Archaeologists Discover Viking-Era Settlement and Human Skeletons

Archaeologists have discovered a Viking-era settlement as well as almost a dozen human skeletons from a later time period during a dig conducted ahead of planned roadwork.

A team of researchers made the finds in the small, rural municipality of Viru-Nigula in northern Estonia—which is one of the Baltic nations and borders Russia—near the parish church, Estonia's ERR News reported.

The Vikings were a Scandinavian seafaring people who raided, colonized and traded across wide areas of Europe from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries. They even made it further afield, voyaging as far as North Africa, the Middle East and North America.

At the site in Viru-Nigula, archaeologists have uncovered the presence of a Viking Age settlement, as evidenced by a number of remains.

"There are a lot of pottery shards and nails, and there are also plenty of animal bone—fish bones, bird bones, for example—so the material is very rich," Martin Malve, one of the researchers and a bone specialist, told ERR.

"We can learn what people ate and which utensils they used. We are also taking soil samples from here, in which we are trying to get plant residue, which should provide us with information about their agricultural practices," Malve said.

In addition, the archaeologists unearthed 11 human skeletons in the vicinity of the church wall. These remains are from a later period, and four of them were likely buried in a common grave.

Preliminary estimates indicate that these people were buried sometime between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Evidence from the bones will provide researchers with valuable information relating to how injuries and illness were treated at the time.

"There are a number of interesting pathologies, bone fractures and injuries, which are interesting to observe in my line of work," Malve said. "One [skeleton] has a fracture of the femur, for example. It will be interesting to see how that person dealt with it. Clearly, someone had to care for and treat them."

He continued: "There's a perception about these types of severe fractures that people at that time didn't survive them, but in fact they did manage to cope with them. Of course, they weren't put in the hospital and fixed up like they are nowadays, but they have healed nicely."

Earlier this month, an 8-year-old boy discovered a Viking artifact while on a family holiday on the Swedish island of Gotland. The intricately decorated artifact was a Viking belt buckle carved into the shape of an animal's head.