Decoding Well Man

Listen to Today's Edition:

The 800-year-old Norse text “Sverris Saga” tells the story of King Sverre Sigurdsson, who ruled medieval Norway from 1184 until his death in 1202 CE, and recounts a battle in 1197 at Sverresborg Castle in Trondheim, Norway, where Sverre’s enemies threw a corpse into its well to contaminate the water supply.

While it appeared to be a simple throwaway line, scientists recently discovered that the “Well Man” was actually a real person, according to Science Alert.

In 1938, archeologists uncovered human bones at the bottom of this well, but without modern analysis, researchers couldn’t identify or learn much about the individual.

Now, a new study using radiocarbon dating, gene sequencing, and isotope analysis allowed a research team to uncover more details about the man’s identity.

“This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” co-author Michael D. Martin said in a statement. “There are a lot of these medieval and ancient remains all around Europe, and they’re increasingly being studied using genomic methods.”

Radiocarbon dating and isotope analysis confirmed that the skeletal remains were around 900 years old, which aligned them with the 1197 raid.

Meanwhile, the genetic analysis showed that the Well Man had blue eyes, blonde or light brown hair and his ancestry traced back to Vest-Agder in southern Norway – hundreds of miles from Trondheim.

Still, there’s much that the researchers don’t know, such as the man’s name or how he was killed – the medieval text says he was already dead when he was thrown into the well.

According to the saga, Sverre’s Roman Catholic opponents – known as Baglers, or Bagal – launched a stealth attack at the castle while the king was elsewhere.

“The Bagals seized all the property in the castle, and then they burnt every building of it,” read the text. “They took a dead man and cast him into the well, and then filled it up with stones.”

The story goes on to suggest that they spared the locals, although archeologist Anna Petersén, another author of the study, noted that “the reality is much more complex than the text.”

The authors believe that the study can serve as a model for integrating historical records with genomic analysis, and could help illuminate more information about other historical figures.