Meet Erika the Red: Viking women were warriors too, say scientists

[Eugene]

Source: The Observer

Meet Erika the Red: Viking women were warriors too, say scientists

Researchers re-create the face of a woman buried with an impressive collection of weaponry for a National Geographic documentary

Dalya Alberge
Sat 2 Nov 2019 12.45 GMT
Last modified on Sat 2 Nov 2019 17.40 GMT

Think of a Viking warrior and you probably imagine a fearsome, muscular, bearded man. Well, think again. Using cutting-edge facial recognition technology, British scientists have brought to life the battle-hardened face of a fighter who lived more than 1,000 years ago. And she’s a woman.

The life-like reconstruction, which challenges long-held assumptions that Viking warrior heroes such as Erik the Red left their women at home, is based on a skeleton found in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway, and now preserved in Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History. The remains had already been identified as female, but her burial site had not been considered a warrior grave “simply because the occupant was a woman”, according to archaelogist Ella Al-Shamahi.

As they worked on reconstructing her face for a 21st-century audience, scientists found that not only was the woman buried amid an impressive collection of deadly weaponry, including arrows, a sword, a spear and an axe, she also had suffered a head injury consistent with a sword wound. Her head, resting in her grave on a shield, was found to have a dent in it serious enough to have damaged the bone.

Whether the wound was the cause of death is unclear as scientific examination has revealed signs of healing. But Al-Shamahi believes that this is “the first evidence ever found of a Viking woman with a battle injury”.

“I’m so excited because this is a face that hasn’t been seen in 1,000 years… She’s suddenly become really real,” said the expert in ancient human remains, who is to present a forthcoming National Geographic documentary featuring the reconstruction.The skeleton was always identified as female, but never as a warrior, even though her grave was “utterly packed with weapons”, added Al-Shamahi .

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/02/viking-woman-warrior-face-reconstruction-national-geographic-documentary


Ella Al-Shamahi comes face to face with the Viking woman’s skull. Photograph: Eloisa Noble/National Geographic


A facial reconstruction image of the skull of the Viking woman found at Birka shows a large head injury, possibly sustained in battle. Photograph: National Geographic

[Bayard]

1. Fascinating

She looks like she was small, comparing the skull to Al-Shamahi.

Thanks for posting.

[Sherman A1]

2. Interesting

Thanks for posting.

[cilla4progress]

3. Reminds me of a Norse mythic novel 've been reading,

Half-Drowned King.

[wnylib]

4. You might like the Viking series by

Bernard Cornwell. Historical fiction about King Alfred and his battles with the Norwegian and Danish Vikings. It has factual history, mythology, and fiction rolled into one.

Not usually my type of novel but I got hooked on one of them and read the whole series to date. He is still writing them.

[wnylib]

5. The Viking sagas about the exploration of

Vinland by the Viking settlers of Greenland tell about a woman warrior who fought against the Native people they encountered in North America.