Recent research has revealed evidence of permanent bodily changes during the Viking Age. A study recently published in the journal Current Swedish Archeology , carried out by Matthias Toplak and Lukas Kerk, looked at three Viking women from the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, whose skulls were deliberately elongated.
This study sheds light on the intriguing practice of body modification prevalent among Norse and Viking peoples. Additionally, the research identified approximately 130 individuals, mostly men, with horizontal grooves carved into their teeth, with a notable concentration on Gotland.
Although several interpretations have emerged for these dental changes over time, ranging from possible marks of slavery to status symbols among warrior elites, scholars suggest that a more thorough analysis suggests that these modifications could have served as markers of identity within from an exclusive group of traders.
To date, the practice of artificial cranial modification during the Viking Age is documented in only three female individuals from Gotland. Dating back to the end of the 11th century, these three women were buried in different locations on the island of Gotland. Modifications to their skulls gave them a distinct and notable appearance, characterized by the elongation of their heads.
Other distinguishing details emerge when examining two such cases: one woman died aged between 25 and 30, while the other was between 55 and 60.
Interestingly, cranial modifications, unlike dental modifications, appear to be an uncommon practice in Scandinavian Viking culture. Specimens dating from the 9th to 11th centuries AD were identified in Eastern Europe, suggesting a possible origin in that region.
The discovery of these women with modified skulls raises questions about how Gotland society interacted with and assimilated this form of foreign identity, whose practices were still unknown when they arrived in Scandinavia.
“It is still unclear how the custom of modifying the skull reached Gotland,” the authors write. “Or the three women of Havor, Ire and Kvie were born in southeastern Europe, perhaps as daughters of traders from Gotland or the Eastern Baltic, and their skulls were modified there in their early years. Either the modifications were made on Gotland or the eastern Baltic respectively, and therefore represent a cultural adoption long unknown in the Scandinavian Viking Age. It can be assumed that the three women have a common origin due to the close chronological dating of the three burials and, especially, due to the very similar execution of the modifications to the skull.”
The meticulously ornate tombs of these three women, replete with jewelry and other adornments characteristic of Gotlandic female attire, suggest that they were fully accepted and integrated into the local community. Although the religion to which these women belonged is still unknown, Toplak and Kerk suggest the possibility that they were buried in a Christian structure.
