On May 31, 2018, deCODE genetics published new findings about the founding of the Icelandic population, and its subsequent evolution, based on ancient DNA. The study appeared in the online edition of Science.

By sequencing the genomes from 25 ancient skulls dating to the first generations of settlement, and comparing them to genomes from the contemporary inhabitants of Iceland, Scandinavia and the British and Irish Isles, the deCODE team was able to demonstrate that most of the settlers were of unmixed Norse or Gaelic ancestry and settled Iceland 1100 years ago, at the height of the Viking age.