Was the Woman in Blue One of the First Settlers of Iceland?

A recent analysis of the remains of a woman who lived in the Viking era sheds light on the earliest settlers of Iceland. Her short life hadn't been recorded by any written resource, but her bones have told researchers a fascinating story.

The patrial skeleton of a young woman was discovered in 1938 at Ketilsstaðir, in eastern Iceland. She lived in the 9th or 10th century AD and was found with typical copper-alloy Scandinavian oval brooches, one of which was in direct contact with her face, resulting in significant soft tissue and textile preservation. The skeleton was very poorly preserved and incomplete, but after many decades, a team led by Jakob and Joe Walser III of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, decided to re-examine it.

The results of their work was presented during the The 85th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in April 2016. The researchers confirmed that when the woman died, she was between 17 and 25 years old. The cause of her death is unknown.