Over the past decade, technological developments known as “next-generation sequencing” have enabled genome-wide analyses of ancient DNA (aDNA) to take place more quickly and cheaply than before. These developments have had important consequences for archaeological knowledge and practice, most notably in the rapidly growing field of archaeogenomics (also referred to as archaeogenetics or paleogenomics).

If most academic debates surrounding the recent boom of ancient DNA (aDNA) so far have concerned conflicting research epistemologies, this article is a call for taking aspects of media and communication more seriously. Analyzing the fates of two recent research papers on Viking Age Scandinavia, we show how aDNA research is communicated, narrated and infused with meaning in the public sphere, particularly in relation to popular narratives and political debates. We observe significant interlacing of scientific, political and media discourses in and around the papers, and conclude that archaeogenetics is a highly mediatized scientific field.