The study of Y chromosomal polymorphisms also seems to support the theory of the Smis long isolation; however, it seems that they were not always living completely alone. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/27702690.pdf, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2688-8, https://books.google.se/books/about/The_Annals_of_Fulda.html, https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-04-18-highs-and-lows-englishman%E2%80%99s-average-height-over-2000-years-0, https://www.arkeologi.uu.se/Research/Projects/viking-phenomenon/, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270795692_St_Johns_College_Oxford_St_Brices_Day_Massacre_Chapter_3_A_Late_Saxon_Mass_Grave_The_Human_Bone, https://books.google.se/books?id=E26YDwAAQBAJ, https://books.google.se/books?id=XZ4ZDAAAQBAJ, https://historiska.se/upptack-historien/artikel/det-hangde-pa-haret/, https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/modetrendens-blodiga-historia, https://arkeologerna.com/bloggar/kyrkoarkeologi/okand-kyrkogard-hittad-i-vreta-kloster/, https://varldenshistoria.se/civilisationer/vikingar/vikingar-slaktades-och-slangdes-i-massgrav, http://pediatrisk-endokrinologi.no/2008/1/Werner_2008_1.pdf, https://forskning.ku.dk/soeg/result/?pure=da/persons/26558, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228627175_European_hair_and_eye_color_A_case_of_frequency-dependent_sexual_selection, https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/the-people/appearance/, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-13064786. A study comparing the facial profile of young adult Swedes and Danes found that the Scandinavians have slightly higher cheekbones than the Danish population. So the theory is that on top of any Vitamin D youd get from the sun, Scandinavians have also stocked up on it via their fish intake. The new Battle Axe culture that slowly spread and took over the Scandinavian region is thought to have been a bit more individualistic and was known for how their men were buried with their big battle axes. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/vetenskap/de-var-de-forsta-svenskarna, https://www.myheritage.se/ethnicities/sweden/country-ethnicity-distribution, https://jeffwerner.se/SKIASCOPE+6%20JW%20texts.pdf, https://www.ifau.se/globalassets/pdf/se/2016/r-2016-17-arbetsformedlares-beslutsfattande-och-stereotyper-kopplade-till-utseende.pdf, https://www.thelocal.se/20200918/why-not-all-vikings-were-blond-haired-and-blue-eyed/, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10086866/, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929709004649#fig1, https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/skin-cancer-statistics/, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-05/tjnj-ser052314.php, https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/17/6/835/601141, https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006616, http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/16/1701, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2795070/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Strongest_Man, https://www.mynewsdesk.com/se/hotels-com/pressreleases/svenskar-vackrast-i-norden-1015389, https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2015.0211, https://si.se/bilden-av-sverige-i-norden/, https://fof.se/tidning/2015/5/artikel/darfor-blev-vi-plotsligt-langre, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ics.12328, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474704916631614, https://www.svd.se/samiskt-arv-skulle-doljas, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1473-2165.2007.00333.x. Filed Under: Psychological Articles and Infographics, 2023 HealthResearchFunding.org - Privacy Policy, 14 Hysterectomy for Fibroids Pros and Cons, 12 Pros and Cons of the Da Vinci Robotic Surgery, 14 Pros and Cons of the Cataract Surgery Multifocal Lens, 11 Pros and Cons of Monovision Cataract Surgery. Read Article Now. Is History ChannelsVikingsworth watching? Scandinavian people do not have a very high prevalence of the EDAR gene, thought to be connected with thicker hair (among other traits). The Scandinavians are known for their high cheekbones. [5]. Q: What are the most common Swedish facial features? Hmm Thats a hard one, but Id have to go with Cheeks. Or maybe chins. People can lose an Genetic testing has shown that the Finns and the Smi are phenotypically and genetically typical Europeans. I would say 5050, there has always been mosty people with brown hair in Sweden, the vikings did dye their hair blonde. But most have blue eyes, no High cheekbones werent always seen as a positive trait in the Nordic region though, as it was fairly common for the Germanic Scandinavians to look down upon the Finno-Ugric Samis as less civilized, at least up until the late 20th century. This does not mean that all Scandinavians look like this, but it does mean that this is the common view that most people to this day hold on what it means to look Scandinavian, including in the Scandinavian countries. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway three countries that often rank best when it comes to education, health care, style, and much more. [10] This article will discuss what Swedish people look like in more detail. Life How Did Vikings Actually Look? The average height of both males and females is high in Scandinavian countries when you look on a global scale, with the Nordic countries all ranking among the tallest 20 countries, and all with a male average height over 180 cm (5 ft 10 in). As recently as 1999, the Smi had not yet been placed on the language and gene map of Europe. (Julku 183), Origin and Genetic Background of the Smi. ): How Did Vikings Actually Look? Extensive genetic testing has helped put an end to the false conclusions that came from biased studies, based on everything from tooth size to skull shape. In summary, it seems Scandinavians from before the Viking age looked a bit different from todays Scandis, with multiple migration waves that settled in the region up until the iron age being quite diverse in looks and origins. The Swedish have a blue eye and are taller than their Nordic neighbors. Other Nordic countries like Iceland have high cheekbones. Denmark It may be a result of northern Sweden and Norway being the domain of Finno-Ugric Smi reindeer herders, a group that was out of the cultural grasp of the Indo-Europeans that seem to have succeeded in imposing their language only on areas with some level of agriculture. But in the end, study co-author Ashot Margarayan still concludes that Vikings were blond in their majority, while the National Museum of Denmark believes most Danes were red-haired. Recent genetic and linguistic research in the area has created new theories and has also put to death many old and biased theories of the past. The recent rise of medieval fantasy and Viking-themed TV series (with the likes of Vikings, The Last Kingdom, and Game of Thrones) has spawned some Viking looks that are equally iconic as they are historically questionable. (Niskanen 126), [12] A study by the National Library of Medicine concluded that its more challenging for skin with more pigmentation (i.e., darker skin) to absorb vitamin D [4]. Get some Scandi spirit in your home with our premium museum-quality prints sent right to your doorstep with free shipping worldwide. The average Scandinavian isnt necessarily stronger than any other given person in the world, but there has been a very high amount of Worlds Strongest Man contestants and winners from the Nordic and Scandinavian countries, with Nordic men landing in the top 3 a whopping 30 out of the 44 years the competition has taken place (thats a 68% chance of at least one Nordic in the top 3). Two eyes, one nose, a mouth. Probably a chin and ears. I think. To find out the origins of the light hair/light eye color combination we need to look at where people in Scandinavia came from originally, and how they looked (based on DNA samples and analysis). For example, in Smiland and throughout Scandinavia, there still exists an obvious residue of an even more ancient unknown language than Uralic in the region. Music [2] The following are the most common Swedish features. http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/where_do.html, http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/000245.html, http://virtual.finland.fi/finfo/english/geeneng.html, http://www.lysator.liu.se/nordic/scn/faq23.html. I do believe that there is a typically Swedish face type you rarely see elsewhere. The main feature are large blue eyes that are unusually close to The Swedish also tend to be very athletic. High levels of Vitamin D produces more melanin, which in simple terms enables skin to tan instead of burn. Gods & Goddesses (Sajantila), [16] And, despite their sex and gender, the Scandinavians have the highest cheekbones in the world. [16]. There has been a discovery of a Smi motif, which is a group of three specific mutations found in 1/3 of the Smi people. They have been affiliated with being people of great courage and also with being countries that invaded other countries. Your email address will not be published. Ive writtenan article where I go into detail about Viking traits and looks, so if you want to find out more about Vikings looks go take a look. When did they come into being? Comment * document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a3d130deea91a297e34a58becbda175b" );document.getElementById("j39e62affa").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The average linear dimensions were greater in males than in females, although both groups had slightly higher cheekbones. The sagas often tell tales of exceptional strength, which is supported by several forms of archaeological evidence. Though differences in size are generally bigger between men and women than between different ethnicities. In order to survive the UV-bombardment during summers as well as the lack of sunlight in the winters, the skin of Scandinavians have needed to be adaptable. There is argument as to whether the Finns and the Smi arrived in their present day locations either as a still undifferentiated ethnolinguistic group or as linguistically and ethnically separate people. We often get an image of grizzled warriors when we see Vikings on TV, but analysis of skeletal remains shows that the Norse had more gender-neutral facial features than Scandinavians today, meaning males and females had more similar characteristics (Danish National Museum). The Origin and Genetic Background of the Smi. 1776-1839- Pehr Henrick Ling, Swedish physiologist who helped develop physical therapy and Swedish massages and is known as the grandfather of Swedish massages and Physical therapy. Furthermore, recent DNA studies show that people from modern-day Scandinavia have a specific gene-makeup that is linked to more facial hair growth than average, as well as a facial hair growth pattern that is concentrated around the upper lip, cheek, neck, and chin (meaning full beards are common among Scandinavians). Whether these traits stem from a diverse pre-bronze age population, geographical conditions, or the modern diet of the region as a whole is hard to say, but they all likely played some part at least. Vikings have been found to weigh up to 140 kg (309 lbs) in archeological findings, and were described as stronger (on average) than most people they encountered. Njals Saga explains how Norse were expected to grow a beard, and those who didnt were often mocked. Some of the familiar Scandinavian personality traits include: reticence, a highly skeptical personality, general mistrust of strangers, cautious behavior, somewhat reserved personality and a lack of empathy. This result is consistent across the Nordic region. Curious how Vikings actually looked like? Furthermore, it has been observed that northern Europeans in general also have a much higher frequency of a specific genetic trait that is linked to straight hair. Go check it out if you havent made up your mind yet! That said, it is assumed that having long hair was generally seen as more important the higher up on the social ladder one was, with the jarls having long and elaborate hairstyles, while they had their thralls (slaves, who made up around 20-30% of the population) cut their hair short. Swedish people often look pale due to a lack of melanin. Your email address will not be published. If youre curious about how exactly Nordic people communicate with each other, Ive written an article where I go into detail aboutwhich languages each Nordic nationality actually uses when communicating with fellow Nordics. This means that the Smi could very well have been almost completely isolated for several thousands of years. The Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers lived in the region between 8000 BCE and 2800 BCE, and have been found to have had mixed eye colors (ranging from blue to light-brown), mostly dark hair (with the odd blondes present), and intermediate skin color (somewhere in between dark and light) with the odd light-skinned individual also present. Pale As mentioned earlier, there is often a lack of melanin in a Swedish persons iris, leading to light-colored eyes. Stockholm Many Vikings were named after to their abnormal strength, size, or general prowess, like Gngu-Hrlfr (Walking Rollo; too big to ride a horse), Bjrn Ironside (legend said he could not be harmed in battle), Thorkell the Tall (incredibly skilled warrior and leader of Jomsvikings), and St. Olaf the Stout (the only Viking to be canonized). People in Europe have many contrasting facial features that can create them stand out from one another. Finland Design Design With modern technology, it now appears that the Finns and the Smi may have originated from an old population in Europe which diverged from other European populations prior to subsequent linguistic and cultural diversification. The prevalence of this gene on the Norwegian west coast is thought to be linked to slaves from Ireland and Scotland being brought to Scandinavia. Julku, Kysti. And the eyes are also one of the most important factors of physical attraction. The genetic origin of the Smi people is complex and difficult to trace. Up to 78% of the Swedish population has some kind of blonde or light brown shade of hair [6]. In life Swedish people can generally act calm and reserved, seem a bit cold, like to keep things professional, prefer a well-planned approach, and believe maybe is a conflict-free way to say no. 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