The DNA analysis of the high-ranking Viking warrior, thought to be a male in Sweden, proved that this person was a woman.
Medieval historic Records indicate that Viking women are fighting alongside men.
In the 1880s, a fascinating tomb was discovered in the Swedish town of birka. Weapons, hunting equipment and two horses found in the grave, ms 10. it belonged to the century and was thought to be a powerful Male Viking warrior. But there were some features that pointed out that the skeleton was a woman. A new study, DNA analysis, revealed conclusively that this powerful warrior was actually a Viking woman.
The idea of a female Viking warrior is not really new. Historical records and artistic works from the beginning of the Middle Ages depict women fighting alongside men. But for the most part, these ideas were ignored for claiming that they were not based on reality and that they were mythological. Nevertheless, with thousands of Viking warrior tombs known throughout Europe, it is now possible to test this idea by examining the skeletons.
Birka, east of Sweden, has more than 3,000 Viking graves and approximately one third of them were excavated by archaeologists. A few seem to have a population of warriors, artisans and merchants. Various grave forms point to a culture open to external influences.
The illustration of Evald Hansen based on the original plan of excavation President Hjalmar Stolpe (1889).
- a tomb excavated in the late 20th century was the subject of a new article in the Journal of American Physics Anthropology by a research team led by Charlotte hedenstierna-jonson at Uppsala University and Stockholm University.
“The grave presents include a sword, axe, spear, armor piercing arrows, a war knife, two shields and two horses (a Mare and a stallion), all the equipment of a professional fighter, and a special attention was paid to the grave.” In the grave, there were also works that emphasized that the buried person was a senior officer, that he had tactical and strategy knowledge. “
For centuries, it has been assumed that this person was only a man based on weapons. However, Anna Kjellström, one of the researchers in 2016, re-examined the skeleton in this grave and discovered that the individual was most likely a woman.
“Although some Viking women are buried with guns, a woman warrior that is so important has never been identified, and scientists are reluctant to accept the role of armed Viking women.” he explains. The research team decided to investigate the individual's nuclear DNA in the grave to confirm this hypothesis.
This is a demonstration of how the original Viking tomb looks. F: Urrhallur Urrásson.
Researchers have tested both the root of the tooth and the upper arm bone. Both samples presented a clear response to the biological sex: there are two x chromosomes and there are no Y Chromosomes. MtDNA haplogroup returned to the common T2b in England, Iceland and Scandinavia. However, the individual's strontium isotope values indicate early migration. This woman, at the age of 4, had passed from one mother country to another at a time between the first molar tooth and the second molar tooth in the age of 9.
Research team: “the person in this grave is a high-ranking, female Viking warrior.”
This finding should lead all archaeologists to question the sex of Viking fighters in their previous descriptions. In the past, countless prejudices have prevented the full investigation of possible female fighters. It was argued that weapons and other grave items in Viking graves, which were previously identified as women, could have symbolic meanings or be memories. But for men in similar graves, none of these discussions were made. The researchers say that this discovery paves the way for a better understanding of the vikings.