Viste Boy sent for DNA analysis

1/3. Conservator Hege Hollund at the Museum of Archaeology, UiS, carefully moves the 8200 year old skull of the Viste boy.

 
A small piece of the skull of the 8000-year-old “Viste Boy” has now been sent to Sweden for DNA analysis. Scientists hope to learn more about early migration into Norway as well as clarify the skeleton's actual sex. 

The "Viste Boy" lived 8200 years ago at Viste, outside Stavanger in southwestern Norway. He died at the young age of 15. Even though the remains are referred to as the Viste Boy, it is not certain that this is a male skeleton. Scientists had thought they were dealing with a male on the basis of older reports, but Viste Boy could well turn out to be Viste girl.

A small piece of the skull of this individual has now been sent from the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger to Sweden for DNA analysis.

This is part of a wider Scandinavian project which seeks to understand prehistoric migration patterns into and around Scandinavia.

The two main theories are that people either came from the East, around the areas of what are now modern Sweden, Finland and Russia, or from Continental Europe to the south. As well as helping to provide an answer to this question, the DNA analysis on Viste Boy may, perhaps, also be able to say once and for all whether the skeleton is that of a boy or a girl. [...] University of Stavanger - Norway


Related news (2011):  Stone Age boy from 5,500 BC recreated using forensic techniques | Daily Mail Online

The face of the Viste boy was reconstructed using laser scans of skull fragments, combined with a digital 3D model of a modern 15-year-old boy's skull