to LivingDNA my Viking index is 38% and I am most closely associated with the Vikings of Denmark and Sweden.

Read more about my Viking Index of 38%

According to LivingDNA my Viking index is 38%. That means that I am most closely associated with the Vikings of Denmark and Sweden.

Viking Index
The Viking index represents the amount of DNA that I share with ancient Vikings. First, the genetic similarities between my DNA and the DNA obtained from ancient viking and non-viking samples are computed.

LivingDNA allows us to estimate how much DNA I share with each group. In order to then interpret and contextualise this calculation, they compare my value to that of all other Living DNA users. This yields my Viking Index score.

The Viking Index score allows you to see where your result falls in comparison to the whole range of Viking Indexes across the Living DNA user base. For example, if your Viking Index is 80%, this means that your DNA is more similar to Viking DNA than 80% of all Living DNA customers.

The Viking Population Match
The Viking Population match indicates which Viking population my DNA is most similar to. LivingDNA has identified 4 distinct Viking populations from their analysis of ancient DNA. These are Norwegian Vikings, Swedish and Danish Vikings, British and North Atlantic Vikings, and Eastern European Vikings. They compare my DNA data to genetic models describing the genetic similarity and variability of these populations in order to identify my closest match.

Ancient Viking DNA
A total of 446 Viking samples were used for the LivingDNA analysis. Ancient human remains from the Viking Age were excavated in a diverse set of 80 archaeological sites within the current borders of the United Kingdom (including mainland Great Britain and the Orkney Islands), Ireland, Iceland, Denmark (mainland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.

Samples were excavated in the major areas of Viking influence and have been dated to between the late 8th and late 11th centuries CE. Human remains were excavated from burial sites. Most regions that were once inhabited by Vikings saw a gradual increase in the use of inhumation burials (opposite to cremation burials) during the Viking Age as a result of the adoption of Christian burial practices in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea area from the 10th century onwards.

This implies that there is a limited bioarcheological record of human remains from the Early Viking Age, whereas it is much richer for the latter stages of the Viking Age. It must be taken into account that the record of individuals given an archaeologically visible burial is highly skewed towards social elites, who maintained wider networks and enjoyed higher degrees of mobility than the average person – this is relevant when assessing population mobility and diversity.

Ancient human remains (mostly teeth or petrous bones) were processed and DNA was extracted and sequenced in order to be used to generate our Viking Index and Viking Population Match results. The Viking genetic data was retrieved from three scientific publications Margaryan et al., 2020, Krzewińska et al., 2018, Ebenesersdóttir et al., 2018.

My own (Viking) hand with Dupuytren’s contracture

Dupuytren’s contracture (also called Dupuytren’s disease, Morbus Dupuytren, Viking hand and Celtic hand) is a condition in which one or more fingers become permanently bent in a flexed position.  The disease comes from Scandinavia, possibly brought here by the Vikings. It’s mainly of genetic origin and therefore often runs in families.

The condition caused the growth of new tissue in the hands and fingers. Since these tissues have a habit of contracting, the condition often results in flexion deformities of the fingers.Dupuytren’s disease is currently called a Viking disease on the assumption that the disease was spread to Europe and the British Isles during the Viking Age of the 9th to the 13th centuries. From a literature search, it is proposed that Dupuytren’s disease existed in Europe earlier than the Viking Age and originated much earlier in prehistory.

There is a strong genetic component, certain HLA haplotypes also appear to be associated with the disease. It is strongly associated with northern European ancestry, and could have arisen from a genetic mutation in the Viking population originally.

Researchers have also discovered a link between Neanderthal genetic material and Dupuytren’s disease (Viking’s disease). Neanderthals living 40,000 to 50,000 years ago undoubtedly suffered from some form of this condition. Through genetic mixing they passed this vulnerability on to humans living alongside them in Northern Europe.

Read more about the Viking’s Disease’ traced back to Ancestral Neanderthals

Viking’s Disease’ Traced Back to Ancestral Neanderthals

Living reconstruction in the Neanderthal Museum (Erkrath, Mettmann) of a Homo sapiens neanderthalensis.

Researchers have discovered a link between Neanderthal genetic material and an unusual health disorder that affects modern humans. The disorder in question is Dupuytren’s disease, a.k.a. Viking’s disease, a hand condition that can cause some of a person’s fingers to become permanently bent at an angle.

Neanderthals living 40,000 to 50,000 years ago undoubtedly suffered from some form of this condition. Through genetic mixing they passed this vulnerability on to humans living alongside them in Northern Europe.

As explained in a new paper just published in Molecular Biology and Evolution , Dupuytren’s disease is far more common in people of Northern European descent than in those whose predecessors came from Africa. In fact, the name “Viking disease” comes from its predominance among descendants of the ancient Viking warriors who once ruled Scandinavia.

Highlighting the latter relationship, one study found that about 30 percent of Norwegians above the age of 60 experience the symptoms of Dupuytren’s disease, usually in their middle and/or ring fingers. “This is a case where the meeting with Neanderthals has affected who suffers from illness,” said the paper’s lead author, evolutionary geneticist Hugo Zeberg from the Karolinska Institute in Solna, Sweden. Nonetheless, he emphasized that it is important not to overstate the connection between Vikings and Neanderthals.

Viking’s Disease: Then and Now
It was in Europe that much of the interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans occurred between 42,000 and 65,000 years ago. African populations lived separately from Neanderthals, who occupied Eurasia exclusively. As a result, people of African descent only possess traces of Neanderthal DNA today.

In 1999, a Danish study of twins determined that the development of Dupuytren’s disease is most heavily influenced by heredity, with its heritability factor estimated to be at 80 percent. While other risk factors for the condition have been identified, including age, alcohol use and diabetes, a genetic predisposition must always be present.

This means that Neanderthal genetic material absorbed into the human genome is, in a very real sense, the true cause of this condition. It was the prevalence of Dupuytren’s disease among Northern Europeans in particular that intrigued the scientists enough to motivate their study of the condition’s genetic origins.

To facilitate their research, the team of experts led by Hugo Zeberg analyzed data collected from 7,871 people with the disorder and 645,880 control subjects listed in the UK Biobank , the FinnGen R7 collection and the Michigan Genomics Initiative. Their purpose was to identify the presence of genetic variants that could be connected to Dupuytren’s disease.

Neanderthal hunters depicted in the Gallo-Romeins Museum Tongeren (Belgium)

Through extensive comparative analysis, scientists identified 61 genetic variants associated with Viking’s disease, with three of them known to originate from Neanderthals. Most significantly, the second and third most strongly associated variants came from the Neanderthals, suggesting that these extinct human cousins were particularly susceptible to Dupuytren’s disease.

The scientists taking part in the study believe that the widespread prevalence of this condition in present-day human populations would be highly unlikely without there having been contact and interbreeding with Neanderthal populations.

Neanderthal DNA: A Curse, a Blessing, or a Mixture of Both?
Studies have shown that about two percent of the human genome is comprised of DNA sourced from distant Neanderthal ancestors. Only trace amounts are found in those who are descended from people who lived in sub-Saharan Africa, based on the lack of Neanderthal penetration into that part of the world.

While it might not sound like all that much, human development has been significantly impacted by the presence of this genetic material. The study linking so-called Viking’s disease to Neanderthal genes is not particularly surprising, because other studies have found a clear connection between our Neanderthal generic inheritance and various human health conditions.

For example, comprehensive research published in 2014 found links between Neanderthal genes and type 2 diabetes , Crohn’s disease, biliary cirrhosis (an autoimmune disease of the liver) and incidence of depression. Recent studies have even suggested a link between Neanderthal genes and susceptibility to Covid-19 .

These genes didn’t necessarily introduce new types of ill health to the human gene pool. But they did increase the likelihood of certain disorders developing. Further research may indicate that other human health conditions are affected by Neanderthal DNA in the same way.

For the most part, Neanderthal genes are concentrated in areas that code for the creation of human skin and hair. Scientists believe this DNA was picked up and passed on because it had survival advantages: Neanderthal contributions would have given humans the ability to grow thicker hair and skin, which would have helped protect them from the colder climates they encountered in Eurasia once they’d left the African continent.

Given the assumptions behind this theory, the persistence of Neanderthal genes that increase disease risk seems surprising, since this DNA would reduce survival chances rather than increasing them. It’s possible that Neanderthal genes have survived in humans as a result of random chance, offering benefits in some cases and increasing vulnerability in others.

What all the research shows conclusively is that Neanderthal genes do have a significant impact on human health and development. In the context of Viking’s disease, Neanderthals introduced a genetic condition to the human gene pool that is unpleasant but does not pose a significant threat to survival. The majority of individuals affected by this disorder were likely unaware of their Neanderthal genetic heritage until now. However, with this recent scientific revelation, it is probable that they will never forget their newfound ancestral Neanderthal connection.

• Source and credit:
  Article by By Nathan Falde, published in Ancient Origins.
• Top image: My hand with Viking’s disease, a.k.a. Dupuytren’s contracture, a condition of the hand that can cause some of a person’s fingers to become permanently bent at an angle. Photo made by Cees Kloosterman
• Neanderthal hunters depicted in the Gallo-Romeins Museum Tongeren (Belgium), Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Well I have Dupuytren’s contracture and my father and grandfather, so this genetic mutation certainly runs in my family.

So were some of my early ancestors Viking?

A Viking longboat sails through ocean calm waters to their destinations for trade goods.

Genetic ancestors shared by two individuals are detectable by regions of matching DNA. With every generation there is a chance that each region will be split by the shuffling, so they inevitably get shorter over time. By finding the length of the longest region shared by the two individuals, one can estimate the time passed since the most recent shared genetic ancestor.

The ubiquity of the term “Viking” masks a wide variety of constructions of Vikingism: the old northmen are merchant adventurers, mercenary soldiers, pioneering colonists, pitiless raiders, self-sufficient farmers, cutting-edge naval technologists, primitive democrats, psychopathic berserks, ardent lovers and complicated poets.

• Wow … that sounds just like me, so do I have some Viking in my DNA?

Well, considering that 56 % of my Autosomal DNA origins are from England, Wales and Scotland, 23 % from Scandinavia and that my main Y-DNA I-FGC151505 haplogroup is most commonly found in England and Denmark and that my LivingDNA Viking Index is 38% makes it an interesting idea and certainly not a far-fetched possibility. 

Viking identity was not limited to people with Scandinavian genetic ancestry. The genetic history of Scandinavia was influenced by foreign genes from Asia and Southern Europe before the Viking Age. Many Vikings have high levels of non-Scandinavian ancestry, both within and outside Scandinavia, which suggest ongoing gene flow across Europe.”

• Maybe the answer to my Vikings ancestry should be, “Yes, we all are Vikings… and Romans, Huns and Slavs and we are also all Africans and Asians.

Out of Africa migration to Western Europe of my Haplogroup I-FGC15105

FTDNA Globe trekker EUROPE view of the lineages through time and place and to uncover the modern history of my (I-FGC15105) direct paternal surname line and the ancient history of my shared ancestors. In addition to my own (I-FGC15105) ancestral line (thick red line), the thin red lines shows lineages that went other ways and the migration paths leading up to my Ancient Connections.

FTDNA Globetrekker enlarged EUROPE view of my Y-DNA path to I-FGC15105