Male-biased operational sex ratios and the Viking phenomenon: an evolutionary anthropological perspective on Late Iron Age Scandinavian raiding

Raffield, Ben; Price, Neil; Collard, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.10.013

Cited by 32 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…For instance, several studies have focused on the practice of the bride wealth, whereby a man who wished to marry a woman had to pay a sum to her family. Barrett (2010) and Raffield et al (2017) have suggested that young men's search for treasure to pay bride wealth led them to pillage overseas. Barrett proposes that an assumed dearth of potential marriage partners in Scandinavia was a result of selective female infanticide, while Raffield and his co-authors propose that the supposed paucity of females was the combined effect of polygyny, concubinage, and social inequality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

et al. 2018

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During the Viking Age, Arctic Scandinavia was a source of exquisite furs, down, walrus ivory, and other commodities that met with high demand in England and on the Continent. Hitherto, the earliest firm evidence of this trade has been Ohthere's account c. 890, but in light of this paper's findings, its history may be pushed further back in time. Geological analyses of whetstones retrieved in eighth-to early ninth-century Ribe, southwestern Jylland, in present-day western Denmark, demonstrate that the majority were quarried near the aristocratic manor Lade ('loading/storing place') in Trøndelag, present-day central Norway, some 1100 km by sea to the north. Because of their high numbers and durability, whetstones retrieved in Ribe and other urban sites may be regarded as a proxy for long-distance seaborne trade from the Arctic. The peak in this trade on the threshold of the Viking Age invites a reconsideration of the coinciding and conflicting interests of Scandinavian long-distance traders, kings, and Vikings. It is argued that coalitions and conflicts that arose from these interests, and new constraints and opportunities that emerged for these three types of agents, provide keys to understanding why and where Vikings raided overseas up to the mid-ninth century.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

et al. 2018

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“…Indeed, traditionally the 793 CE Viking attack on Holy Island in Northumberland was regarded as the beginning of the Viking Age [ 4 ]. If obtaining slaves was a major component of the raids, as seems to be the case [ 19 , 70 ], then it follows that a large number of people could have been enslaved during the many raids on southern Britain, and some of these individuals could have been transported to Iceland. Interestingly, Dr. Alex Woolf of St. Andrews University believes that Landnámabók contains at least one passage that points to the presence of people of southern British ancestry among the settlers [personal communication, 15 th December 2020].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The composition of the founding population of Iceland: A new perspective from 3D analyses of basicranial shape

Plomp

Gestsdóttir²,

Dobney

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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The settlement of Iceland in the Viking Age has been the focus of much research, but the composition of the founding population remains the subject of debate. Some lines of evidence suggest that almost all the founding population were Scandinavian, while others indicate a mix of Scandinavians and people of Scottish and Irish ancestry. To explore this issue further, we used three-dimensional techniques to compare the basicrania of skeletons from archaeological sites in Iceland, Scandinavia, and the British Isles. Our analyses yielded two main results. One was that the founding population likely consisted of roughly equal numbers of Scandinavians and people from the British Isles. The other was that the immigrants who originated from the British Isles included individuals of southern British ancestry as well as individuals of Scottish and Irish ancestry. The first of these findings is consistent with the results of recent analyses of modern and ancient DNA, while the second is novel. Our study, therefore, strengthens the idea that the founding population was a mix of Scandinavians and people from the British Isles, but also raises a new possibility regarding the regions from which the settlers originated.

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“…Barrett's perceptive review has triggered a series of responses calling to attention the importance of urban networks , ideologies (Carver 2015), personal reputation (Ashby 2015), and the availability of sex partners (Raffield et al 2017;Wicker 2012; for critiques see Moen 2019Moen , pp. 258-260, 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology

Lund

Sindbæk

2021

J Archaeol Res

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This paper reviews the achievements and challenges of archaeological research on Viking Age northern Europe and explores potential avenues for future research. We identify the reemergence of comparative and cross-cultural perspectives along with a turn toward studying mobility and maritime expansion, fueled by the introduction of biomolecular and isotopic data. The study of identity has seen a shift from a focus on collective beliefs and ritual to issues of personal identity and presentation, with a corresponding shift in attention to individual burials and the “animated objects.” Network ontologies have brought new perspectives on the emergence of sea trade and urban nodes and to the significance of outfield production and resources. Field archaeology has seen an emphasis on elite manors, feasting halls, and monuments, as well as military sites and thing assembly places, using new data from remote sensing, geophysical surveys, geoarchaeology, and metal detectors. Concerns over current climate change have placed the study of environment as a key priority, in particular in the ecologically vulnerable North Atlantic settlements. Discussing future directions, we call for alignment between societal/economic and individual/cultural perspectives, and for more ethically grounded research. We point to diaspora theory and intersectionality as frameworks with the potential to integrate genomics, identity, and society, and to ecology as a framework for integrating landscape, mobility, and political power.

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Male-biased operational sex ratios and the Viking phenomenon: an evolutionary anthropological perspective on Late Iron Age Scandinavian raiding

Cited by 32 publications

References 48 publications

The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

The Beginning of the Viking Age in the West

The composition of the founding population of Iceland: A new perspective from 3D analyses of basicranial shape

Crossing the Maelstrom: New Departures in Viking Archaeology

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