Norwegian scientists discover disturbing details about 800-year-old corpse

Researchers have unearthed new findings about a mysterious centuries-old corpse that was dumped in the well of a Norwegian castle.

Most of what is known about Norway’s early history comes from the Sverris saga, writings that follow the reign of King Sverre Sigurdsson through the civil wars of the 12th and 13th centuries.

It is believed to have been written by a close associate of the king and covers battles in depth, including one in 1197 when Bagler’s fighters with Sverre’s enemy, the Roman Catholic Church, attacked a castle he was staying in in central Norway. .

The saga says that the Baglers, who came from the south, “took a dead man and threw him into the well, and then filled him with stones,” potentially contaminating the king’s water source.

Supposedly he was one of the king’s men, but little else was known about the identity of the “Well Man” until a partial excavation of the well at Sverresborg Castle, in the present-day city of Trondheim, revealed the remains in 1938.

Further excavations in 2014 and 2016 led by Anna Petersen, an archaeologist at the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Research Institute, uncovered additional remains, including his left hand and skull.

But scientists recently discovered that the man was from southern Norway, disproving the belief that he was one of King Sevrre’s men, according to the study, published in the journal iScience magazine on Friday.

“Perhaps the Baglers threw one of their dead into the well,” the researchers wrote.

The paper’s lead author, Martin Ellegaard, also of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, used samples from a tooth to sequence the genome, according to the paper, which revealed Well-man’s sex and indicated that he likely had medium skin. tone, blue eyes and blonde or light brown hair.

The findings also suggested that the man had back problems and probably performed heavy manual labor.

“He’s been a nobody,” Petersen told the outlet. “But now he has become someone. “He’s had a life.”

The studies confirm ancient texts and give insight into how people traveled around the country in medieval times.

“The mere fact of finding the remains shows that (these stories) are not made up,” Martin told NPR of ancient texts. “They may be elaborate and exaggerated, but they are based on facts.”

Researchers say this is the oldest genome sequenced from a specific person from an Old Norse saga, and that it provides insight into the long-standing genetic isolation and differentiation of South Norwegians from even before that time.