When archaeologists find adults and children buried together in medieval graves, it is often assumed that they were members of the same family. A new study from Stockholm University in Science Advances suggests otherwise.
Researchers at Stockholm University analysed DNA from 142 individuals dating from the late Viking Age and Middle Ages, including more than 60 children and adolescents buried in multiple graves at sites in Sigtuna, close to Stockholm, Västerhus in Jämtland, and Fjälkinge in Skåne.
The results show that close biological relatives were surprisingly rare among people buried in the same grave, even at cemeteries where high levels of kinship could be detected.
"We often assume that adults and children sharing a grave were parents and children or other close family members. In most cases, that was not what we found," says Maja Krzewińska, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University, lead author of the study.
Instead, the researchers' findings suggest that factors other than close family ties often influenced who was buried together.
"Archaeologists have debated the relationships between people buried together in this type of grave for a long time. Ancient DNA has finally given us the tool we have been waiting for to test these interpretations directly," says Anna Kjellström, researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University.
The study also sheds light on the lives of children in early Christian Scandinavia. By using ancient DNA, the researchers could determine the biological sex of children who were too young to be identified osteologically. Boys and girls were often buried according to the same cemetery rules as adults. For example, at Västerhus, where men and women were generally buried on different sides of the churchyard, boys and girls followed the same pattern. This suggests that gender identity was recognised early in life.
"The children were not treated as a separate category. In death, they appear to have been treated according to the same social and religious principles as adult men and women," says Anders Götherström, Professor of Molecular Archaeology, Centre for Palaeogenetics, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University.
The study also identified a remarkable family from the medieval cemetery at Västerhus. One woman, known to researchers as Lady 56, could be linked through DNA to several relatives buried in the churchyard, including her parents, her brother, and two daughters. Yet her story extends far beyond Jämtland.
Buried with her was a scallop shell, a rare object in a medieval Scandinavian grave and a well-known symbol of pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The find suggests that she completed one of medieval Europe's most famous pilgrimages, travelling thousands of kilometres across the continent to the far edge of Christian Europe before returning home. Lady 56 died before the age of 30. Her parents, brother, and daughters were also buried in different part of the same cemetery in Jämtland.
The study demonstrates how archaeogenetics can advance our understanding of medieval society, revealing not only biological relationships but also the social worlds in which people lived, organised their communities, worshipped, and were ultimately laid to rest.
The article "Equal in death: Ancient genomic analysis of children's early Christian burials" was published in Science Advances, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb8588
