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posted by martyb on Tuesday September 12 2017, @11:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the Valkyries,-Amazons,...Xena? dept.

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


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:34PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @03:34PM (#566772)

    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

    by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:14PM (#566854)

    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.