Christian Cemetery From Viking Age Iceland Reveals

Strenuous Lives And Early Deaths

Skeleton excavated from the Late Viking Age cemetery of Keldudalur, Iceland. (Photo used with kind
permission of Gun Zoga.)
Legend has it that a Viking from the Faroe Islands settled Iceland around 825 AD. More settlers
quickly followed, mostly the Norse who worshipped the Aesir, or gods like Thor and Odin. When
Iceland adopted Christianity in 1000 AD by decree of the National Assembly, first the political elite
and then the rest of the populace gave up their pagan customs. This change is seen clearly in
Icelandic burial customs, which go from single graves made along farm boundaries to concentrated
burials around a church. And new research on skeletons from these transitional cemeteries is
revealing just how harsh an environment these early Icelanders had to deal with.
Bioarchaeologists Gu?ny? Zoga and Kimmarie Murphy write about life on the edge of the Arctic in
their recent research article in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. Their analysis focuses
on a small cemetery associated with a farm called Keldudalur in the Skagafjr?ur region of northern
Iceland. Dating to the early 11th century, Keldudalur has 52 burials over the course of a century,
likely three to five generations of one farming family.
Early Icelanders, like their Norse forebears, were pastoral farmers, planting grain but also relying
on sheep and cattle to get them through difficult times. With the advent of Christianity in the
country, farm churches sprang up along with enclosed cemeteries. For bioarchaeologists, this

change means better preservation of skeletons, as pagan burials tend to be spread out and shallow.
The cemetery at Keldudalur is about average in size for this time period, but Zoga and Murphy
wanted to know if the health of this family was better or worse than comparable cemeteries, such as
Hrsbr, which showed high levels of violence and disease.

Excavation of the Keldudalur cemetery in Iceland. A small church lay in the middle of the round
enclosure of the cemetery. Men were buried in the south while women were buried in the north.
(Photo used with kind permission of Gun Zoga.)
The Keldudalur cemetery yielded 27 adults; the men were buried in the southern half while the
women were buried in the northern section. The remaining 26 skeletons were of kids; 16 of these
were under a year old when they died. Infant mortality at Keldudalur, as in many pre-modern
cemeteries, was high, but Zoga and Murphy write that "if an individual survived childhood, death
was more likely to occur after 30 years of age."
It is not always easy to figure out what kids died from in the past, as common diseases like diarrheal
conditions can turn deadly fast and do not leave marks on bone. Zoga and Murphy found a high
frequency of porotic hyperostosis, a condition that results from anemia and typically shows up as
holes in the cranium. Since these Icelanders were eating a lot of meat, their anemia was unlikely
caused by iron-deficiency anemia; rather, they may have had other gastrointestinal infections or
dietary deficiencies. One child even shows a pattern of porous bone suggesting he or she had scurvy.
Among the adults, degenerative joint disease was common, likely the result of the rigorous farming
environment. Men and women were equally affected by joint disease, meaning everyone pitched in
on this small family farm. Older people had more instances of joint disease, but since arthritis is a

progressive condition, this is unsurprising.

Typically, older individuals will also have more dental cavities, as enamel is destroyed over time by
chewing and by the action of bacteria. But dental cavities were non-existent at Keldudalur. Zoga
and Murphy think this may be due to the high amounts of dairy in the diet, which can protect teeth
from cavities. Before you trade your toothbrush for a hunk of cheese, though, excessive dairy
consumption can lead to gingivitis, plaque, and infections and tooth loss. The adults from Keldudalur
had these in spades.

Excavation of a grave at Keldudalur cemetery in Iceland. (Photo used with kind permission of Gun
Zoga.)
Bioarchaeologist Cecilia Collins, who has worked with Icelandic cemeteries but was not affiliated
with this study, told me that the Keldudalur research is "another impo
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/07/27/christian-cemetery-from-viking-age-iceland
-reveals-strenuous-lives-and-early-deaths/