TY - JOUR
T1 - The composition of the founding population of Iceland
T2 - A new perspective from 3D analyses of basicranial shape
AU - Plomp, Kimberly A.
AU - Gestsdottir, Hildur
AU - Dobney, Keith
AU - Price, Neil
AU - Collard, Mark
N1 - Funding: The study was supported by the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program (SAR10359), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (895-2011-1009), the Canada Research Chairs Program (228117 and 231256), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (203808), the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (862-804231), and Simon Fraser University (14518).
PY - 2021/2/8
Y1 - 2021/2/8
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100987970&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0246059
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0246059
M3 - Article
C2 - 33556115
AN - SCOPUS:85100987970
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
JO - PloS ONE
JF - PloS ONE
IS - 2
M1 - e0246059
ER -