A massive new study of DNA sequences from Viking Age burials around Europe presents the story of the Vikings written in genes. The results, published this week in Nature, trace how the Vikings radiated across Europe from their Scandinavian homeland, and how people with roots elsewhere also took up Viking ways, making "Viking" a job description, not a matter of heredity. Researchers gathered human remains from burials in Europe, Iceland, and Greenland dating between about 750 C.E. to 1000 C. E. The results tell dramatic family stories, such as that of four Scandinavian brothers buried shoulder to shoulder with their swords, hundreds of kilometers from home in Estonia. The genetic details also hint at Viking traits: Viking Age Scandinavians were more likely to have black hair than people living there today, for example.

中文翻译：

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古老的DNA在欧洲追踪维京人

一项对欧洲维京时代墓葬 DNA 序列的大规模新研究展示了用基因书写的维京人的故事。本周发表在《自然》杂志上的研究结果追溯了维京人如何从他们的斯堪的纳维亚家园辐射到整个欧洲，以及在其他地方扎根的人如何也采取维京方式，使“维京人”成为工作描述，而不是遗传问题。研究人员从公元 750 年到公元 1000 年之间的欧洲、冰岛和格陵兰的墓葬中收集了人类遗骸，结果讲述了戏剧性的家庭故事，例如四个斯堪的纳维亚兄弟并肩埋葬他们的剑，距离爱沙尼亚的家数百公里. 基因细节也暗示了维京人的特征：例如，维京时代的斯堪的纳维亚人比今天生活在那里的人更有可能拥有黑头发。