Research findings from the runestones
These are the findings from Vitki's analyses that have passed every check: they hold in both halves of the material, in a fixed series of sensitivity analyses and in an adjustment for all the associations we test. Each report follows the same scholarly form – pre-registration, material, method, results, discussion and references – and states its version and how to cite it.
Popular-science texts on the same patterns are under Articles.
31 October 2026 · Report version 1
Sons and brothers died outside Scandinavia more often than fathers and husbands – 10 against 3 percent
Viktor Kvant · Independent researcher
Pre-registered study. On runestones for sons and brothers the stone says the dead man died outside Scandinavia on 10 percent of the stones, against 3 percent for fathers and husbands. The difference holds with time, province and carver constant, in both halves of the material and in every sensitivity analysis. The journeys seem to have belonged to a stage of life: the time before a family of one's own.
Keywords: runestones, Viking Age, journeys abroad, kinship, life stage, drengr, þegn, logistic regression, pre-registration
31 October 2026 · Report version 1
Women raised runestones more often in Svealand than in Götaland – 31 against 17 percent
Viktor Kvant · Independent researcher
Pre-registered study. A woman stands among the raisers on 31 percent of Svealand's runestones with a known raiser, against 17 percent in Götaland. The difference holds with time and carver constant, in both halves of the material and at every rung of the robustness ladder. It is not widows or lone women: the mother stood on her son's stone.
Keywords: runestones, Viking Age, women, sponsors, Svealand, Götaland, logistic regression, pre-registration
31 October 2026 · Report version 1
In western Uppland ʀ was written with r five times as often as in the rest of the country
Viktor Kvant · Independent researcher
Runestones on which the sound ʀ is written with the ordinary r-rune cluster in western Uppland: 67 percent of the stones within 30 kilometres of Holm in Vittinge against 13 percent in the rest of the country. The finding holds in both halves of the material and in every sensitivity analysis. The carver Erik wrote so on all his stones, but the cluster remains without them.
Keywords: runestones, Viking Age, yr-rune, ʀ, r, Uppland, carvers, spatial statistics