![]() They made a lot of effort in portraying her in this way. She’s not wearing a dress, which would have been typical for a buried female. Q: What are other possible interpretations?Ī: There are no female objects within the grave. The only thing that has changed is our knowledge that it’s a woman and not a man. Nobody has made that comment before they knew the bones were from a woman. What does a grave represent? Asking whether the person buried ever fought in battle is a relevant question, but this has been known as a warrior grave since the 1880s and nobody has questioned it before. Q: Is it sexist to question whether this woman was actually a warrior in life, rather than someone just buried like one?Ī: Well, that’s the key question: How do we interpret a grave? That’s something we always face in archaeology. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. Science spoke with the team’s lead author, archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University in Sweden, about what archaeologists can infer about the Viking woman in question, and the double standards that crop up when female remains defy historical stereotypes. Yet some Viking scholars have expressed doubt about whether the woman was actually a Valkyrie-like, battle-hardened fighter, or whether she had just been buried with a warrior’s accoutrement. Last week, archaeologists reported that a Viking buried with a sword, ax, spear, and two shields-first discovered in the 1880s and long thought to be a man- was, in fact, a woman, making her the first known high-ranking female Viking warrior. ![]()
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