The grave of a person archaeologists have identified as a female Viking warrior may actually be a Slavic migrant from an area in today ’s Poland , Modern research suggests .
The skeleton lies alongside an ax in a Viking cemetery on the island of Langeland , Denmark , and was rediscovered year ago – but until now , no one has pay up attention to the heritage of the weapon , state Leszek Gardeła , an archaeologist and Viking geezerhood specializer from the Department of Scandinavian Languages and Literatures at the University of Bonn , Germany .
" So far , no one has pay up any tending to the fact that the axe in the grave comes from the field of the southerly Baltic , possibly today ’s Poland , " Gardeła toldScience In Poland .
Gardela , who is currently work on a project ( Amazons of the North ) studying weapon system - hold in female grave from 9th and tenth - century Scandinavia , explains that neither the axe nor the form of burial ( a bedchamber grave containing an extra coffin and a weapon ) suggests that the women was a Viking . It is more likely , he says , that she originated from an region in modernistic - day Poland , making her Slavic .
" The presence of Slavonic warriors in Denmark was more significant than previously intend ; this image emerge from new research,“saidGardeła . " During the Middle Ages , this island was a melt plenty of Slavonic and Norse constituent . "
The grave accent is one of thirty graves containing biologically female remains from ninth and 10th - C Scandinavia ( Denmark , Sweden , and Norway)known to carry weapons . Most often , these artillery are axis vertebra , though there have been ( less frequent ) examples of graves containing lance or arrowhead .
While character likeLagerthain the TV showVikingsandValkyrieinThorhave popularized the form of theViking warrioress – or Nordic " Amazon " – and the sagas themselves tell tale ofshield - maidens , the arm found in this grave were not necessarily used for scrap and their presence does not needs stand for these women were warrior , says Gardela .
" Some of the axis are so mischievously save that such analysis are not possible , " heexplained . " Those that are in a better condition look as if they were site in the grave accent just after being made – it may be due to the fact that their blades were heighten , hence there are no dent on them . But it is potential that some weapon system were made specifically for the funeral . "
And while shield - maiden and valkyries do feature in older Icelandic texts and Nordic saga , so do dragons , trolls , elves , and dwarf , which makes their genuine - life creation firmly to verify without Harlan Stone - stale archaeological grounds .
The problem here is that the bones in the graves are badly preserved . Many remains have been name as women just on news report of the traditionally distaff artefact buried alongside their trunk , orfamously misidentifiedas male person thanks to telling displays of implements of war or indications of richly - rate status . Meanwhile , the poor state of the corpse make it grueling to confirm how they died or , indeed , their biologic sex or role in guild .
Luckily , says Gardela , the allege Slavic woman ’s boneshadsurvived . Though there are no obvious injuries that can nail the cause of her death .
Gardela believes that female Vikings only occasionally wielded weapons , and even then , mostly for reasons of religious ritual or self - defense . However , until we jazz more about how Viking high society was structure ( and accept they lived in a linguistic context of their own ) we can only speculate about the roles of warrior woman in it , though theevidence is buildingthat shield - maiden over may not have been as fabulous as their valkyrie opposite number .
[ H / T : Science In Poland ]
