Big Viking families nurtured murder
Killers more likely to belong to large extended clans, victims to small vulnerable ones
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/093016_BB_vikings_feat_free.jpg?fit=860%2C460&ssl=1)
FAMILY STRIKE Killings in Viking-era Iceland, such as the one depicted here, were largely carried out by individuals whose families greatly outnumbered those of their victims, researchers say. Disparities in family sizes may have long influenced who got killed by whom in small-scale societies.
Andreas Bloch/Wikimedia Commons