Dundee academics reconstruct Viking woman's face

[Rowan]

Academics at Dundee University have helped recreate the face of a Viking woman whose skeleton was unearthed in York more than 30 years ago.

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[Michy]

Interesting that they gave her dark hair and somewhat dark eyes, as opposed to the quintissential Nordic look of blonde hair and blue eyes. I wonder why they made that choice?

[fljustice]

Thanks, Rowan. Love those reconstructions!

[LoveHistory]

I was thinking the same thing, Michy.

[annis]

Quite a few of the Danish Vikings were dark. Norwegian (Norse) Vikings were more likely to fit the blond stereotype. The Irish differentiated between the Vikings by hair colour rather than place of origin. Dark-haired ones were the "Dubh-Ghall" (dark foreigners) and blond ones the ‘Fionn-Ghall’ (fair foreigners). Why the reconstructors chose the dark hair isn't clear- I wouldn't have thought after all this time that there would have been any remnants of hair left to go by.

Is it just my imagination, or have they made the unfortunate woman cross-eyed?

Parke Godwin covers the final battle for York against the Normans in his novel, Sherwood.

[LoveHistory]

Annis, I had to go and check when you mentioned her being cross-eyed. I believe the correct term in her case is cock-eyed. Odd. I wouldn't think there'd be any indication of that in the skull.

[Margaret]

There is something strange about her eyes. I went back and looked several times. I think they've put the eyes in looking straight ahead (not cross-eyed or cock-eyed, in which one eye would be looking off at a different angle from the other). But one of her eyes seems to be lower down in her face than the other. You can see there's more space between her left eye and the eyebrow (the eye to the viewer's right). That would have to be in the bones, I would think, unless it's a computer glitch of some kind.