Vikings May Have Used Body Modification as a 'Sign of Identification'

A recent study analyzes Scandinavian examples of filed teeth and elongated skulls dating to the Viking Age

Sonja Anderson
Daily Correspondent

April 8, 2024

Examples of artificially altered bones belonging to island-dwelling Vikings may be examples of purposeful body modifications, according to a study published in the journal Current Swedish Archaeology. Researchers think they may have been part of social rituals of initiation.
For many years, historians had assumed that tattooing was the only form of body modification used by Scandinavians in the Viking Age. However, evidence of two other forms is beginning to change that narrative: filed teeth and elongated skulls.

Tooth modification from this period was first described around the 1990s, while skull modification is “a rather newly discovered phenomenon that requires intensive research,” write co-authors Matthias Toplak and Lukas Kerk, Germany-based archaeologists at the Viking Museum Haithabu and the University of Münster, respectively.

“While both forms of body modification have received wide attention in other cultural contexts,” they continue, “the specific expressions of these customs in Viking Age society still lack systematic investigation in terms of their social implications.”

The researchers examined the remains of 130 men with “horizontal furrows” carved into their teeth, many of whom were found on the Swedish island of Gotland. They also analyzed three cases of modified skulls, all belonging to women on the island.

More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-viking-trade-guilds-standard-uniform-carved-up-teeth-180984080/