Swedish DNA study reveals Viking-era multiple burials rarely contained close relatives

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Key facts

• A DNA study examined 142 individuals from three sites in Sweden dating from the late Viking Age to the medieval period (approximately 900-700 years ago)
• The sample included 68 children and 74 adults from 27 single and 50 multiple burials, with 44.9% female, 50% male, and 5.1% of unknown sex
• Most multiple burials contained adults and children of the same sex, with men buried with boys and women with girls, and children buried on the same side of the churchyard as adults of the same sex
• Only 12% of multiple burials from two sites contained first-degree relatives, and at the third site the only kinship pair identified was not part of the same burial
• One notable burial contained a young woman with DNA links to multiple relatives across the cemetery, including parents, brother, and two daughters, along with a scallop shell indicating pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain
• Findings suggest close biological family units were not the primary organizing principle of multiple burials; instead, households, social rank, religious affiliation, or simultaneous deaths shaped these burial practices in Viking and early medieval Scandinavia

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