Archaeologists discover a child's skull built into the floor of a 2,500-year-old Scandinavian house

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of individuals who experienced violence in ancient Scandinavian communities, dating back to the Iron Age and Viking Age (500 B.C. to A.D. 1050). Within a house in Denmark, built around 500 to 1 B.C., researchers found a child's skull, believed to be of a 2 to 4-year-old boy, embedded on the floor.

The child had suffered a sword cut to the head and was later placed on the floor of a living household. Radiocarbon dating suggests the skull was kept for up to two centuries before being incorporated into the house. In a Viking Age site dating from 750 to 1050, archaeologists discovered a young woman's skull in a well near four small houses, with signs of sword or ax wounds.

The woman may have been brutally slashed and her remains stored for a considerable time before burial. These discoveries shed light on the diverse ways in which people perceived life and death during these periods, including unusual burial practices and the potential for violence within domestic settings.