Strands of 1,000-year-old DNA from 10 Viking skeletons have been retrieved, a team of scientists claims.

If true, the achievement would be notable, since many researchers say it is impossible to recover authentic DNA from ancient humans.

Jorgen Dissing of the University of Copenhagen and colleagues say they retrieved the genetic material from the freshly sampled teeth of skeletons dating back to around A.D. 1000 and found at a non-Christian burial site called Galgedil on the Danish island of Funen.

Wearing protective suits, the researchers removed the teeth from the jaw at the moment the skeletons were unearthed, where they had lain untouched for 1,000 years. Subsequent laboratory procedures were carefully controlled to avoid contamination with modern human DNA.