When archaeologists uncover adults and children buried together in medieval graves, a natural assumption is that they belonged to the same biological family. New genomic research published in Science Advances by Stockholm University investigators analyzing 142 individuals from the late Viking Age and Middle Ages reveals that shared graves were frequently not family graves.
Genomic Screening Challenges Longstanding Archaeological Assumptions
For decades, researchers have debated the exact relationships between people sharing multiple burials across historical sites. Ancient DNA extraction has finally provided the technological capability to test these interpretations directly. Maja Krzewińska, lead author of the study from the Centre for Palaeogenetics at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University, points out the reality behind these interments: ”We often assume that adults and children sharing a grave were parents and children or other close family members. In most cases, that was not what we found.”
The investigation examined remains from three specific Swedish locations: Sigtuna near Stockholm, Västerhus in Jämtland, and Fjälkinge in Skåne. Out of 142 individuals sampled, 116 came from 50 multiple burials containing two or more people. Of 51 multiple burials analyzed for age and sex breakdowns, 28 contained both adults and children, representing 54.9 percent of those graves. Another 12 contained only children, while 11 held strictly adults.
Yet genetic testing demonstrated that sharing a burial container did not equate to shared close biological ancestry. At Västerhus, out of 25 multiple burials with sufficient genomic data, only three contained first-degree relatives—specifically two sisters, a father and son, and two probable siblings. This accounts for just 12 percent of the tested multiple graves at that site. At Sigtuna, close or relatively close kinship appeared in only two out of 16 multiple burials with adequate genetic data, identifying one second-degree relationship and one likely parent-child pairing.
Social and Community Factors Outweigh Direct Kinship in Burial Selection
Because most of these multiple burials appear to be simultaneous interments where individuals were interred at roughly the same time, the absence of close biological ties forces a reevaluation of medieval community structures. Genetic diversity among individuals sharing multiple graves matched or exceeded that of single-grave occupants at the identical sites. This indicates that decisions governing who was placed together relied on social, religious, or wider community factors rather than immediate nuclear family bonds.
Anna Kjellström, a researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies at Stockholm University, emphasizes the impact of this method: ”Archaeologists have debated the relationships between people buried together in this type of grave for a long time. Ancient DNA has finally given us the tool we have been waiting for to test these interpretations directly.”
While close biological relatives were surprisingly rare within the exact same plot, broader kinship connections did structure the cemeteries at a macro level. More distant genetic relationships existed across the burial grounds, though only about 6.38 percent of those related individuals ended up sharing a grave.
Childhood Burial Customization and Gender Identity in Early Christian Scandinavia
Ancient DNA also illuminated early Christian Scandinavian childhood practices by confirming the biological sex of younger remains whose bones were too undeveloped for reliable macroscopic sex determination. The burial patterns of the cemeteries revealed that boys and girls followed the exact same customs as adult men and women.
At Västerhus, where men and women were traditionally separated on opposite sides of the churchyard, boys and girls aligned with that identical spatial layout. Anders Götherström, Professor of Molecular Archaeology at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, notes the nature of these final arrangements: ”The children were not treated as a separate category. In death, they appear to have been treated according to the same social and religious principles as adult men and women.”
Tracing Lady 56 and Medieval Long-Distance Migration
Beyond broad demographic statistics, ancient DNA successfully reconstructed individual lineages, such as a notable family group from Västerhus. A young woman designated as Lady 56, who died before reaching 30 years of age, was genetically linked to her parents, her brother, and two daughters. Her relatives were scattered across different sections of the same Jämtland churchyard.
The contents of Lady 56’s grave point to a life trajectory outside local Jämtland society. She was buried with a scallop shell, a widely recognized emblem of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. The presence of this artifact suggests that she likely completed one of medieval Europe’s most famous cross-continental pilgrimages before returning home to Scandinavia.
