Research led by our University, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Surrey has produced new evidence that suggests the Vikings brought leprosy to Ireland.
This finding is significant as little is known about leprosy in Medieval Ireland and the discovery adds to the growing body of information about the evolution and spread of leprosy in the past.
The study focused on five cases of probable leprosy identified in human skeletal remains excavated from burials in Ireland. Three of the individuals were from a cemetery in Dublin, and two came from County Kildare and County Antrim.
Professor Alistair Pike, Archaeological Scientist at the University of Southampton said:
“The key to understanding the origins of these individuals were the oxygen and strontium isotopes in their teeth. These showed that two of the individuals came from an area that was colder and which had older geology than is present in the UK or Ireland, and best matched parts of Scandinavia.”
