DNA proves fearsome Viking warrior was a woman:
A 10th century Viking unearthed in the 1880s was like a figure from Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries: an elite warrior buried with a sword, an ax, a spear, arrows, a knife, two shields, and a pair of warhorses. [...] a new study published today in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology finds that the warrior was a woman—the first high-status female Viking warrior to be identified. Excavators first uncovered the battle-ready body among several thousand Viking graves near the Swedish town of Birka, but for 130 years, most assumed it was a man—known only by the grave identifier, Bj 581. [...] Now, the warrior's DNA proves her sex, suggesting a surprising degree of gender balance in the Vikings' violent social order.
Her name was Lagertha.
Reference: Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, et. al., A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23308
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)
Iroquois warbands were composed mostly of men and led by men. Civil society may have been matriarchal, but as far as my reading has shown, their warmaking was male dominated.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:14PM
Which makes sense - two universal truths: war is a dangerous business, and women are the long-term strength of the tribe. Wipe out 90% of the men in a tribe, and you're going to have some manpower issues for a few decades. Wipe out 90% of the women, and you're not going to have a tribe in a few decades.