Skeletal shock for Norwegian researchers at Viking hunting

NormandieFécamp , Frankrike.Normandie, France.Professor Emeritus at the University of Oslo, Per Holck.Photo: Vegard Strømsodd / Explico / NTB scanpix

The riddle of the Viking chief Rollo’s rise remains unresolved. Norwegian researchers tested skeletal remains that were supposed to be from his descendants, but that have turned out to be far older than Rollo.

Viking chieftain Rollo was the founder of Normandy, and the ancestor of the British royal family.
For centuries it has been debated whether he was originally from Denmark or Norway, especially if he could be the exiled Rollo from Møre.
In March a Norwegian led delegation open a sarcophagus of two of Rollo’s descendants, the Dukes Richard I and Richard II, to test where DNA their stems from:
– These skeletons have nothing to do with Rollo. The skeletons in the sarcophagus are in fact much older, one from 250-300 years before our era and the other from around the year 700, that is, before the Viking era, says historian and project initiator Sturla Ellingvåg from Foundation explico to news agency NTB.
Grave Opening
It was believed that the body of Rollo’s grandson and great-grandson, Duke Richard the fearless and son Duke Richard the good, would be buried in the floor of a monastery in the French Fécamp.
After seven years of pleading, the French authorities and the French church in January granted the Norwegian application to open the grave. In a sarcophagus in the floor researchers found a lower jaw with eight teeth.
The project participants were very surprised when the skeletons proved to be much older than the people they supposedly were to belong, although it is not entirely uncommon for the contents of graves to not match the name on them:
– We know that many cities in northern Europe moved on from cemeteries and churches after the Vikings started their raids, and many churches also had to be rebuilt.
But the fault lies centuries back in time, says Ellingvåg, which was especially surprised that the two men appear to have lived as long as BCE and before the Viking era.
Unresolved
Since the skeletal remains were so old and had been stored in lead containers it was not possible to retrieve DNA and thus find out where they might have come from:
– The oldest man is a good deal older than the city of Fécamp, and we can only speculate whether this may be a pre-Roman Celtic chief says Ellingvåg.
Rollo was the son of Ragnvald Jarl and was banished from Norway.
He should have settled in France. Norwegian-Icelandic history claims that he and Rollo was one and the same person, while Danish historians believe Rollo came from Denmark.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

20 Comments on "Skeletal shock for Norwegian researchers at Viking hunting"

  1. Black Rollo | 23. November 2016 at 17:51 |

    As suspected, Rollo was halologroup E and the people in charge could accept his recent black roots!

    • hahaha ,never heard that one but why not since you blacks all come from kings and once built pyramids ,even though to this day Africans have yet to come up with proof of building much more than a TeePee!

  2. Do you actually wear your tin foil hat when you type?

  3. Frank Morreale | 24. November 2016 at 07:04 |

    I don’t see any reason for a conspiracy. I believe, DNA samples were taken to both labs. There still may be a relative buried somewhere. Possible, they are not looking hard enough?

  4. What were the results? Haplogroup. SNP?

  5. Bert Turglar | 29. November 2016 at 20:31 |

    The only way Rollo or his descendants had black roots is if they dyed their hair.

  6. Really The Black Rollo, ha ha. I am the 47th GGG grandson of Rollo and I find that insulting. Your people have never built or established anything in history, just another grasp at fame from a Lie!!!

  7. Mark what is your. DNA results Haplogroup, SNP?

    • Dont know just yet, me and my father are having it dome now. Our cousin had his, I don’t remember his it has been so long. He has a way site, Henneisee family pages
      All his decades of research are there.he told me years ago not to spend the money that our blood was the same, but its not really. His is diluted, he is not a male Greene.

  8. Mark pls keep us updated. As this group has some unique followers. Happy New year’s

  9. Bill, I will sir. Hope to reunite some long lost family also. Happy New Year also and Best Wishes.

  10. Supposedly, I am somewhat related to Rollo following an indirect family line from England through William the Conqueor. I say, ‘somewhat’ as Family Tree DNA through a Chandler/Thornton line. With a Q-L804 haplogroup I’d like to think it’s so but with such a convoluted route getting back through the centuries Rollo might have had me tossed in the dungeon as an outlander. 🙂 Also, with a Danish/Norwegian family side, it makes me happy just to be descended from Vikings.

  11. The suspected haplogroup for Rollo is R1b. Origin Hunters did a computer model using his descendants and plotting a scatter diagram going back to the time of Rollo and they all coverge on R1b. RP 312

  12. after doing my family tree it seems rollo is my 32nd great grandfather,will be doing dna also.

  13. Rolant Francia | 20. August 2018 at 17:29 |

    Black Rollo…….aint no such thing as black vikings and surely not a black Rollo. Your people are still living in grass huts or just under a tree in the motherland, no invention or progress in thousands of years. Its very sad…..

  14. Rolant Francia | 20. August 2018 at 17:33 |

    PS – I cant wait for the return of Vikings Season 5 Part II, its not very accurate as my family tells the history of us Northmen, but still very entertaining. Ragnar was great ,but Rollo is my fave as we are descendents from this great line.

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  16. Group E is not necessarily “black” Group E is associated with the spread of agriculture and writing. Group E 123 for example is strictly Roman.

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