Photo Credit: Courtesy of Peignoir Prod
In 1878, archaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe uncovered a grave containing a large number of weapons and the skeletal remains of what seemed to be a great Viking warrior.
For a century, people assumed the body was male until the 1970s when Berit Vilkans, a young researcher, observed the bones had female characteristics. In 2017, a team of Swedish geneticists proved through DNA analysis that the great warrior wasn’t a man, but a woman.
Vikings marked the grave with a granite stone on top that was 8 feet wide, indicating that this was an unquestionably important grave.
In the grave, they found:
1. Shield
2. Knife
3. Bow & arrow
4. Spear
5. Axe
6. Sword
As said in the film, to find a grave that contains a stockpile of medieval weapons is “very unusual.”
A pouch with gaming piece and dice was also found in the grave and, by the warrior’s side, there was a gaming board, all of which are items commonly found in graves of high-ranking military commanders of that era.
