14 DAY TRIAL // Some time ago, archaeologists carrying out excavations in Norway stumbled upon several Viking graves containing the remains of a total of 10 individuals. As it turns out, some of the people buried in this location were slaves, whereas the remainder were their masters.
Detailing their findings, the archaeologist working on this project explain that, when they first unearthed the remains of these people, they were quite surprised that some of the bodies had been decapitated before being buried, while others had been laid to rest intact.
Wishing to make head and tail of this peculiarity, they carried out a more detailed analysis of the bodies.
They found that, when compared to the people whose heads were still attached to the rest of their bodies at the time of their burial, the decapitated individuals used to eat a different and rather poor diet.
More precisely, it appears that the diet of the decapitated individuals mostly consisted of fish. By comparison, the supposed masters ate lots of red meat and dairy products during their lifetime.
This suggests that, although these people were buried in the same location, they belonged to quite different social classes, Live Science reports.
Based on this evidence, archaeologists theorize that the decapitated bodies belonged to slaves that were killed and buried alongside their masters.
“We propose that the people buried in double and triple burials might have come from very different strata of society, and that slaves could have been offered as grave gifts in these burials,” study co-author Elise Naumann with the University of Oslo in Norway told Live Science.
The researcher further detailed that, although most people believe that the average Viking's life revolved around sailing the seas, these people were also accomplished farmers. The only catch is that, more often than not, they relied on slaves to take care of their crops and livestock.
According to specialist Elise Naumann, there are few documented records of Viking masters being buried alongside their slaves. However, the practice is not entirely unheard of.
A detailed account of this investigation and its findings is to be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science.