Meet the Viking ancestors

2:23pm Monday 21st May 2007

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SO YOU think you're a Viking? That's the question that will be put to visitors who think they have Norse blood at a new exhibition in York.

The Are You A Viking? exhibition, funded by The Wellcome Trust, opens at the Jorvik Viking Centre, in Coppergate, on Saturday and will delve into the melting pot of the city's genetic history.

It promises to bring together bio-scientific and artefactual evidence to determine if visitors could have Viking ancestors.

Sarah Maltby, head of attractions at the centre, said: "We're very excited about the new exhibition.

"It's a combination of modern technology and important Viking era evidence that really will bring the past to life for our visitors.

"We think it will be hugely popular with families who will be intrigued to work out if they could have Viking ancestors."

Using computer technology, a three-dimensional walk-through Viking riverside scene, graphics and interactive activities, visitors will be able to investigate:

* Bone material unearthed by archaeologists and used to map genetic disorders, such as Dupuytren's disease, known as the Viking disease.

* An oxygen isotope analysis of Viking-age bones and teeth, used to find out where people originate from.

* Archaeological environmental evidence, used to reveal what people ate, where the food came from, and what levels of pollution existed in the city of York at the time.

* Viking migration patterns and trading routes to find out if this affected who and what was brought into York, revealed in the biological remains.

* The adaptation of language and the development of dialects.

The exhibition will include tactile, audio, and smelling activities to ensure its widest appeal to visitors with disabilities and the very young.

Every year York is plunged into bloody scenes from its past during the annual Jorvik Viking Festival.

More than 100 events were packed into this year's festival - the 22nd to be held - which took place in February.

It ended with a dazzling fireworks display as two Viking war-bands clashed, and traditional saga and songs in the medieval Barley Hall.