Ancient bones reveal the terrifying reality of life in a Viking village: Scientists uncover evidence of smashed skulls, shattered limbs and a woman whose leg was hacked in half

Viking life lived up to its violent reputation on and off the battlefield, according to a new study of Scandinavian remains.

While most evidence of life and death in the Viking era comes from burial mounds and mass graves, researchers have found almost 200 bodies outside these locations.

People were placed inside wells, laid under the foundations of feasting halls, and even hidden beneath the floorboards of homes.

These unusual remains reveal shocking levels of violence, including smashed skulls, broken arms, and a woman whose shin was chopped in half.

Archaeologists from the BODY-POLITICS Project uncovered 12 bodies with traumatic injuries spanning 1,500 years from the Iron Age and Viking Age – 500BC to 1050AD.

Of these unusual remains, eight were the targets of deliberate and sometimes fatal violence, with some incurring multiple wounds over the years.

Although it is hard to know exactly what led to these injuries, the researchers suggest they could have come from domestic violence, fights in the local community, or warfare.

However, there are also ominous signs that some of the deceased may have been victims of ritual violence and even human sacrifice.

The first millenium AD in Scandinavia is marked by the rise of consolidated chiefdoms and kingdoms, the birth of a warrior ideology, and the emergence of the Viking raids.

Yet, despite its turbulent history, evidence of violent death in this period is actually surprisingly low.

A recent study of Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden found rates of physical trauma between 0.7 and 6 per cent.

But these studies only look at people who were afforded the luxury of a proper burial according to the religious rites of the day.

Today, researchers are increasingly aware of a number of bodies that were deliberately denied a normal resting place.

Some of these bodies, described in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, record outstandingly violent and brutal lives.

Lead author Professor Marianne Hem Eriksen, of the National Museum of Denmark, told the Daily Mail: 'We know that, today, societies that celebrate outward violence and aggression also tend to experience high rates of volatility within the home and everyday communities.

'We may be getting glimpses of how violence saturated the Iron Age and Viking worlds, as well as how people made sense of, coped with, or more darkly, perhaps, celebrated that.'

One man, in his early 30s at the time of death, was found in a royal feasting hall at Gammel Lejre, which is potentially the hall that the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf was based on.

Incredibly, this man had suffered three major skull injuries before his death, the most recent being a massive radiating fracture that he appeared to have survived for a few weeks.

The man also shows so-called 'parry fractures' on the forearms, normally caused when someone attempts to shield their head from blows using their arms.

But what makes these bodies truly odd is that they are often dismembered, cut to pieces, left out to the elements, and eventually buried within homes or public spaces.

'Not only were some bodies treated differently in life, but they were also treated differently in death,' says Professor Eriksen.

In one Iron Age village in Jutland, Denmark, archaeologists found part of a skull belonging to a two-to-four-year-old male child.

The skull shows evidence of trauma on the right side of the head, possibly caused by a sword or other heavy-bladed weapon.

The residents didn't cremate the child as the normal practice at the time demanded, but rather placed part of the skull beneath the floor of their house.

This means that the residents would have routinely walked over the floor with the child's skull beneath their feet.

At another settlement in Lindved, Denmark, archaeologists found the remains of a woman between 17 and 25 who had been buried in a cooking pit.

Alongside many other cut marks, her left shin was completely chopped in half by a sharp weapon.

Scientists think this could have been the blow that killed her, or part of an extensive treatment of her body that left multiple cut and burn marks.

Archaeologists still don't truly understand who these people were, or why they were singled out for such violent treatment.

However, the researchers believe that their treatment may have had a ritualistic element.

Professor Eriksen says: 'We can never fully understand their thinking, but we can reasonably argue that they may have wanted the bones of specific dead individuals at close hand; or that the bones themselves or the spectacle of violence may have produced some power or essence.'

In fact, some of the bodies uncovered by archaeologists even display evidence that could point to their being victims of human sacrifice.

Co-author Dr Kevin Kay, of the University of Leicester, told the Daily Mail: 'In some cases, that seems possible, even likely.'

One individual from around 400 AD was found with the marks of two fatal stab wounds between the ribs, likely from a long, thin, bladed weapon like a spear or dagger.

After death, the body was placed in a shallow pit, which was left exposed for a while before a house was built over the top.

However, excavators noted that their wrists were placed together under the ribcage, indicating they may have been bound for ritual killing.

Likewise, it's hard to imagine why a toddler would have received wounds more commonly seen on the battlefield outside of some ritual purpose.

'But every case is also highly distinctive, so if you think of ritual as something repeated or choreographed, then this seems more improvised,' says Dr Kay.

'We argue that what holds them together is using the act of burial in houses to make sense of violence, whether that violence itself was done for ritual purposes or not.'