A lot of people wonder what the Vikings looked like. Recent findings about Viking height are based on studies conducted at Ohio State University in which researchers excavated skeletons in Scandinavia in northern Europe from the time of the Vikings and took measurements of the bones.
In most cases, the length of the femur , or thighbone, was used to estimate skeletal height. All the data the scientists collected enabled them to confidently make conclusive statements about height in that time period. Like people want to know what the Vikings looked like, they also want to know what they did for fun. See the article, Did the Vikings Play Chess? When the water supply, including the sanitation system, improved in Rome, people got taller.
After the Roman Empire, average heights decreased, likely due to the increase of infectious disease and the decrease of healthy drinking water:. After the Romans left Britain in , heights did not deteriorate immediately but fell from onwards. The paper highlights previous research suggesting that health may have deteriorated when populations moved out of the towns and cities set up by the Romans, abandoning their more hygienic water supplies and waste disposal systems.
Plague and pestilence then became common and infectious diseases are known to have increased at this time, with archaeological evidence also suggesting that diets were inadequate. Heights increased again in the Middle Ages , including among the Vikings :. Over this period of years, average heights increased by more than 5 cm. At the end of the Viking period, height started to decrease once more. The farmland may not have been as fertile as it was at the beginning of the Viking age.
Less harvest resulted in less seed, which led to a decrease in crops. Colder temperatures in northern Europe may have been a contributing factor as well. The 14th century Europe experienced periods of famine and, significantly, the Black Death.
The lack of food and the increase of disease affected overall wellness, including height. After the Black Death ended, and agriculture rebounded, overall wellness, including height, increased. Average heights would not increase again until after the Industrial Revolution in the Western world.
We can also say that, similar to other European countries, the men and women of Viking Age Scandinavia were shorter on average than the people who live there today. First Name. Last Name. Join the viking crew. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Submit Comment. How Tall Were the Vikings? With all these in mind, the following is some of the research that has been done on the subject.
Burials in Denmark and Sweden Offer us a few more Clues. Things to Keep in Mind About the Vikings. The Takeaway. Al on August 19, at am.
Gunnar on November 2, at am. Submit a Comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. CJ Adrien. Adrien Privacy Policy. Site by Farewell Media. Selected Bibiliography. Genetic studies have shown that even back then there was a healthy mix of blonds, redheads and dark-haired people, just like today.
There were, however, more blond Vikings in northern Scandinavia in the area around Stockholm, Sweden, while there were more redheads in western Scandinavia, which Denmark belongs to.
According to Peter Pentz of the Danish National Museum, there is an ongoing debate within scientific circles about the exact meaning of these words. Historians have traditionally interpreted the dark and fair Vikings as Danes and Norwegians, respectively.
But this interpretation has recently been challenged by researchers David N. Dumville and Clare Downham. They argue that neither of the two terms describes Viking ancestry. Some of videnskab. And sure enough, several sources, including an old drawing, give positive descriptions of their clothing.
Scientists know that Vikings valued colours and patterns and that fashion changed over time, from region to region. But exactly what the Viking outfits looked like remains a mystery. Most of the Vikings' clothes have rotted away and disappeared by the time archaeologists excavate their tombs, says Ulla Mannering, an archaeologist at the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research at the National Museum.
The women usually wore long dresses or skirts which went down to the feet. This indicates that the women wore so-called harness dresses, which were held together with a strap over each shoulder.
Other findings show that women also wore dresses with built-in sleeves. The clothes were double-layered. On the inside, Viking women wore a linen base — a sort of petticoat, which was soft and had a cooling effect. The outer clothes were usually made from wool, which is a warm, but also a durable material. The men wore the same materials as the women. The inner layer usually consisted of a linen kirtle — a long shirt which the men pulled over their heads. On the outside, the typical Viking man wore a woollen coat.
These could be either short or long, and they were usually sewn in the style of pantaloons. In general, they all wore colourful clothes with patterns and sewn-on ribbons," says Mannering, adding that archaeologists have come across examples of colours covering the entire colour palette. The Vikings have also known about luxuries such as silk and sewn-on ribbons with silver and golden threads. But only a few members of the elite have been able to wear these exclusive fabrics, which were imported from around the world.
So perhaps the image of an average Viking, as portrayed in the above picture gallery, only needs to be spiced up with a scar or two and that should bring us pretty close to a portrayal of what Vikings really looked like. Read this article in Danish at videnskab. Analyses of bog bodies show that dyed clothing became fashionable in the early Iron Age — centuries before previously thought. The hidden centre of power for the first Danish kings may well have popped up from the soil in Northern Germany.
Archaeologists have surprisingly found some houses and piles of weapons. The stalwart peasant.
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