But what led researchers to believe that this mighty warrior was, in fact, a woman? The two horses buried in the grave provided further proof of the warrior’s esteemed military status. There are several graves that have a weapon or two, but the complete set, that’s very, very unusual,” Hedenstierna-Jonson says in the film. “We would think that during the Viking Age, there would be weapons in lots of graves, but there are not, actually. Rendering of the burial in grave Bj 581 - the warrior, with her two horses and arsenal of weapons. The grave, numbered Bj 581, immediately caused a sensation due to its abundance of weapons: a shield, knife, bow and arrow, spear, axe, and sword. The investigation begins in the late 19th century when archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe discovered the magnificent burial chamber of a warrior in Birka during a largescale excavation. Secrets of the Dead: Viking Warrior Queen shares a scientific and historical adventure as Hedenstierna-Jonson and a team of intrepid archaeologists examine the history-changing DNA of this warrior and attempt to discover her identity. This changes how we view Viking warrior history. Until then, no one had ever been able to prove the existence of a female Viking military leader. In 2017, a team of Swedish archaeologists led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, a specialist in Viking society in Sweden, astonished the archaeology world with a DNA study proving that the great warrior was a woman. For a century, people assumed the body was that of a man until the 1970s when a young researcher observed the bones had female characteristics. In 1878, the body of a great Viking warrior was found in Birka, Sweden, along with a huge cache of weapons. In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history.Secrets of the Dead: Viking Warrior Queen premieres Tuesday, July 7 at 8 p.m. In 1871 on the sleepy island of Birka, Sweden, Hjalmar Stolpe, a Swedish entomologist turned archaeologist, discovered the lavish grave of a Viking warrior. Around the seated body were the remains of two sacrificed horses, as well as a double-edged sword, a scramasax (a long, thin knife), a bow, a shield, and a spear-every weapon known to the Viking world. It was an astonishing find, especially since Viking warrior graves rarely contain more than three weapons. There was also a full set of hnefatafl, the board game often known as Viking chess, which indicates the strategic thinking and authority of a war leader. The weapons, game pieces, location: Everything told scholars that the man buried in what is known as grave Bj 581 was a prominent, well-respected Viking warrior.Ī thousand years ago, the site would’ve abutted the Warrior’s Hall, where a garrison lived to protect the bustling Viking town of Birka. No one was really prepared when DNA tests were conducted in 2017 and a new story began to emerge. This was a prominent warrior, all right, but the occupant of Bj 581 wasn’t a man. Nancy Marie Brown’s new book explores the life of the warrior woman buried in Bj 581. Viking historian Nancy Marie Brown’s new book, The Real Valkyrie: The Hidden History of Viking Warrior Women, explores what life might have been like for the warrior woman of Bj 581. Using more evidence from the recent tests conducted on the remains, Brown traces her journey from Norway to the British Isles to Kiev then, finally, to Birka. Brown imagines the unnamed warrior meeting other prominent Viking women, such as Gunnhild, Mother of Kings, or Queen Olga, ruler of the Rus Vikings in Kiev. She also explores the Viking sagas and contemporary sources with a new lens.Ītlas Obscura spoke with Brown about her new book, valkyries, and the assumptions that underlie the history we think we know. How did you initially get interested in Vikings-and female Vikings in particular ?
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