They were able to extract DNA from a single premolar tooth taken from the mandible. The tooth’s cementum and enamel were removed, the tooth was ground into powder, and the sample was zapped with UV radiation to ensure it wasn’t contaminated. To determine ancestry, the team compared the Well-man’s DNA to a database of more than 6,000 modern-day Norwegians.
This is so facinating! I remember hearing about this around 2016 when they did excavations, but didn’t know they found the guy already in the 1930s. It’s just awesome that the story of how this person died has survived a thousand years through the sagas.
I do think it’s a bit weird that the article focuses on whether he had some disease though- obviously throwing a dead person in the well is going to make the water undrinkable, regardless of whether said person was sick when they died…
It is always cool when old stories like this can be corroborate. Thanks for sharing.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing.
