Were Some Viking Warriors Women?

The bones of what appears to be high-ranking Viking warrior have been proven to belong to a genetically female person. Learn the story behind this ancient grave and its occupant in today's episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain
Stuff Lauren Vogel Bomb. Here a Viking warrior is buried
in Sweden in the tenth century CE. The grave is
excavated in the eighteen seventies. DNA results are published in
sounds like a typical archaeological process of discovery that we
take for granted. This find, however, has been anything but typical,

(00:25):
because this Viking warrior was a woman. Found in an
underground chamber in eighteen seventy eight. This warrior had been
buried in a seated position with two horses, as well
as a sword, as knives, spears, shields, and armor piercing arrows.
In addition, a set of gaming pieces representing military strategy
was found in the lap of the seated body. Surrounded

(00:46):
by such weapons of war and without typical feminine coated
items such as jewelry or weaving equipment. This high ranking
warrior was assumed to be a man for more than
a hundred and twenty five years. Though there had been
an osteological analysis in nineteen seventies suggesting a slender bone
structure indicative of a female, conclusive evidence was not presented
until seventeen Charlotte hins Jerna Johnsen, an archaeologist at Sweden's

(01:11):
Upsala University, and her colleagues published their genomic analysis in
the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, explaining that ancient DNA
taken from a tooth and arm bone of the buried
warrior showed only x X chromosomes with no Y chromosome,
confirming this Viking warrior was a woman and that she
was likely more than thirty years old when she died.

(01:32):
Why did the genetic results take so long? We spoke
with hidden Dania Johnsen via email, and she explained that
good science takes time. The project was working with several
iron and Viking age skeletons, and processing ancient DNA isn't
as easy as modern DNA. Their findings were initially met
with questions and criticisms, including suspicions that the wrong bones
had been tested, but a careful review of the data

(01:54):
trail confirms that the bones first found in eighteen seventy
eight were in fact the bones processed and they're definitely
biologically female. The researchers do acknowledge that the items found
at the burial site aren't necessarily the possessions of the
buried Viking, but their opinion is that this was indeed
the grave of a high ranking warrior. Hiden's Tierna Johnsen

(02:15):
said most likely she was connected to the troops in
Byrka and linked to the garrison situated very close to
the burial. Some modern folks have raised the question as
to whether this biologically female warrior was living as a
man and whether this might have been as common as
gender transitions are today, But the researchers caution against applying
our modern day concepts of gender to an ancient non

(02:36):
Western people. They do acknowledge that this is just one
case study and quote there are many other possibilities across
a wide gender spectrum, some perhaps unknown to us but
familiar to the people of the time. Alongside these questions,
the Bierka settlement itself is a fascinating site. Located on
the island of Bierka in east central Sweden. It was

(02:56):
the country's first urban center and with Sweden's most important
trade center with Northern Europe in the eighth through the
tenth centuries. Today, the Buerka Archaeological Site is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. The site contains more than three thousand
known graves, with only about one thousand, one hundred excavated
and examined so far, and only seventy five found with
offensive weapons as opposed to defensive weapons. Though Viking women

(03:19):
have been found buried with weapons before, nothing compares to
the objects found at the site from this study. The
amount and type of items at this site suggests a
professional fighter, perhaps amounted archer, and the game board and
associated pieces also suggests a command role. The fact that
no tools or agricultural equipment were found there reinforces this
martial role in society. In addition, a tasseled cap reserved

(03:42):
for leaders of society was found at the burial site,
and the fact that she was probably not a local
inhabitant also tells us something about her status. According to
Hiden's Tiana Jansen, the relatively high level of mobility indicated
by the variation in strawntium levels between three different teeth
is in concordance with the itinerant lifestyle of the social elite.
The placement of the site itself also reflects a certain

(04:04):
standing both in society and military. It's the westernmost grave
site found at Berka, prominently situated near the gears and
located there and had been marked by a boulder, making
visible both from the settlement and the surrounding lake. Though
these findings may lead to the re examination of excavated
graves and bodies to determine sex, Hidden's Dyana Younsen and
her colleagues are onto new projects and are currently working

(04:26):
on a study on people buried in so called boat burials.
Today's episode was written by Jim Marion and produced by
Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart
Radio's How Stuff Works. For more in this and lots
of other topics that do some digging, visit our home planet,
how stuff works dot com. For more podcasts. For my

(04:47):
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