Archaeologists carefully extracted the human remains of two Viking women from an ancient burial mound this week, in an effort to keep them from disintegrating. Their fears proved to be unfounded.
The experts from Norway's Museum of Cultural History in Oslo had been unsure of the condition of the two women, believed to be an Oseberg queen and her servant. They're hoping their bones can reveal new information about them through DNA testing.
The bodies had been sealed in an aluminium casket in the late 1940s in an earlier attempt at preservation. The casket was then replaced in the burial mound's sarcophagus.
Workers at the gravesite southwest of Oslo discovered Monday that the casket was damaged at one end and that it was sitting in nine centimeters of water, believed to be formed from condensation inside the sarcophagus.
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