Ī study led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, published in September 2017, noted Kjellström's "osteological analysis triggered questions concerning sex, gender and identity among Viking warriors". A 2014 osteological analysis of the skeleton's pelvic bones and mandible by Stockholm University bioarchaeologist Anna Kjellström provided evidence that the bones were those of a female. Studies in the 1970s had questioned the assumption the skeleton was male. The warrior has been compared to "a figure from Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries". For the next 128 years, the skeleton was assumed to be that of a "battle hardened man". The goods found in the grave included "a sword, an axe, a spear, armour-piercing arrows, a battle knife, two shields, and two horses, one mare and one stallion". The body was found collapsed from a sitting position, wearing garments of silk, with silver thread decorations. The grave chamber was made out of wood and it was 3.45 m long and 1.75 m wide. It has been considered "one of the most iconic graves from the Viking Age." The grave was marked by a large stone boulder and was found on an elevated terrace where it was in direct contact with the garrison. In 1889 he documented the grave as Bj 581. Archaeological records Initial excavation Īrchaeologist and ethnographer Hjalmar Stolpe (1841–1905) excavated a burial chamber in the 1870s, as part of his archaeological research at the Viking Age site Birka, on the island Björkö (literally: "Birch Island") in present-day Sweden. It was only after the proof the individual was female that any papers were published which called into question this interpretation. During the 130 years between the first publication about this burial and the publication that the remains were female, there were over 50 papers published which accepted as fact that the individual was a high status warrior a leader of men.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |