Excavation, remains, and grave goods
Archaeologist 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 of Björkö in Mälaren, a lake in Sweden. In 1889 he documented the grave as Bj 581. [1]
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. [2] The grave chamber was made out of wood, 3.45m long and 1.75m wide.
A human skeleton was found, collapsed from a sitting position. The skeleton was later found to be the remains of someone who was biologically female and over the age of 30. [2]
Scant remnants of garments of silk, with silver brocade, were found about the skeleton along with a simple iron ring pin, suggesting the garments of a kaftan, and a cloak which would have been secured with the pin. Also found was a tasseled hat of samite with silver trim. [3] [4]
Many weapons were found in the grave. The organic material had decayed, leaving only the metal parts intact. A Petersen type E sword was found in its sheath near the body, as well as the head of a Petersen type M axe, and a sax (a large fighting knife). Near the sword was a small knife made of iron and a sharpening stone. Two spearheads, the larger appearing to be the remains of a spear thrust into the grave and the smaller appearing to be from a spear that was thrown in. Twenty-five arrowheads of the Erik Wegraeus type D1 suggest a bow and full quiver of arrows. Finally, there were two shield bosses, one against the front wall of the grave, and the other on the opposite wall. [4] [5]
Additional items found were a spearhead in miniature (thought to be an amulet), a bronze vessel, part of an Arab silver dirham of Nasr ibn Ahmad from the reign of al-Muktadir (AD 913–933), three tin rods, two stirrups, the remains of a belt set, four ice crampons, a large comb made of antler, and forty shards of mirror glass. The mirror shards may have been a mirror that was broken, or used in their fragmented state as clothing ornament. [6] [2] [4]
A gaming set was also found in the grave. The set comprised 28 gaming pieces (including a king piece), three dice, three weights, and what is thought to be the iron frame of a gaming board. The dice, weights, and gaming pieces were wrapped in a bag. [4]
Skeletal remains of a mare and a stallion lay on a platform made of clay at one end of the grave, towards which the deceased individual would have been facing while seated. One of the horses was bridled for riding. [4]
Sex of deceased
Stolpe originally concluded that the buried person was an important male warrior, despite the fact that osteological analysis contemporary to that era that would have suggested a female skeleton. This misidentification remained widely accepted by archaeologists for nearly 140 years. [7]
Osteological analysis first showed that the skeleton was female in the 1970s, but the findings were dismissed [8] In 2016, osteological analysis by Stockholm University bioarchaeologist Anna Kjellström again concluded that the skeleton was female. [9]
In 2017, the female sex of the skeleton was confirmed by genomics in a study led by Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University. [2] Hedenstierna-Jonson's team extracted DNA from samples taken from a tooth and an arm bone of the remains buried in Bj 581. The skeleton had two different X chromosomes, but no Y chromosomes, conclusively proving that the bones were female. [10]
Debate over social identity
Female Viking warrior
Kjellström acknowledged in 2016 the uncertainties inherent in analyzing the remains found in any grave, "Whether these are not the correct bones for this grave or whether it opens up reinterpretations of weapon graves in Birka, it is too early to say." [9]
In 2017, the Hedenstierna-Jonson paper that reported the results of the DNA test confirming that the individual in Bj 581 was a female included the claim that she was not only a warrior, but a professional one, and a high-ranking officer. [2] Hedenstierna-Jonson points to patriarchal assumptions within academia as an explanation for the previous misidentification of the skeletal remains of Bj 581, stating, "Viking scholars have been reluctant to acknowledge the agency of women with weapons", and that "at Birka, grave Bj 581 was brought forward as an example of an elaborate high-status male warrior grave," despite skeletal evidence otherwise. [2] Additionally, the paper cites Marianne Moen's 2011 study that concluded that the "image of the male warrior in a patriarchal society was reinforced by research traditions and contemporary preconceptions". [2] Other scholars have noted that cultural bias can result in incorrect interpretations of burial sites. [10]
The Hedenstierna-Jonson team considered questions about the sex identification of the remains within the context of the martial objects buried with the bones, asserting that "the distribution of the grave goods within the grave, their spatial relation to the female individual and the total lack of any typically female attributed grave artifacts" disputed the possibilities that the artifacts belonged to the family of the deceased, or to a male "now missing" from the grave. [2] An analysis of the weapons indicated that a trained warrior had used the weapons and were not ceremonial. [10] The study concluded that "the individual in grave BJ 581 is the first confirmed female high-ranking Viking warrior". [2]
The 2017 Hedenstierna-Jonson study also analyzed isotopes of strontium in the skeleton to identify the geographic profile of the individual. This determined that she had similar markers to those of present-day people living in areas under the sphere of influence of the Vikings, and determined that she was not from Birka but had settled there. [2]
The gaming set found in the grave has been interpreted to support that the deceased individual was of the military caste, and possibly a leader skilled in military strategy. [11] [12] [13] According to Kjellström, "Only a few warriors are buried with gaming pieces, and they signal strategic thinking." [8] It has been suggested that the gaming set could be a kind of hnefatafl game. [11]
Pushback, critique, and alternative interpretations
Critiques of the conclusion that Bj 581 contains a female Viking warrior focus on the possibility that the weapons found in the grave should not be interpreted as possessions of the female individual found in the grave.
Fedir Androshchuk, archaeologist, in "Female Viking Revisited," Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, pointed out flaws in the archaeological methods, including both the failure to acknowledge the disturbed state of the Birka graves, and also Stolpe's assistance from nonprofessionals (farmers) doing excavation as well as note-taking and drawings. He also noted that the original sketch differed from later interpretive sketches of the grave and the effect of the stone removal on the grave contents. He believed Berit Vilkans' records showed a second body. [14]
The term "warrior's grave" has been criticized; [6] critics prefer the more neutral term, "weapons grave". [15] In 1980, archaeologist Anne-Sofie Gräslund disagreed with interpreting the graves at Birka as warrior graves, arguing that it implies the deceased was a full time warrior, when it is likely that presence of many weapons represents a social elite. [16]
Judith Jesch critiqued the study's use of textual sources as well the failure to discuss alternative interpretations [17] .
Response
The authors responded to the criticism in a second article published in Antiquity that provided additional information about their methodology and reaffirmed their conclusion. [18] Hedenstierna-Jonson stated that Hjalmar Stolpe was known for his meticulous note taking and careful documentation. Each bone found in the grave had been labelled "Bj 581" with India ink at the time of excavation. [10]
Hedenstierna-Jonson has stated that "Since [the site] was excavated in the 1870s, it has constantly been interpreted as a warrior grave because it looks like a warrior grave and it’s placed by the garrison and by the hillfort," she says. "Nobody’s ever contested it until the skeleton proved to be female, and then it was not a valid interpretation anymore." [19]
Reconsidering history
The Hedenstierna-Jonson study concludes with the comment, "the combination of ancient genomics, isotope analyses and archaeology can contribute to the rewriting of our understanding of social organization concerning gender, mobility and occupation patterns in past societies." [2]
Uppsala University issued a press release acknowledging the long-standing misidentification of the grave, stating that the grave had long "served as a model for what graves for professional Viking warriors looked like. Although several features of the skeleton indicate that it may have belonged to a woman, the assumption has always been that the person buried was a male Viking." [20]
Swedish historian Dick Harrison of Lund University wrote, "What has happened in the past 40 years through archaeological research, partly fueled by feminist research, is that women have been found to be priestesses and leaders, too... This has forced us to rewrite history." [21]
Additionally, Martin Rundkvist, archaeologist, wrote on his blog Aardvarchaeology, [22]
Your skeleton can't tell us anything about your gender, and your grave goods can't tell us anything about your osteo-sex [sex as determined your by bones] …The plan of the grave shows which bones were well preserved. This should be enough to counter the charge that maybe the skeleton currently labelled Bj 581 is not in fact the one found in this weapon grave. This the authors should have written a few sentences about it… We still can't rule out the early removal of an articulated male body. But such an argument ex silentio would demand that we place similar female bodies in all other weapon graves as well. We can't just create the bodies we want in order for the material to look neat."
Holly Norton, historian and State Archaeologist of Colorado, posed these questions: "What does it mean that Bj 581 was a female? What does this reveal about the structure of Viking society? Was Bj 581 unique, or did she represent a category of women that has been largely relegated to mythology? And what can this tell us about how violent conflict was viewed and experienced?" [12]
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