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This program is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It contains mature adult themes. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to Forbidden Fruit, the Forbidden History Podcast Extra. In our last episode, we heard the incredible story of the Ossiburg burial ship and theorized about the lives of the Viking royal women entombed there.
In this episode, we're going to do a deep dive into another famous female Viking archaeological discovery. First discovered in 1878 and perceived to be a standard Viking warrior grave, modern science would reveal some provocative truths, changing our contemporary perceptions of Viking society forevermore. This is the Birka Viking Warrior Woman.
It's 1878, on the sleepy island of Birka in Lake Malaren, Sweden. Hjalmar Stolpe, an entomologist turned archaeologist, is carrying out excavations at Birka, an ancient Viking trading settlement that was significantly active from the 8th to the 10th century. Unbeknownst to Hjalmar, him and his team are about to make a truly marvelous discovery.
Prominently placed on a mound near the town is a large block of granite. It takes many days to dig through, but beneath is a lavish grave of a Viking warrior. The Viking skeleton is found in a collapsed sitting position, wearing garments of silk with silver thread decorations.
Buried inside the grave chamber alongside the Viking is a sword, an axe, a spear, a bow and armor-piercing arrows, a battle knife, two shields, and the skeletal remains of two horses. The complete arsenal of a professional warrior.
A full set of Neffetafel, the board game often referred to as Viking chess, is also found in the grave, indicating the prestige of a battle strategist. Each object from the grave is logged and stored at the Swedish History Museum. Birka's Viking Age Society was organized in a hierarchical structure,
with individuals of high status being buried with rich grave goods, indicating their high positions. Therefore, this grave is an astonishing find, especially as Viking warrior graves rarely contain more than three weapons. And to further emphasize the grave's superiority,
Out of 1,100 Birka tombs identified, it is just one of two that contains a full set of weaponry. The biological sex of the individual found in the Birka Viking warrior grave is assumed male. In 1975, osteoarchaeologist Berit Vilkens is tasked with cataloging the contents of many Viking graves, including the remains of the warrior.
After completing her examination, Berit notes that the bones of the warrior belonged to someone of average height, with thin forearms, and a pelvic bone shape that suggests it belonged to a female. Unfortunately, the skull bone, which bodes certain gender-specific characteristics, is missing from the remains, which could confirm the female Viking warrior theory.
The Viking warrior's identity remains male in the Swedish History Museum records. In 2014, Stockholm University bioarchaeologist Anna Kjellström questions the original interpretations of the Birka burial and also conducts an osteological analysis of the Viking warrior.
Anna's 2014 analysis also closely examines the warrior's pelvic bones, as well as the jawbone, which reveals dimensions and markers of a biological female. This discovery provides strong evidence that the individual was indeed a woman, confirming Berit Wolken's hunch and contradicting previous assumptions.
Anna presents her analysis at a scientific conference in 2014 and publishes it in 2016, but it doesn't make much of an impact on the general public. Some archaeologists even push back, arguing that the excavation of the gravesite occurred so long ago that perhaps the bones had been mixed up or mislabeled in Berit Wolken's 1975 cataloging.
And surely there are many other reasons why a female body would be laid in a warrior's tomb. Little did they know, Hjalmar Stolpe, the original excavator, was a very particular archaeologist, recording everything he found with scientific rigor and carefulness. Despite the slight backlash, the research continues with strong results.
In response to the criticism, a team of researchers, led by Uppsala University archaeologist Charlotte Hildenstern-Jonsson, decide to conduct DNA testing on the bones. They extract two types of DNA: the nuclear DNA, which reveals the biological sex, and the mitochondrial DNA. The latter kind is passed down from mother to child and determines whether the bones belong to one or multiple people.
The results come back clear. The mitochondrial DNA from the various bones all match, meaning the remains match one person. And no Y chromosomes are detected in the bones, meaning these are the remains of a female. The examination uncovers that she was between 30 and 40 years old when she died, and that she ate well all her life.
This suggests she came from a rich family, or maybe even a royal one, much like the assumptions of the Viking women of Aaseburg. By the minerals found in her inner teeth, researchers could determine that she most likely came from southern Sweden or Norway, and that before her molars had finished forming, she most likely traveled west, potentially as far as the British Isles.
Within her lifetime, she also likely traveled as far east as Kyiv in Ukraine. Viking society was characterized by a mobile lifestyle, and children would have accompanied their parents on journeys. Much like today, though, traveling in the Viking Age was dependent on social status. So this again reiterates that the Birka Viking warrior most likely came from a well-off family.
The weapons and artifacts, including the clothing found within her grave, also link this female warrior to the Vikings' east way. This was the trade route between Sweden and the Silk Road, and offered the Vikings access to the Baltic Sea, Eastern Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic world. The burial site, Birka, was a thriving trading hub, full of Byzantine and Arab silver.
This was from the sale of items such as furs, honey, and slaves sent down the Dnieper and Volga rivers. The items found within the female Viking's grave could suggest she had connections to affluent figures in world trade, or perhaps she just had high taste for luxury goods. The gaming pieces found buried with her suggest strategic thinking.
Anna Kjellström proposes that because she was buried with these pieces, the female warrior may have been a battle strategist. This leads to speculation that she might have been some sort of officer who could lead troops into battle. Once analyzed, the weapons found in the grave indicate use from a trained warrior. They weren't just for show.
While wealthy women of this time were often buried with their jewelry, the female Viking warrior was buried with her weapons, tools of violence. Many Viking sagas and Scandinavian folklore actually tell tales of shield maidens fighting alongside male warriors. If this is the case, why then, when the discovery was uncovered, was the Berke female warrior immediately assumed to be male?
As the grave was discovered in the late 19th century during the Victorian era, it's very likely that archaeologists of this time were influenced by Victorian ideals. The notion that a woman's proper and only place was the home, and that men were expected to be out working all day, was very likely imposed on the understanding of Viking society.
Assumptions were made about how Viking women lived, based purely on the social constructs of the Victorian era. The traditional view of Viking Age society was essentially male-dominated, with men doing the hunting, fighting, trading, and farming, while the women did the cooking, caring for the home, and raising children.
While these traditional views also expressed that women of the Viking Age did enjoy an unusual degree of freedom for their day, in the form of owning property, requesting a divorce, and reclaiming of their dowries if their marriage ended, they didn't express the idea that a woman could be a fighting warrior.
In an article released prior to the 2014 and 2017 uncoverings, Marianne Moen from the University of Oslo cautioned that "assuming Viking men were ranked above women is to impose modern values on the past, which would be misleading."
Later re-evaluation of the Birka warrior not only challenged the traditional view of gender roles in Viking society, it also highlighted the importance of re-examining archaeological findings. The results called for caution against making assumptions and generalization regarding social orders in historic societies.
The recognition of the Birka find as a prominent female Viking warrior contributed to broader discussions on gender, power, and societal roles during the Viking Age.
While not all archaeologists agree on the interpretation of these complex burial findings, there's no denying that this study reminds us how multifaceted human societies can be when we study them for who they really are, rather than who we believe them to be.
This is an audio production by Like A Shot Entertainment. Presented by Bridget Lappin. Executive Producers Danny O'Brien and Henry Scott. Story Producer Maddie Bowers. Assistant Producer Alice Tudor. Thank you for listening.
Hello, I'm Violet Manners and welcome to Hidden Heritage, the podcast that brings you inside Great Britain's favourite destinations. From the same team that brought you the number one history podcast, Duchess, Hidden Heritage will uncover the fascinating stories behind the UK's brightest, shining hidden gems.
You'll hear from top experts in British heritage, including custodians, historians, artisans, experts, and even the craftsmen and restorers who've worked on some of the most celebrated historic buildings.
We will share the untold and unique stories that celebrate UK heritage, from landmarks to architecture, artefacts to myths and legends. Hidden Heritage will highlight a side of British history you have never seen before. I'm your host, Violet Manners, and founder of HeritageX, and I invite you all to join us on this exciting journey. This is Hidden Heritage. You can find Hidden Heritage wherever you listen to your podcasts.
