Swedish researchers found that the Vikings were among the women
The researchers analyzed the DNA of the remains from the grave on the island of björk in lake mällaren.
STOCKHOLM, 9 September. /Offset. TASS Irina Dergacheva/. According to the study of the remains of the ancient Vikings, high military positions are occupied by not only men but also women.
This is the conclusion Swedish scientists came after a DNA analysis of the remains from the grave on the island of Björkö in lake mällaren (the first capital of the Vikings), opened in XIX century.
Then, in addition to the bones from the burial were recovered numerous items, including weapons, the remains of two horses, a Board game that pointed at the military high status of the buried person. Before this it was considered that this man, but new data suggests that it’s a woman.
Study leader, archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Johnson believes that all of this suggests a much more sophisticated society of the Vikings than was assumed. “It gives a deeper understanding. When talking about people from ancient history, forget that they were the person,” she said. According to her, in ancient societies the chief was not so much floors, how many personal abilities.
“Even if I think officer positions often held by men, if there was any man, his gender had far less meaning,” says Charlotte Hedenstierna-Johnson.
In the early twentieth century in Norway, from the burial grounds of the Viking period were also fetched the remains of two women warriors. This became known after examination of the skeletons.
The city of Birka on the island Björkö
On Björkö (literally: “birch island”), located 50 km from the Swedish capital, more than a thousand years ago was a settlement Tag, which is often called the first city of Sweden. In 1993 the island was inscribed on the UNESCO world cultural heritage site by UNESCO.
In the year 800 Bjork was the largest shopping centre in the Baltic. In the summer months, when here came the ships with goods, the number of inhabitants could reach 8 thousand people. The value of economic and cultural life of early medieval Northern European historians compare the Tag with the ancient Novgorod. It is on the walls Tag began as a way “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, in X—XII centuries, linking Sweden with Russia, Byzantium, the Middle East, Central Asia.