Being a Viking wasn’t all raiding and marauding. According to new research, a large part of the ancient Norse lifestyle also involved being struck down by oral and maxillofacial diseases, many of which would likely have caused immense pain and suffering.
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The study authors used computed tomography (CT) to scan the skulls of 15 individuals from the Viking Age cemetery Varnhem in Sweden, with the resulting images examined by dentists and facial pathologists in order to diagnose any ailments and afflictions. Dated to between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE, the owners of the ancient crania turned out to be in surprisingly bad shape, and appear to have suffered from a range of severe infections and other illnesses.
For instance, 80 percent of specimens showed evidence of a particularly painful oral pathology called apical periodontitis, which is typically caused by bacterial infection of the tooth canal. Some of these individuals even appear to have undergone a rudimentary dental treatment which involved opening a hole in the tooth to access the pulp, and which one imagines must have been absolutely excruciating.
A further three skulls showed signs of chronic sinusitis, which the researchers say probably led to “nasal obstruction, sensation of facial pressure or fullness, nasal discharge and olfactory loss.” Other specimens contained bony growths that are likely to have been produced by infections in the ears and elsewhere.
Cartilage-covered growths along the joints of the jaw, meanwhile, were interpreted as signs of rheumatoid arthritis in some of the Viking skulls. Summing up their findings, the authors state that “the individuals in this early Christian community may have suffered from numerous orofacial pathologies, including sinusitis, otitis, and infection.”
Commenting on these results in a statement, study author Carolina Bertilsson said that “everyone knows what it’s like to have pain somewhere, you can get quite desperate for help. But back then, they didn’t have the medical and dental care we do, or the kind of pain relief – and antibiotics – we now have. If you developed an infection, it could stick around for a long time.”
In addition to causing relentless agony, these untreatable illnesses also had the potential to escalate from mere discomfort to incredibly serious conditions, with devastating outcomes. According to the study authors, “some infections may have led to death through spreading or sepsis.”
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The study has been published in the journal BDJ Open.
Source Link: Vikings Were Riddled With Facial Diseases
