Absinthe & Cookies (a bit bitter, a bit sweet)

The Softer Side

This sort of thing fascinates me. In fact, at our Townhall Meetup earlier in the week, we talked about how DNA is being used this way.

A snippet:

FAR from their marauding, pillaging stereotypes, Viking warriors were homemakers who couldn't wait to ship their wives over to settle the lands they had conquered, new research reveals.

Scientists studying Scots of Viking ancestry in Shetland and Orkney have discovered that there must have been far more Viking women in the Dark Ages settlements than originally thought.

However, it appears that Viking wives refused to go deeper into Scotland, with little evidence they made it as far as the Western Isles.

Researchers from Oxford University took DNA samples from 500 residents of Shetland using a toothbrush to extract some of their saliva. The scientists were able to identify genetic traits in the Scots which they share with modern day Scandinavian populations.

Posted by Ithildin at April 8, 2005 6:17 PM | PROCURE FINE OLD WORLD ABSINTHE