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In Birka , Sweden , there is a more or less 1,000 - year - quondam Viking interment pullulate with deadly weapons — a sword , an ax - top dog , shaft , knives , shields and a quiver of pointer — as well as riding equipment and the skeletal system of two warhorse . intimately 150 years ago , when the grave accent was unearthed , archaeologists assumed they were looking at the burial of a male warrior . But a2017 DNA analysisof the burial ’s skeletal remains revealed the somebody was female .
Skeptics scrambled to explain away the grounds , saidCharlotte Hedenstierna - Jonson , an archeologist at Uppsala University in Sweden and first author of the 2017 written report .
Burials of females interred with weapons have been found across Scandinavia. But were any of these Viking Age women actually warriors?
Even now , despitefurther studiesstrengthening the case for the Birka individual ’s martial profession , some archaeologist still assert she was n’t a warrior .
The Birka controversy highlights the pregnant archaeological argumentation about the being of Viking women warriors . Viking mythology and lore are fill with tales of cleaning woman who endure for battle and engaged in violence , but whether these news report reflect real life is unsettled .
Across Scandinavia , at least a few dozen fair sex from theViking Age(A.D. 793 to 1066 ) were sink with war - ground level weapon system . jointly , these burials paint a pic that clashes violently with the hypermasculine look-alike of the whiskered , burly Viking warrior that has predominate the popular imaginativeness for century . And it ’s possible that , due to gendered assumptions , archaeologists may be systematically undercounting the number of Viking charwoman buried with weapons .
Burials of females interred with weapons have been found across Scandinavia. But were any of these Viking Age women actually warriors?
The finds hint at a nuanced impression of Viking society — one where most warriors were man but a person ’s class and profession had the biggest impact on who go to warfare .
" Women can be as strong , as skilled , as fast as man , " saidLeszek Gardeła , an archeologist at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and author of " Women and Weapons in the Viking World : Amazons of the North " ( Casemate , 2021 ) . " There is nothing in the biology there that would prevent them from being warrior . "
Still , the poor preservation of Scandinavian Graf , the enigmatic nature of Viking burials and the lack of historical texts leaves the substance of many female burials up for debate . And even if adult female warrior be , their signification in the broader Viking culture is unclear , Ole Kastholm , a prehistoric archaeologist and elderly researcher at Roskilde Museum in Denmark , enjoin Live Science .
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" It ’s an area where we ca n’t happen a secure answer , " he said .
Related : What ’s the farthest place the Vikings reach ?
What the burials hold
Across Sweden , Norway , Denmark and Iceland , there are one thousand of know Viking burials typically thought to be of male warrior . In contrast , we acknowledge of around 30 Robert Ranke Graves in which women were inhume with obvious martial equipment such as spearheads and shield ; of these roughly 30 , only three have blade .
Of the known Viking Age burials , " statistically mouth , there would be less than 1 % " of fair sex buried with weapons among graves of men buried with weapons , Gardeła tell Live Science .
But there are many more distaff sepulture that included other gear , such as carapace boss ( a round protective alloy piece at the shell ’s center ) , or possible weapons , such as arrowhead and ax - heads . Interpreting the latter burials is especially challenging because axes and arrowheads were used in battle , but they were also dick for hunting and farmwork .
A drawing, based on excavator Hjalmar Stolpe’s field records, showing the location of the skeleton and grave goods within the Birka burial. It’s possible, albeit controversial, that this woman was a warrior about 1,000 years ago.
But one of the main reason the female - warrior question is so controversial is that many Viking sepulture are n’t in enceinte condition .
The Birka burial is one example . In 1878 , workers used dynamite to crucify get to the grave accent , damaging it in the process . Untrained locals then helped excavate the grave accent . This wretched dig oeuvre has present naysayers way to argue that the chamber once held a double sepulture with a man .
According to the doubter , " a woman would never be potent enough to use those weapons " — an argument that was silly to Hedenstierna - Jonson , who had actually plow them .
Some of the metal weapons found in the burial at Birka, including a sword, ax-head, fighting knife, two lances, two shield bosses and 25 armor-piercing arrows.
" There were all these thought rather than scientific facts , " Hedenstierna - Jonson told Live Science .
Yet modern - earned run average hurt is n’t the great obstruction to analysis . In many case , bones and cremate corpse are part or wholly decayed before archaeologists get a peek , largely due to Scandinavia ’s acidulous soil . " We need very near conservation of the skeletons before we can learn the sex " via DNA analysis or os study , Kastholm say . " So even though the Viking Age has been investigate for like 150 years or more , it has not been that easy " to assess these Stephanie Graf .
" Occam ’s razor , you love — the simple explanation is usually the near . If you find a woman with a steel , then you should interpret it the same as you would a human race with a steel . "
The skull and weapons, including a sword, ax head, spearhead and arrowheads, that were found in the Nordre Kjølen grave in Norway.
As a result , archeologist often imagine the deceased ’s sex based on solemn commodity , such as mirrors , weaving tool and brooches , which archeologist assumed were typically bury with females , and battle - related weapons , which archaeologists thought were typically inter with males . If a Viking Age brand was the only item recovered , for instance , it was nigh always assumed to be a male tomb .
So it ’s possible archaeologists may be systematically undercounting Viking cleaning woman who were buried with weapons .
" We could have a lot more of these [ distaff ] graves than we experience about , " saidMarianne Moen , school principal of the Department of Archaeology at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo , calling the situation a catch-22 . " You excavate a grave accent in Norway , you find a sword and you go , ' Oh , it ’s a humanity . ' And then , ' is n’t it suspicious how all the swords are inhume with piece ? ' "
The burial of the Viking Age mother (right) who had large stones placed on top of her, and her son (left) whose ankles were bound and whose neck is broken, likely from hanging. Although a spear was found by the mother, researchers don’t think she was a warrior.
In some illustration , if a burial had both male- and female - associated artifact , it is assumed , peradventure incorrectly , that it was a duple burial with a male and a female person .
Even with that potential diagonal , there is strong evidence that some women were bury with war - related object across Scandinavia . Norway has several of what have been nickname " shield - maiden " interment , after the women warrior of Scandinavian folklore . One is theNordre Kjølen burial in Solør , which had a untried adult — belike a female person , based on a skeletal analysis — interred with a blade , an ax head , a spear-point , arrowheads , a buckler gaffer , a knight skeleton and instrument .
A second is thefemale gravy holder entombment from Aunvoll in Nord Trøndelag , in which a female person was interred with a sword , eight gaming pieces , a reap hook , a spearhead , shears , a tongue and tools . The Klinta sepulture in Öland , Sweden has the cremate remains of what are thought to be an elect woman with valuable metal artifacts , including an ax - head , knives and an iron stave , induce some to inquire if she was a völva , or a Viking Age sorceress .
How the Birka woman’s burial may have looked 1,000 years ago, with two horses buried on one end and the martial-related items placed around her.
And although they ’re not bury with sharp weapons , " there ’s quite a few female burial on the west coast of Norway that have carapace bosses and nobody likes to babble out about them , " Moen recite Live Science .
Difficult to interpret
Still , many archeologist struggle to make sense of these graves because the Vikings did n’t have a consistent mode of dealing with the stagnant .
" When we await at the Viking Age sepulture as a whole , they are uncanny and there ’s a expectant variation , " Kastholm tell . For instance , one had only a foot in it . Another was a threefold interment of " a woman , then another woman buried some years later and then a half man buried later . "
These mysterious , inconsistent sepulture make it hard to make aboveboard conclusions .
An illustration depicting the possible likeness of the woman buried in Birka, Sweden who was interred with many weapons, including a sword and ax-head.
Take the example of a grave accent discovered in Gerdrup , Denmark , in 1981 , Kastholm enjoin . A adult female was bury with a spear , with large stones on her body . Her adult son , who had bound ankles and may have been pay heed , was also in the grave accent .
The spearcouldbe a sign the woman was a warrior . But that ’s not how Kastholm interpret the grave . Instead , he thinks that the son was advert in veneration toOdin , the stone be the woman ’s high status , and the worthful " spear was hurtle into the bottom of the grave in a concluding ritual that dedicated the dead to Odin , " he co - write in a2021 study . This would have been a form of complex " mortuary theatre , " aplay of sort that would have been enacted at the dangerous site , which research suggests may have been common .
As for the Birka burial , Kastholm does n’t gainsay that the deceased was biologically female and that she was buried with many weapons . " I ’m wholly convinced by that , " he said . " If that means she was a warrior , I ’m not convinced there . But that would go for male graves as well . "
What historical texts tell us
To put the burial of women with weapons into context , archaeologists have front at historical text edition .
The Vikings left behind only afew thousand runic inscriptions . So most descriptions of warlike charwoman and " shield maidens " come from semihistorical whole caboodle written during the post - Viking medieval period of time . For example , in " Gesta Danorum , " a semifictional history of Denmark bySaxo Grammaticus(who experience circa 1150 to 1220 ) , the warrior woman Lagertha travel with a group of women fit out as men , marries a Viking king who by and by divorces her , and still fights with him in a polar battle .
And some sagas , such as The Saga of Hervör and Heidrek , account Norse women use up up arms to assist protect phratry attribute , consort to a1986 analytic thinking . Only men could inherit attribute , so if a man had only daughters , one was sometimes compelled to step into the part of a warrior as a " functional son " who could protect the family ’s sake , according to the study .
TheIcelandic saga , write by masses who were potential the Viking ’s descendants in the 13th and fourteenth 100 , include stories about " womanhood result troops and engaging in acts of violence , " Moen indite in a2021 clause .
But are these taradiddle grounds that Viking woman were warrior in tangible life ? Or did some narration have other mythical or mystical significance ?
Some grounds indicate toward the latter . Sagas in which women manage artillery like axes often have witching overtones . In the Old Norse Ljósvetninga saga , for instance , a cross - dressing Norse sorceress strikes the urine with an axe to see into the futurity . axis are oftentimes associated with conjuring trick in folk custom from Scandinavia , Finland and Central Europe , Gardeła note in a2021 clause .
Gender wasn’t destiny
After the Viking Age , the stereotype of the beefy and ruthless manful Viking warrior arose in the medieval sagas that detail their exploit , and again in the late 19th hundred during Scandinavia and Iceland ’s National Romantic period . But it ’s possible that Viking Age society was " less governed by binary gendered ideals and more by smooth societal obligations , " Moen wrote in the 2021 article .
This would mean there was n’t a simple male - distaff dichotomy in who did what . This is get wind in Viking Age grievous goods . For illustration , at Viking Age cemeteries in Vestfold , Norway , Moen find that although weapons were more vulgar in male graves , they were also found in distaff sepulture . alike , while jewelry was more pronounced in female graves , 40 % of virile graves also had them , " hardly a negligible proportion , " she wrote in the clause .
Given how muchviolence permeated Viking gild , " it would be naïve to think that only one one-half of the population was seat in it , " she wrote in the article .
But the great unwashed should not see this as female warriors fill up a " man ’s part , " Kastholm said . Rather , " warrior " was probably a profession , likemodern - twenty-four hour period firefighting , in which most were male but some were female .
Even among Viking Age men , being a " warrior " meant different thing . Farmworkers , fisher and other peasants may have defend occasionally . But for the most part , the warriorswerethe social elite .
" Your biological sexual practice was a factor [ in your professing ] , but it was not the chief factor , " Hedenstierna - Jonson pronounce . " The main factor was your role and your emplacement and your family . "
Still , mass should be cautious in using information about these burials to guess how gender was perceive in Viking society , Moen say .
" I do n’t intend it even necessarily indicates any kind of gender equality , " she said . " What I do think is that you have much grounds women could be warriors and were warriors at sure multiplication and in certain condition . "
“Occam’s razor”
Moen splits archeologist into three group : those who think the burials clearly show that female warrior existed ; the great unwashed who say , " Yes , manifestly women could be bury with arm , but we need to question what it means " ; and naysayer who think there ’s no way women in reality used the weapon they were inhume with . " They find it really quite troubling , and they go to very long lengths of explicate it off , " she said .
To Moen , the evidence of female Viking warrior is right in front of us .
" Occam ’s razor , you know — the simplest explanation is usually the best , " she said . " If you find a adult female with a sword , then you should interpret it the same as you would a man with a sword . "
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In the end , Kastholm thinks " there will always be a lot of debate . And that public debate is more about our time " and our modern - Clarence Day attachment to gendered stereotypes about the Vikings than it is about the archaeological evidence , he said .
" Of course there were warrior in the Viking Age , and I ’m passably certain that some of them were female , " Kastholm said . Yes , many grave accent are tricksy to immobilize down , but at least a few have an impressive identification number of gruelling - gist weapons buried with them .
" If it was a man , " he said , " we would say ' that ’s a warrior grave . "
Viking quiz: How much do you know about these seaborne raiders, traders and explorers?
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