Secrets of the Dead (2000–…): Season 18, Episode 9 - Viking Warrior Queen - full transcript
Swedish archaeologists prove through a DNA study that remains found in the burial chamber of a Viking warrior in 1878 are that of a woman -- not a man.
♪♪
- The isle of Bjorko, in Sweden,
is home to
one of the largest Viking
cemeteries ever discovered,
holding more than 3,000 graves.
More than 1,000 years ago,
the town of Birka stood here.
A powerful trading hub,
it was a busy Viking port.
Hardened warriors
ensured its protection.
Among the island's
thousands of graves,
one stands out.
- What sets this burial apart
is that it doesn't
just have weapons,
it has all the weapons.
- These weapons could only have
belonged to a mighty warrior.
The modern-day image of a Viking
is a big, strong, bearded man,
fearless and capable
of the worst atrocities.
He sailed the rivers and oceans
in search of
treasure and glory...
The scourge of the North.
- All the clichés
of rape and pillage
are not just clichés.
- This grave and its contents
have only fueled these clichés.
But in the 1970s,
a young osteo-archeologist
put forward
a startling hypothesis...
The skeleton wasn't that
of a man, but a woman.
Now a team of experts
is determined to find out
who was buried in the grave.
- Horses, weapons, shields...
Everything you need to be
a professional warrior...
And we now know that this
warrior was actually a woman.
- Does this discovery rewrite our
understanding of the Vikings?
Scientists and scholars
are studying every item
in the grave
to understand its significance.
- A sword like this
could be used by a woman.
It doesn't take an exceedingly
strong physique to use it.
- Using the latest
archaeological tools,
researchers are analyzing
the remains of a body
more than 1,000 years old.
- When I looked
at the innominate bone,
it had all the female features.
- But after a millennium,
few clues remain.
- Lots of the information
is actually missing.
♪♪
- These discoveries,
the first archaeological proof
of a female Viking warrior,
could shed new light
on the history
of this fearsome group.
♪♪
- Located on the eastern side
of the Scandinavian Peninsula,
Sweden is a land of glaciated
mountains and vast forests,
with lakes among
the largest in Europe.
♪♪
Nearly 20 miles from Stockholm,
on Lake Malaren,
Bjorko is a small island
just 2 miles long
and half a mile wide.
From 750 to 950 A.D.,
it was home to Birka,
one of the most powerful towns
in the region.
-1,000 years ago,
this was one of
the major centers for trade
in the Viking world,
and there would have been
a population of 1,000 persons
running around here,
living down
in the settlement area
on the field
that you can see below us...
Buildings standing
closely together,
lots of garbage, lots of noise.
[ Dogs barking,
indistinct shouting ]
- So, it's a kind of gateway
for trade coming from outside,
from the Baltic
and further afield,
down from the continent,
and when you trade at Birka,
then all the things
that you buy and sell there
can move off
into the countryside.
So it's a tremendously
important place.
♪♪
- Today, Birka is the most
important archaeological site
of the Viking Age.
Listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site,
the island is home
to more than 3,000 graves,
more than half of which
have not been excavated.
Studying Birka, several
generations of archaeologists
have built an incredible body
of research over the years,
and discoveries
are still being made today.
The archaeological story begins
in the late 19th century.
♪♪
In 1878, Hjalmar Stolpe
has already been leading
a large-scale excavation
at Birka for seven years.
On this day,
his team leader, Erik,
finds a grave with two horses
beneath a large block
of granite.
At 37, Stolpe is
a man of experience.
He knows the presence of horses
in a Viking grave suggests
it belongs to
an important person.
For several days,
the team attempts to reach
what is hidden under the stone.
Finally, they are forced
to dynamite the boulder.
This grave is numbered Bj 581...
Bj for Bjorko,
and 581 because
it is the 581st grave
unearthed by the archeologist.
Stolpe oversees
operations himself,
and as with the hundreds
of graves he's already found,
he takes meticulous notes
and itemizes
the grave's contents.
♪♪
What's inside makes
all the effort worthwhile...
♪♪
One of the most important
Viking graves ever found.
- He knows even when he finds it
that this is something special.
He makes a whole report about it
and sends it
to the Royal Academy.
And in that report,
one of his phrases is,
"This is perhaps
the most spectacular burial
in this whole field."
- In seven years of excavations,
Stolpe has found swords,
sometimes axes, even spears,
but never anything like this.
Bj 581 contains a stockpile
of medieval weapons...
Shield, knife, bow and arrow,
spear, axe, and sword...
A strong suggestion the grave
belonged to a great warrior.
- We would think that,
"Well, the Viking Age,
there must be weapons
in lots of graves,"
but there are not, actually.
There are several graves that
have a weapon or two weapons,
but a complete set,
that's very, very unusual.
- Each object is logged,
the bones placed in bags
and stored
at the Swedish History Museum.
♪♪
The weapons are then
sent all over the world
on a touring exhibition.
♪♪
- Almost any coffee table book
that you would pick up
on the Vikings would include
a picture of this grave
because it really
includes everything
that we expect to find
in a warrior context.
- It would take
more than a century
for the deceased of Bj 581
to reveal the truth.
[ Thunder rumbles ]
People have long romanticized
the Vikings
and their warrior culture.
But are these tales
of Norse gangs
who terrorized generations
of Europeans reliable?
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- For almost three centuries,
between the 8th and the 11th,
these Scandinavian ancestors
spread across Europe.
They created trade routes
to the East,
reaching Baghdad
via the Caspian Sea
and Constantinople
via the Black Sea.
In these territories,
where many settled,
they were often called the Rus',
or "redheads."
Further south, they colonized
England, led raids in France,
and even sailed up the Seine
to Paris several times.
They bypassed
the Iberian Peninsula,
attacking and looting
in the Mediterranean
from North Africa to Italy.
Vikings were also known for
their quests of exploration.
After Scotland and Ireland,
they colonized Iceland,
then Greenland,
and finally landed in America
five centuries
before Christopher Columbus.
Whether calling themselves
Danes, Normans, or Rus',
Vikings settled all over Europeand
mixed with the local people.
Though they played a key role
in world history,
not a great deal is known
about their culture.
-[ Speaking French ]
- For the most part, the Vikings
did not write about themselves.
They had writing,
they had the famous runes,
but we find those used mainly
on runic memorials...
Essentially,
memorials to the dead.
But the Vikings did not
write their own histories.
- So, everything that we can read
that is contemporary
to the Vikings
were written by the people
that they met,
so the people
that they attacked,
the people that they raided
and looted.
They were the ones that wrote
the history about the Vikings.
- One of the earliest accounts of
the lawless and savage Vikings
comes from what is now England.
[ Men shouting ]
In 793, on a small island
in the northeast
of Northumberland,
Vikings invaded a monastery
sheltering unprotected monks.
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- Here begins the idea
of the ruthless Viking warrior.
And the Vikings' rich
Norse mythology, the Sagas,
only added to the legend.
♪♪
- When it comes to writings
from inside Scandinavia,
this is probably...
The most famous sources
on the Vikings are the Sagas,
the great Icelandic
literary tradition.
The Sagas, the word literally
just means "story."
And some people are surprised
to discover
that the Sagas are not
from the Viking Age at all.
They are from
centuries afterwards.
So, these are products
of the Christian Middle Ages,
where people are writing about
their idea of the Viking Age.
So, they're writing about a past
but they didn't
necessarily approve of...
Bear in mind,
it's not a Christian past...
But they give us
thisextraordinarily detailed picture
of Viking society.
But we have to ask, is it real?
♪♪
- In 1975, nearly a century
after the discovery
by Hjalmar Stolpe and his men,
the Swedish History Museum,
where the remains are stored,
organizes an inventory
of its holdings.
A team of osteo-archeologists
is charged with
this colossal task,
and a young woman named
Berit Vilkans is among them.
She is responsible
for cataloging the contents
of many graves,
including those of Bj 581.
- The task of doing an inventoryof
all the skeletons from Birka,
grave by grave.
It's just checking
what's in the archive.
- Using Stolpe's sketches,
Vilkans rebuilds each skeleton
as she logs the bones.
In all, Vilkans analyzes
101 graves
that contained 117 people.
She has performed the job
of a forensic pathologist
and creates a 75-page report
listing bones,
recording their condition
and size,
age at death,
and numerous other details.
♪♪
As often happens,
many of the bones in Bj 581
decomposed and disappeared.
Stolpe's team only found 40
of this human's 206 bones.
But analysis of
the remaining bones
can give a clearer picture
of the individual's height.
- The skeleton is very tall.
- It's a long person.
It's somebody who's over
1 meter, 70 centimeters.
- Several human bones can be used
to determine a person's size.
Generally, the longest leg bone,
the femur,
is key to estimating how tall
a person is.
♪♪
But in the case of Bj 581,
both femurs are incomplete.
Instead, Vilkans relies
on the tibias,
which are in better condition.
The results suggest a person
of average height for the time.
- Bj 581 was about
170 centimeters,
based on estimations
from the tibia,
the only completely preserved
long bone.
- The average height for
a Scandinavian man then
was 5'6", or 167 centimeters.
Contrary to Medieval beliefs,
Vikings were not giants.
A woman's height
rarely exceeded 5'2".
Based on height, the skeleton
of grave Bj 581 seems male.
But another detail attracts
Vilkans' attention.
The bones of the forearms
are thin and slender,
typical of a woman.
- Based on the size,
this is from a man,
and this is from a woman.
But there are
large and tall women,
and there are also
small and tiny men.
- Using her skills
as an osteo-archaeologist,
Vilkans then looks at
the remaining pelvic bone,
the left hip.
Although broken into severalpieces,
it still proves helpful.
♪♪
Childbirth requires women
to have different
pelvic bones than men,
and they are often used
to determine gender.
The pubic arch, for example,
is much larger in women.
Above that,
the ilium is narrower in men.
And finally, the pelvic inlet
is wider in women.
- The inlet of the pelvis
is larger and more circular
in females than in males.
And this is, of course,
because there is a baby
coming out here.
- For the young researcher,
no doubt remains...
The skeleton of one of the
most famous Viking warriors,
discovered a century ago,
is not that of a man,
but a woman.
- She made a note when
she went through the material
that this was probably a female.
- However, the bone is damaged,
and the pubis is missing.
The upper part of the skull
of the skeleton in Bj 581
could confirm the gender.
Skull bones have
certain characteristics
that are gender-specific.
- The margins of the orbital
is more rounded in males.
And then we have muscle
attachments behind the ears
and on the occipital bone,
which are more pronounced
in males, as well.
- Though Stolpe's drawings
include the skull,
it has since gone missing.
The skull from the most famous
Viking grave can't be found.
- So, this material was excavated
more than 100 years ago.
During the late 19th century,
they also had a tendency
to separate the cranium
from the post-cranial bones
and put in a separate box.
And they have been repacked
and put in different boxes,
and so on.
- But it's not in the box
in the archive anymore.
We think it's out there
somewhere.
- It's possible that it
is still in the collection.
But, still, of course,
it is a problem.
- Aside from Stolpe's drawings,
there's no trace of the skull.
In 1975,
without conclusive evidence,
and despite
Vilkans' observations,
the identity of the body
in Bj 581 remains male.
♪♪
[ Train horn blares ]
♪♪
40 years later, in 2016,
Anna Kjellstrom
from Stockholm University
reviewed Berit Vilkans' report.
And both scientists,
one in 1975 and one in 2016,
make the same observations
about the grave's remains.
- In her report,
she came actually
to the same result that I did.
When I looked at
the innominate bone,
it had all the female features,
so this is why I think
it was a female.
- She announced this
at a seminar,
and there were two reactions
in the room.
One of them was me,
'cause I sat there and said,
"Wow!" really loudly,
and the other was a colleague
at the back of the room
who said, "But that can't be!"
And I think those two reactions
have followed this project
all the way along,
and they're still with it.
- Despite
the scientific evidence,
many Viking historians
refuse to consider
the possibility
of a female warrior.
[ Men shouting ]
The analysis of the bones
buried for centuries
isn't enough to change minds.
And new questions about
the analysis quickly emerge.
- There was a rumor that
all the graves were mixed up
and it was impossible
to use the skeletal material.
- The skeptics had not considered
the high standards
that Stolpe set for his dig.
Stolpe begins his career
as an entomologist,
arriving on the island of Bjorko
in 1871.
Farmers and cattle
occupied the island then.
- He's hoping to find remains
of prehistoric insects
fossilized in amber,
and it's when
he goes to the island
and sees these thousands
of burial mounds,
sees the remains
of this Viking town,
that he begins
to change his ideas.
- We can read in his notebooks
that he's already intrigued
by the human remains,
or the cultural remains.
- Stolpe returns to Birka
every summer and fall
for the next 10 years
for the extensive excavations.
His team uncovers
close to 1,100 graves,
and each is excavated
with a rigor and precision
that is unprecedented
for its time.
Stolpe meticulously documents
each bone and item found
in every grave.
Today, researchers still rely
on his notes.
- Hjalmar Stolpe is
one of the founding fathers
of Swedish field archeology.
- What sets Stolpe apart
from his contemporaries
is the kind of scientific rigor,
his carefulness
that he brings to this.
- So, he used millimeter paper.
He used rulers
and technical equipment.
- He was so very, very careful
in the way he recorded
what he found.
- To me,
he's this great scientist
because he left everything
in order,
making it possible for us,
more than 100 years later,
to go back to his excavations,
trust what he did,
and do something new.
We can have a new interpretation
based on
his excellent ground work.
He was a pioneer in that sense.
- Stolpe's detailed catalog
will be key to determining
who was buried in grave Bj 581.
He ensured there would be
no confusion
about which grave
each bone came from.
All of the skeletal remainshave
been marked with India ink.
- All the 581 bones
are marked with "581."
It's not magic.
It's just proper science.
- Science that can identify who
the bones in Bj 581 belong to.
♪♪
But are these details enough
to alter the common
understanding of Vikings
in such a radical way?
If the most archaeologically
significant Viking grave
belongs to a woman,
does that change our
understanding of Vikings?
Is the fantasy of ferocious men
plying the seas
in search of gold
just a myth?
It is difficult to dismissthe
legend of the Viking warrior
based solely on observations,
no matter how precise.
♪♪
The scientific community
still needs more evidence
before it will be convinced.
♪♪
- Using the study of bones alone
to determine that
is never completely secure,
and we needed to be sure,
and that's what the genomics,
the DNA, have given us.
- Stockholm University
geneticists
attempt to map the DNA genome
of the bones in Bj 581.
♪♪
But just finding a usable sample
from Bj 581's remains,
which have been buried
for more than 1,000 years,
is a difficult task.
- The soil in Birka
is not very good
for preservation of skeletons,
so many of these inhumationburials
actually lack skeletons.
There can be a tooth
or just one bone preserved,
and the rest has deteriorated.
-150 years ago,
Stolpe noted many graves
did not contain any bones.
- They're not
very well-preserved.
Lots of the information
is actually missing.
- Fortunately, this is not
the case for Bj 581.
- This is a very well-preserved
skeleton for Birka,
and it has a complete spine,
it has all the features
making it possible
to estimate height and sex
and age and so on.
- The grave's location explains
why the skeleton
was so well-preserved.
Because the grave was built
on a slight slope,
rainwater moved away from of it
instead of seeping inside
and damaging the bones.
While the bones themselves are
in relatively good condition,
the same is not true
for their genetic material,
much of which has been
destroyed over time.
After all, the bones did spend
1,000 years buried in dirt,
where millions
of microorganisms flourished.
The first task is to separate
the human skeletal DNA
from everything else
in the soil.
♪♪
- In general, we did
what we usually do.
That is looking at
the ancestry of the individual.
We were unfortunately unable
to look at other things,
such as functional snips,
so, for example,
hair and eye color,
we were not able to do that
with this genome coverage.
- But the genetic material
provides clues
to the biological sex.
Men generally have
an X and a Y chromosome,
while most women have two X's.
If no Y is found, the remains
will be classified as female.
♪♪
- This person had
two X chromosomes.
There is no doubt at all.
It's a female person.
♪♪
- The findings point to
an almost certain conclusion...
The skeleton in Bj 581
was a woman,
a Viking woman.
She lived between
the 9th and 10th centuries.
During this era in Scandinavia,
people lived in rural villages
and survived by farming,
hunting, and fishing.
- It's a society that is divided
up into small communities...
Family-based, rural societies.
- The society is patriarchal,
but women here
enjoy more freedom
than women in Christian Europe.
They can inherit property,
divorce,
and sometimes even choose
their own husbands.
Clans exercise local authority.
-[ Speaking French ]
- Law was not the province
of a king or a lord.
It was governed
by a popular assembly,
more often than not
without any kind of violence.
So behind this rather
sort of wild Viking image
is actually the opposite...
A total respect
for the rule of law.
- But that does not mean everyone
is treated equally or fairly.
Slaves make up a large part
of the population.
And certain discoveries inBirka,
where Bj 581 was located,
suggest some part of
the population was transient.
-[ Speaking French ]
- An Arab coin was found
in Bj 581,
as well as weights used
to measure out precious metal.
The archaeologists will use
the items found in Bj 581
to reveal more about the woman
they were buried with
and, more generally, the role
of women in Viking society.
-[ Speaking French ]
[ Man shouting ]
♪♪
- The woman from Bj 581
could have been a merchant
or run a workshop.
It is also possible
the weapons she was found with
belonged to her husband.
No trace of him has been found,
but as already noted,
many skeletons in Birka's graves
had decomposed.
- One of the questions
that's been raised
about the interpretation
of 581...
Is there just one body
in the grave,
or could there have been
a second one?
And the implication is
the second one must be a man.
♪♪
Actually, we do find double
burials in the Viking Age.
Usually, men and women
buried together,
it's very hard to know
what their relationship is.
Whether they're a couple,
whether one is a servant of
the other, we don't know.
So, the idea of a double burial
is not crazy.
They're never common,
but they do exist.
If you look at 581,
it's very clear.
Stolpe writes explicitly
that this is
the only body in the grave.
There is nothing
in his documentation
to suggest otherwise.
If we look at the objects
in the burial,
they're all grouped around
the skeleton that we have.
There are no other bones labeled
as being from the grave.
We've even DNA tested thedifferent
parts of the skeleton,
and it's from
the same individual.
There's no doubt at all that
she was alone in the burial.
- A woman was buried in Bj 581,
and she was buried alone.
But the grave is remarkable
for other reasons.
- The biological sex
of the skeleton
was not our only question.
Be it man or woman,
it's a super interesting grave.
- The grave caused a sensation
when it was discovered in 1878
because it contained
so many weapons.
- Finding weapons is not that
unusual in Viking archaeology.
We find them sometimes
in graves,
we find them on settlements.
We know that they were
a very common part
of the material world.
What sets this burial apart
is that it doesn't
just have weapons,
it has all the weapons.
- It is a veritable arsenal.
There's a war axe,
a combat knife,
two spears of different types,
two shields,
no fewer than 25 arrowheads,
and, of course, a sword.
♪♪
Close study of these weapons
tells when and where
they were made,
and possibly more about
the person buried with them.
- We are fascinated
by weapons today,
just because of the fact
that they are power objects.
If you can look at them
the right way,
you can learn things
about the people
who owned them and used them,
and also about the people
who made them.
They tell you
fascinating stories.
- Viking weapons
were much feared,
particularly the axe.
- The Norsemen were axe people.
They were famous for their skill
in the use of the axe.
♪♪
This is a very swift
and devastating weapon,
specially made for fighting.
This is a weapon to kill
an opponent in a single blow.
- The two spears
found in the grave
indicate how popular they were
in the Middle Ages...
And how effective.
- The spear is
the weapon of choice
of the god Odin,
who is the god of war.
These are not for throwing.
These are for
close-quarter fighting.
It's a weapon
for the battlefield.
- Spears were also
less expensive to produce,
which meant
warriors could afford
to equip themselves fully.
♪♪
It's possible the weapons
were simply decorative,
never taken to battle.
But analysis shows
a trained warrior used them.
They were not ceremonial.
A swordsman, or woman,
was muchrespected in Viking communities.
- The sword has its position
because it being expensive
and connected to people
with wealth and influence,
but also because it's a uniquely
efficient personal weapon.
So, owning a sword
was also making a point
that you belonged
to an elite in society.
In the grave of Bj 581,
we have a sword.
It's a beautiful sword,
but it's also a common sword...
A sword that someone
who needs a good sword.
It's the sword of a warrior.
♪♪
- The question remains...
Is the person buried
with the weapons
the same person who used them?
One thing to consider
is the granite stone
that initially slowed
Stolpe's excavation.
The island has hundreds
of mounds of earth,
each indicating a burial site.
Some are marked with a large
rock, like a gravestone.
- Sometimes they put up stones
on top of the graves,
and when they're bowder stones
like this,
that indicates
that it was a male grave.
And the female graves
had an egg-shaped,
rounder stone on top of them.
So, not always,
but if you're lucky,
we will find the raised stones
or the stone eggs.
- When Hjalmar Stolpe
arrived in Birka in 1871,
he was captivated by
these boulders.
♪♪
The granite stone on top of
Bj 581 was 8 feet across.
♪♪
Stolpe's notes don't mention
the shape of the stone,
only its size.
♪♪
- The 581 is this... this one.
And if we imagine
this huge stone boulder
on top of the grave,
it would have been
highly visible from the sea.
There were no trees here
in the Viking Age,
so it would have been
almost like a landmark
when you entered into
the harbor of the town.
So, it was a chamber,
a subterranean chamber
made of wood,
like a room
underneath the earth,
slightly less than 4 meters longand
approximately 2 meters wide.
So, in this part,
there would have been
a ledge with two horses.
Cramped together,
two horses very tightly packed.
And then we have the chamber
with the dead woman.
When she was found, she was
lying slightly on her side,
so the sword would have been
behind her back,
at least in the position
that she had when was found.
There would have been one shield
at the top of the grave,
in the head end,
and one shield at the bottom,
in the foot end.
She would have had
a quiver and a bow,
so her archery equipment
would have been
to her right side, let's say.
One spear in the cauldron, one
spear to the left side of her.
And the battle knife would have
been fastened to her belt,
so that would also be very close
in contact with the body.
We have perhaps the most
interesting burial of them all,
and Hjalmar Stolpe already,
when he excavated,
noted that this might be
the most interesting
and amazing burial
in the whole cemetery.
Horses, weapons, shields...
Everything you need to be
a professional warrior...
And we now know that this
warrior was actually a woman.
- The woman is buried in an
unquestionably important grave.
But that still does not mean
she is the person
who used the weapons
she was found with.
-[ Speaking French ]
-[ Speaking French ]
- The staging of the grave
can also tell us
something about its occupant.
-[ Speaking French ]
- The archaeologists consider
the body in Bj 581...
Its placement and position.
The body is lying on its side.
♪♪
The majority of the bodies
in the town's other graves
are positioned on their backs.
♪♪
- We know that
the person buried there
was sitting down in a chair,
perhaps even on the saddle
from the horses.
- The sitting position of the
deceased means she's upright,
giving her a different
visual perspective.
- If you look at what the dead
are looking at...
There they are,
sitting in their graves...
All of them
are looking into the town.
Are they guarding it?
Are they protecting it?
We don't know,
but there's some reason why
they're positioned as they are.
- Viking funeral rites
are closely linked
to their religion.
They venerated many gods,
which earned them
the label "pagan"
from the rest
of Christian Europe.
- If you ask people today, "What
do you know about the Vikings?"
the one thing
that everybody knows
is that they go to Valhalla
when they die.
- Valhalla is the mythic place
where warriors who die in battle
go in the afterlife.
The Valkyries select who goes
to Valhalla to serve Odin,
the god of gods.
-[ Speaking French ]
- They either bury the dead
or cremate them.
And cremation is by far the most
common treatment of the dead,
and that's actually what we find
in most of the Birka burials.
Inhumation, burying a body,
is much more rare.
- While the focus of
Viking burials
was typically the afterlife,
that wasn't always the case.
- We normally think of
Viking burials
as kind of like a machine
to send the dead person
into the next world.
Probably most of them are.
But occasionally,
you'll also find the idea
that they're actually not
going anywhere.
They're supposed to stay
in the grave.
And it may well be that
the dead actually live there.
Maybe the person in 581
lived in that grave.
- Whoever buried
the woman in Bj 581
may have wanted her to remain
part of the community,
with her complete
military arsenal.
- Inside each individual grave,
it's always different
in terms of precisely
what objects are there,
where are those objects,
and probably the sequence
in which it's placed.
Everything is very exact.
They don't just throw
some things in a hole.
There is a meaning.
- Viking funerals are legendary
for their scale and excess,
with relatives traveling from
all over to visit the deceased.
- We have a couple of
eyewitnessdescriptions of Viking funerals,
and they're full of music,
of drinking,
of eating, of sex,
of violence, actually.
Killing animals,
even sometimes killing people.
♪♪
- One of the eyewitnesses
is Ibn Fadlan,
secretary to the ambassador
of the Caliph of Baghdad.
In 921, he sailed up the Volga
in the company of the Rus',
the Vikings who settled
in the area.
Along with a translator,
he spent months in their company
and brought back accounts
of the people who raided
and traded along the river.
♪♪
He mentions a chief's funeral
with horses and slaves
sacrificed
in a boat used as a pyre.
Beside him were
the personal things
he'd need in the afterlife.
Fabulous jewelry has been found
in the graves
of some wealthy women.
But no jewelry was found
in Bj 581,
only tools of violence
and warfare.
The reaction to what was found
in Bj 581 illustrates
how easily cultural bias can
lead to incorrect conclusions.
♪♪
- We have to be careful
with making that jump...
So, loads of weapons
equals a warrior.
We have to be clear that that is
an assumption we're making,
but it's quite a good one.
The one thing we can be sure of
is that the decision to fill,
in this case 581,
with weapons makes a connection
between that dead person,
this precise person,
and all those weapons.
That is an idea of warriorness,
of warriorhood.
Does it reflect
who they were in life?
We think it does.
Nobody had any problem at allabout
the warrior interpretation
of this burial all the while
this person was male.
And suddenly, lots of people
have a problem
with the warrior part
the moment
this person is female,
and that doesn't add up.
♪♪
- It's difficult to know if
thewarrior women in Norse mythology
have any basis in reality.
-[ Speaking French ]
- In the legendary sagas,
there is a very clear depiction
of a minority of women
fighting on the battlefield.
We find the famous
shield-maidens,
and these are the figures
that have really caught
the popular imagination,
but these are legends.
- Legends or not,
the male warriors
sometimes wore pendants
representing female warriors...
Proof that the image
of a woman at arms
could be seen as a lucky charm.
After all, it was women,
the Valkyries,
who sought out
the bravest fighters
and led them
to Odin in Valhalla.
And for Vikings,
it was generally women
who were in touch
with magic and spirts.
- If you want to communicate with
everything out there,
whether it's gods or the elves
that live behind your house,
or the spirits of the dead,
that communication is
very largely through women,
and that is
a huge domain of power.
Women could be queens,
women could be slaves,
and all points in between onthe
social scale, just like men.
They have pretty muchsole
control over the household,
over the farm economy.
Women can also be merchants.
And this is a lot of power.
This is the things that govern
the viability of the community.
One of the things that we finda
lot in women's graves is keys.
The key opens a lock.
In other words,
if you have the key,
you control
who gets to the things
that are valuable enough
to lock away.
That's a significant thing.
- While it was not common,
there is evidence
Viking women did take part
in violent raids.
- There actually are some rare
instances of women fighting.
There is a battle fought by the
Byzantines against the Rus',
these Scandinavian peoples
of the eastern rivers.
The Rus' lose their battle,
and the Byzantines describe
how they go over
the battlefield afterwards,
they're picking up
the weapons and the armor.
It's just like a list
of things they found.
And they find women
among the Rus' dead...
Women in armor
who have been fighting them
along with the men.
In Ireland, there is a source
from the 12th century,
"The War of the Irish
with the Foreigners."
And there's one that relates
a series of 10th-century raids
on Ireland...
The same date
as the Birka grave...
In which it lists
the names of the commanders
of the Viking fleets.
The last name in the list,
it talks about
the Fleet of the Red Girl...
That she's a Viking,
she's a ship's captain,
and she commands a fleet.
That is quite an impressivepackage
of roles for one person.
[ Men shouting ]
So, those women are there
in the documentary record.
I don't think
the new work around 581
should surprise us
in the slightest.
♪♪
- What role do
these historical texts play
in confirming the identity
of the woman in Bj 581?
♪♪
- When it comes to interpreting
581 with those sources,
I think the first thing to say
is that we don't need them.
We can draw our conclusions
about a high-status
female warrior
from the archeology alone.
- It's so important
that this person is buried
with this sword beside.
You can tell, just by looking
at the sword in that grave,
that this is a person
who respects and knows
what the sword is,
who is familiar with its use,
and whose identity is defined
partly by owning this weapon.
♪♪
- Mastering combat techniques
and weapons
takes many years
of practice and training.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
To become a master of arms,
the woman from grave Bj 581
must have spent a large part
of her life with warriors.
♪♪
- Ya!
-[ Grunts ]
[ Swords clanging ]
♪♪
♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-[ Grunts ]
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- The differences
in physical strength
between men and women
do provoke questions
about the woman in Bj 581's
capability with a sword.
- A sword like this could be used
by a young person,
could be used by a woman.
It doesn't take an exceedingly
strong physique to use it.
In fact, it's well-balanced.
It's nimble in the hand.
It's built for speed
and precision,
and it's to be used together
with a shield as a unity.
♪♪
-[ Grunts ]
- Of course,
it takes lifelong training
to learn how to use it properly.
♪♪
Look at the swordsmen
like elite sportsmen.
These were people in society
who had active lifestyle.
They were... they were healthy
until they died.
- A life dedicated to war
inevitably has
its share of injuries.
♪♪
Typically, years of
training and violence
leave scars on the body,
even the bones.
♪♪
- You can never say
it's a warrior.
I mean, we can see
a victim of violence.
- If she were a warrior,
the bones of Bj 581
would likely have the marks
to prove it.
Certain injuries are indicative
of sword fighting.
- When you raise your arm
and you try to defend yourself,
you may fracture
your radius or ulna.
♪♪
This is something
that could happen,
and you can see that
in assault victims.
But these kind of fractions
may also occur indirectly
when you fall
on an outstretched hand.
So, these fractures
in themselves
can't be used
as evidence for fighting.
You need something more.
- Researchers want to know
whether there is evidence
of these fractures
on the remains.
♪♪
- Well, in case of Bj 581,
I couldn't see any types
of fractures on the forearms.
- While there's no
physical evidence
of fighting on the bones,
that doesn't mean the woman in
grave Bj 581 wasn't a warrior.
♪♪
- The prevalence
of the weapon-related trauma
in materials from the Viking Age
is fairly low compared to
Medieval churchyards.
♪♪
- The village
where Bj 581 was found
would have been no stranger to
raids from other Viking gangs.
♪♪
Birka was an important
trading village.
Vikings came and went.
And a merchant town
was a good place
to sell the spoils of plunder.
- Birka is exactly
the sort of place
that Vikings liked to raid.
And that means
a Viking market town
is just as vulnerable as
everybody else's market towns.
[ Men shouting ]
- There were ramparts.
- There were defensive structures.
There were harbors...
Pile the barricades
out into the waterfront.
And a hill fort.
We're standing
within the hill fort
at the moment.
Protecting, defending,
but also controlling
all the activities
down in the town.
- To ensure
the merchants' safety,
the town housed 40 to 60
warriors in the garrison
at the bottom of the fort.
Many of these guards
were archers
whose job was to stop intruders
while they were still far away.
A vast quantity of arrowheads
was found in the soil
around the ramparts... proof
of the warriors' activity.
One attack in particular
left significant
archeological traces.
- And when the attackers came,
they came up this hill.
So, you can see, there were
showers of arrowheads
down on the hillside
and up here.
Probably entered into
that entrance
because that's where we have
the most heavy fighting.
- Dozens of arrowheads
from all over Viking territory
have been found.
There are a multitude of them,
with different origins
and functions.
There are some
in the Bj 581 grave
that have special
three-faceted tips,
made in Russia and capable of
piercing armor.
♪♪
But the woman's remains weren't
the only ones in Bj 581.
She was buried with two horses.
Skeletal remains of animals
have only been found
in the graves
of high-ranking individuals.
♪♪
The fact that there are so many
graves with horses in Birka
shows it was a prosperous town.
♪♪
In addition to the two horses,
Bj 581 also contained
a range of riding equipment...
Stirrups, a bit, spurs.
It's possible the horses
were meant to join the woman
in Valhalla.
♪♪
Another set of objects
found in the grave
suggests the woman may have
planned the raids.
- On her lap, there was a pouch
with gaming pieces and dice,
and by her side,
there was a gaming board.
♪♪
- It's rare to find
a complete set,
and it's rare to find a board.
When we do find those things,
especially when they're
very close to the body,
they are almost always in graves
of high-ranking
military commanders.
There are a few other graves
like that on Birka,
a few other ironbound gaming
boards, but not many.
They are all the graves
of the super rich.
We don't know exactly,
but it's probably hnefatafl,
which is
the main Viking board game.
It is like chess, in a way.
It's effectively a war game.
The idea is
you have to take the King.
- There is a connection
between the board game
and military strategy.
Both practical,
but probably also as a symbol
of having acquired the knowledge
of military tactics.
- So, if we know thatcomplete
sets of games like this
are associated
with military leaders,
they're associated with
an idea of military strategy,
that certainly makes
precisely those associations
with this grave.
This is one of the reasons
why we think
this person is
a high-ranking commander.
♪♪
- If the woman was
a Viking warrior,
she would likely
have also been feared.
- All the clichés
of rape and pillage
are not just clichés.
So, presumably, this woman
is in charge of things
that we would regard
as atrocities.
[ Shouting, weapons clanging ]
- How the woman
in grave Bj 581 died
will likely remain a mystery.
A text refers to the swift
disappearance of Birka
in the middle
of the 11th century.
The growing influence
of Nordic royal families
and Christianity
likely played a role.
In 1066,
Anglo-Saxons defeated Vikings
on the battlefield in England,
marking the end
of the Viking Age.
♪♪
But several weeks later,
another Viking descendant,
William the Conqueror,
seized England for the Normans.
In less than three centuries,
the Vikings left their mark
on Europe.
Their legacy was not
well-documented,
and as they converted
to Christianity
and assimilated
with colonized countries,
Viking identity disappeared,
despite their rich heritage.
♪♪
The female warrior
in grave Bj 581
has expanded our understanding
of that heritage.
- A while ago,
someone asked Charlotte and I
if we'd like to get
in a time machine
and go back
and meet this person,
and our immediate reaction
was, "No!"
I think she'd be terrifying,
actually.
- I'm not sure I would like
to meet her,
but of course I would like
to see her from afar.
I think that would be enough,
actually.
- The discovery of
the true identity
of the person buried in Bj 581
is a fitting tribute
to Viking culture.
- The Viking lifestyle,
especially if you were
a warrior,
it was all about
being remembered,
and I actually think that
she would have loved for us
to be standing here today,
talking about her and talking
about her achievements
more than 1,000 years later.
♪♪
- The story of
the warrior from Bj 581,
and Viking women,
has only just begun.
♪♪
- The isle of Bjorko, in Sweden,
is home to
one of the largest Viking
cemeteries ever discovered,
holding more than 3,000 graves.
More than 1,000 years ago,
the town of Birka stood here.
A powerful trading hub,
it was a busy Viking port.
Hardened warriors
ensured its protection.
Among the island's
thousands of graves,
one stands out.
- What sets this burial apart
is that it doesn't
just have weapons,
it has all the weapons.
- These weapons could only have
belonged to a mighty warrior.
The modern-day image of a Viking
is a big, strong, bearded man,
fearless and capable
of the worst atrocities.
He sailed the rivers and oceans
in search of
treasure and glory...
The scourge of the North.
- All the clichés
of rape and pillage
are not just clichés.
- This grave and its contents
have only fueled these clichés.
But in the 1970s,
a young osteo-archeologist
put forward
a startling hypothesis...
The skeleton wasn't that
of a man, but a woman.
Now a team of experts
is determined to find out
who was buried in the grave.
- Horses, weapons, shields...
Everything you need to be
a professional warrior...
And we now know that this
warrior was actually a woman.
- Does this discovery rewrite our
understanding of the Vikings?
Scientists and scholars
are studying every item
in the grave
to understand its significance.
- A sword like this
could be used by a woman.
It doesn't take an exceedingly
strong physique to use it.
- Using the latest
archaeological tools,
researchers are analyzing
the remains of a body
more than 1,000 years old.
- When I looked
at the innominate bone,
it had all the female features.
- But after a millennium,
few clues remain.
- Lots of the information
is actually missing.
♪♪
- These discoveries,
the first archaeological proof
of a female Viking warrior,
could shed new light
on the history
of this fearsome group.
♪♪
- Located on the eastern side
of the Scandinavian Peninsula,
Sweden is a land of glaciated
mountains and vast forests,
with lakes among
the largest in Europe.
♪♪
Nearly 20 miles from Stockholm,
on Lake Malaren,
Bjorko is a small island
just 2 miles long
and half a mile wide.
From 750 to 950 A.D.,
it was home to Birka,
one of the most powerful towns
in the region.
-1,000 years ago,
this was one of
the major centers for trade
in the Viking world,
and there would have been
a population of 1,000 persons
running around here,
living down
in the settlement area
on the field
that you can see below us...
Buildings standing
closely together,
lots of garbage, lots of noise.
[ Dogs barking,
indistinct shouting ]
- So, it's a kind of gateway
for trade coming from outside,
from the Baltic
and further afield,
down from the continent,
and when you trade at Birka,
then all the things
that you buy and sell there
can move off
into the countryside.
So it's a tremendously
important place.
♪♪
- Today, Birka is the most
important archaeological site
of the Viking Age.
Listed as a UNESCO
World Heritage Site,
the island is home
to more than 3,000 graves,
more than half of which
have not been excavated.
Studying Birka, several
generations of archaeologists
have built an incredible body
of research over the years,
and discoveries
are still being made today.
The archaeological story begins
in the late 19th century.
♪♪
In 1878, Hjalmar Stolpe
has already been leading
a large-scale excavation
at Birka for seven years.
On this day,
his team leader, Erik,
finds a grave with two horses
beneath a large block
of granite.
At 37, Stolpe is
a man of experience.
He knows the presence of horses
in a Viking grave suggests
it belongs to
an important person.
For several days,
the team attempts to reach
what is hidden under the stone.
Finally, they are forced
to dynamite the boulder.
This grave is numbered Bj 581...
Bj for Bjorko,
and 581 because
it is the 581st grave
unearthed by the archeologist.
Stolpe oversees
operations himself,
and as with the hundreds
of graves he's already found,
he takes meticulous notes
and itemizes
the grave's contents.
♪♪
What's inside makes
all the effort worthwhile...
♪♪
One of the most important
Viking graves ever found.
- He knows even when he finds it
that this is something special.
He makes a whole report about it
and sends it
to the Royal Academy.
And in that report,
one of his phrases is,
"This is perhaps
the most spectacular burial
in this whole field."
- In seven years of excavations,
Stolpe has found swords,
sometimes axes, even spears,
but never anything like this.
Bj 581 contains a stockpile
of medieval weapons...
Shield, knife, bow and arrow,
spear, axe, and sword...
A strong suggestion the grave
belonged to a great warrior.
- We would think that,
"Well, the Viking Age,
there must be weapons
in lots of graves,"
but there are not, actually.
There are several graves that
have a weapon or two weapons,
but a complete set,
that's very, very unusual.
- Each object is logged,
the bones placed in bags
and stored
at the Swedish History Museum.
♪♪
The weapons are then
sent all over the world
on a touring exhibition.
♪♪
- Almost any coffee table book
that you would pick up
on the Vikings would include
a picture of this grave
because it really
includes everything
that we expect to find
in a warrior context.
- It would take
more than a century
for the deceased of Bj 581
to reveal the truth.
[ Thunder rumbles ]
People have long romanticized
the Vikings
and their warrior culture.
But are these tales
of Norse gangs
who terrorized generations
of Europeans reliable?
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- For almost three centuries,
between the 8th and the 11th,
these Scandinavian ancestors
spread across Europe.
They created trade routes
to the East,
reaching Baghdad
via the Caspian Sea
and Constantinople
via the Black Sea.
In these territories,
where many settled,
they were often called the Rus',
or "redheads."
Further south, they colonized
England, led raids in France,
and even sailed up the Seine
to Paris several times.
They bypassed
the Iberian Peninsula,
attacking and looting
in the Mediterranean
from North Africa to Italy.
Vikings were also known for
their quests of exploration.
After Scotland and Ireland,
they colonized Iceland,
then Greenland,
and finally landed in America
five centuries
before Christopher Columbus.
Whether calling themselves
Danes, Normans, or Rus',
Vikings settled all over Europeand
mixed with the local people.
Though they played a key role
in world history,
not a great deal is known
about their culture.
-[ Speaking French ]
- For the most part, the Vikings
did not write about themselves.
They had writing,
they had the famous runes,
but we find those used mainly
on runic memorials...
Essentially,
memorials to the dead.
But the Vikings did not
write their own histories.
- So, everything that we can read
that is contemporary
to the Vikings
were written by the people
that they met,
so the people
that they attacked,
the people that they raided
and looted.
They were the ones that wrote
the history about the Vikings.
- One of the earliest accounts of
the lawless and savage Vikings
comes from what is now England.
[ Men shouting ]
In 793, on a small island
in the northeast
of Northumberland,
Vikings invaded a monastery
sheltering unprotected monks.
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- Here begins the idea
of the ruthless Viking warrior.
And the Vikings' rich
Norse mythology, the Sagas,
only added to the legend.
♪♪
- When it comes to writings
from inside Scandinavia,
this is probably...
The most famous sources
on the Vikings are the Sagas,
the great Icelandic
literary tradition.
The Sagas, the word literally
just means "story."
And some people are surprised
to discover
that the Sagas are not
from the Viking Age at all.
They are from
centuries afterwards.
So, these are products
of the Christian Middle Ages,
where people are writing about
their idea of the Viking Age.
So, they're writing about a past
but they didn't
necessarily approve of...
Bear in mind,
it's not a Christian past...
But they give us
thisextraordinarily detailed picture
of Viking society.
But we have to ask, is it real?
♪♪
- In 1975, nearly a century
after the discovery
by Hjalmar Stolpe and his men,
the Swedish History Museum,
where the remains are stored,
organizes an inventory
of its holdings.
A team of osteo-archeologists
is charged with
this colossal task,
and a young woman named
Berit Vilkans is among them.
She is responsible
for cataloging the contents
of many graves,
including those of Bj 581.
- The task of doing an inventoryof
all the skeletons from Birka,
grave by grave.
It's just checking
what's in the archive.
- Using Stolpe's sketches,
Vilkans rebuilds each skeleton
as she logs the bones.
In all, Vilkans analyzes
101 graves
that contained 117 people.
She has performed the job
of a forensic pathologist
and creates a 75-page report
listing bones,
recording their condition
and size,
age at death,
and numerous other details.
♪♪
As often happens,
many of the bones in Bj 581
decomposed and disappeared.
Stolpe's team only found 40
of this human's 206 bones.
But analysis of
the remaining bones
can give a clearer picture
of the individual's height.
- The skeleton is very tall.
- It's a long person.
It's somebody who's over
1 meter, 70 centimeters.
- Several human bones can be used
to determine a person's size.
Generally, the longest leg bone,
the femur,
is key to estimating how tall
a person is.
♪♪
But in the case of Bj 581,
both femurs are incomplete.
Instead, Vilkans relies
on the tibias,
which are in better condition.
The results suggest a person
of average height for the time.
- Bj 581 was about
170 centimeters,
based on estimations
from the tibia,
the only completely preserved
long bone.
- The average height for
a Scandinavian man then
was 5'6", or 167 centimeters.
Contrary to Medieval beliefs,
Vikings were not giants.
A woman's height
rarely exceeded 5'2".
Based on height, the skeleton
of grave Bj 581 seems male.
But another detail attracts
Vilkans' attention.
The bones of the forearms
are thin and slender,
typical of a woman.
- Based on the size,
this is from a man,
and this is from a woman.
But there are
large and tall women,
and there are also
small and tiny men.
- Using her skills
as an osteo-archaeologist,
Vilkans then looks at
the remaining pelvic bone,
the left hip.
Although broken into severalpieces,
it still proves helpful.
♪♪
Childbirth requires women
to have different
pelvic bones than men,
and they are often used
to determine gender.
The pubic arch, for example,
is much larger in women.
Above that,
the ilium is narrower in men.
And finally, the pelvic inlet
is wider in women.
- The inlet of the pelvis
is larger and more circular
in females than in males.
And this is, of course,
because there is a baby
coming out here.
- For the young researcher,
no doubt remains...
The skeleton of one of the
most famous Viking warriors,
discovered a century ago,
is not that of a man,
but a woman.
- She made a note when
she went through the material
that this was probably a female.
- However, the bone is damaged,
and the pubis is missing.
The upper part of the skull
of the skeleton in Bj 581
could confirm the gender.
Skull bones have
certain characteristics
that are gender-specific.
- The margins of the orbital
is more rounded in males.
And then we have muscle
attachments behind the ears
and on the occipital bone,
which are more pronounced
in males, as well.
- Though Stolpe's drawings
include the skull,
it has since gone missing.
The skull from the most famous
Viking grave can't be found.
- So, this material was excavated
more than 100 years ago.
During the late 19th century,
they also had a tendency
to separate the cranium
from the post-cranial bones
and put in a separate box.
And they have been repacked
and put in different boxes,
and so on.
- But it's not in the box
in the archive anymore.
We think it's out there
somewhere.
- It's possible that it
is still in the collection.
But, still, of course,
it is a problem.
- Aside from Stolpe's drawings,
there's no trace of the skull.
In 1975,
without conclusive evidence,
and despite
Vilkans' observations,
the identity of the body
in Bj 581 remains male.
♪♪
[ Train horn blares ]
♪♪
40 years later, in 2016,
Anna Kjellstrom
from Stockholm University
reviewed Berit Vilkans' report.
And both scientists,
one in 1975 and one in 2016,
make the same observations
about the grave's remains.
- In her report,
she came actually
to the same result that I did.
When I looked at
the innominate bone,
it had all the female features,
so this is why I think
it was a female.
- She announced this
at a seminar,
and there were two reactions
in the room.
One of them was me,
'cause I sat there and said,
"Wow!" really loudly,
and the other was a colleague
at the back of the room
who said, "But that can't be!"
And I think those two reactions
have followed this project
all the way along,
and they're still with it.
- Despite
the scientific evidence,
many Viking historians
refuse to consider
the possibility
of a female warrior.
[ Men shouting ]
The analysis of the bones
buried for centuries
isn't enough to change minds.
And new questions about
the analysis quickly emerge.
- There was a rumor that
all the graves were mixed up
and it was impossible
to use the skeletal material.
- The skeptics had not considered
the high standards
that Stolpe set for his dig.
Stolpe begins his career
as an entomologist,
arriving on the island of Bjorko
in 1871.
Farmers and cattle
occupied the island then.
- He's hoping to find remains
of prehistoric insects
fossilized in amber,
and it's when
he goes to the island
and sees these thousands
of burial mounds,
sees the remains
of this Viking town,
that he begins
to change his ideas.
- We can read in his notebooks
that he's already intrigued
by the human remains,
or the cultural remains.
- Stolpe returns to Birka
every summer and fall
for the next 10 years
for the extensive excavations.
His team uncovers
close to 1,100 graves,
and each is excavated
with a rigor and precision
that is unprecedented
for its time.
Stolpe meticulously documents
each bone and item found
in every grave.
Today, researchers still rely
on his notes.
- Hjalmar Stolpe is
one of the founding fathers
of Swedish field archeology.
- What sets Stolpe apart
from his contemporaries
is the kind of scientific rigor,
his carefulness
that he brings to this.
- So, he used millimeter paper.
He used rulers
and technical equipment.
- He was so very, very careful
in the way he recorded
what he found.
- To me,
he's this great scientist
because he left everything
in order,
making it possible for us,
more than 100 years later,
to go back to his excavations,
trust what he did,
and do something new.
We can have a new interpretation
based on
his excellent ground work.
He was a pioneer in that sense.
- Stolpe's detailed catalog
will be key to determining
who was buried in grave Bj 581.
He ensured there would be
no confusion
about which grave
each bone came from.
All of the skeletal remainshave
been marked with India ink.
- All the 581 bones
are marked with "581."
It's not magic.
It's just proper science.
- Science that can identify who
the bones in Bj 581 belong to.
♪♪
But are these details enough
to alter the common
understanding of Vikings
in such a radical way?
If the most archaeologically
significant Viking grave
belongs to a woman,
does that change our
understanding of Vikings?
Is the fantasy of ferocious men
plying the seas
in search of gold
just a myth?
It is difficult to dismissthe
legend of the Viking warrior
based solely on observations,
no matter how precise.
♪♪
The scientific community
still needs more evidence
before it will be convinced.
♪♪
- Using the study of bones alone
to determine that
is never completely secure,
and we needed to be sure,
and that's what the genomics,
the DNA, have given us.
- Stockholm University
geneticists
attempt to map the DNA genome
of the bones in Bj 581.
♪♪
But just finding a usable sample
from Bj 581's remains,
which have been buried
for more than 1,000 years,
is a difficult task.
- The soil in Birka
is not very good
for preservation of skeletons,
so many of these inhumationburials
actually lack skeletons.
There can be a tooth
or just one bone preserved,
and the rest has deteriorated.
-150 years ago,
Stolpe noted many graves
did not contain any bones.
- They're not
very well-preserved.
Lots of the information
is actually missing.
- Fortunately, this is not
the case for Bj 581.
- This is a very well-preserved
skeleton for Birka,
and it has a complete spine,
it has all the features
making it possible
to estimate height and sex
and age and so on.
- The grave's location explains
why the skeleton
was so well-preserved.
Because the grave was built
on a slight slope,
rainwater moved away from of it
instead of seeping inside
and damaging the bones.
While the bones themselves are
in relatively good condition,
the same is not true
for their genetic material,
much of which has been
destroyed over time.
After all, the bones did spend
1,000 years buried in dirt,
where millions
of microorganisms flourished.
The first task is to separate
the human skeletal DNA
from everything else
in the soil.
♪♪
- In general, we did
what we usually do.
That is looking at
the ancestry of the individual.
We were unfortunately unable
to look at other things,
such as functional snips,
so, for example,
hair and eye color,
we were not able to do that
with this genome coverage.
- But the genetic material
provides clues
to the biological sex.
Men generally have
an X and a Y chromosome,
while most women have two X's.
If no Y is found, the remains
will be classified as female.
♪♪
- This person had
two X chromosomes.
There is no doubt at all.
It's a female person.
♪♪
- The findings point to
an almost certain conclusion...
The skeleton in Bj 581
was a woman,
a Viking woman.
She lived between
the 9th and 10th centuries.
During this era in Scandinavia,
people lived in rural villages
and survived by farming,
hunting, and fishing.
- It's a society that is divided
up into small communities...
Family-based, rural societies.
- The society is patriarchal,
but women here
enjoy more freedom
than women in Christian Europe.
They can inherit property,
divorce,
and sometimes even choose
their own husbands.
Clans exercise local authority.
-[ Speaking French ]
- Law was not the province
of a king or a lord.
It was governed
by a popular assembly,
more often than not
without any kind of violence.
So behind this rather
sort of wild Viking image
is actually the opposite...
A total respect
for the rule of law.
- But that does not mean everyone
is treated equally or fairly.
Slaves make up a large part
of the population.
And certain discoveries inBirka,
where Bj 581 was located,
suggest some part of
the population was transient.
-[ Speaking French ]
- An Arab coin was found
in Bj 581,
as well as weights used
to measure out precious metal.
The archaeologists will use
the items found in Bj 581
to reveal more about the woman
they were buried with
and, more generally, the role
of women in Viking society.
-[ Speaking French ]
[ Man shouting ]
♪♪
- The woman from Bj 581
could have been a merchant
or run a workshop.
It is also possible
the weapons she was found with
belonged to her husband.
No trace of him has been found,
but as already noted,
many skeletons in Birka's graves
had decomposed.
- One of the questions
that's been raised
about the interpretation
of 581...
Is there just one body
in the grave,
or could there have been
a second one?
And the implication is
the second one must be a man.
♪♪
Actually, we do find double
burials in the Viking Age.
Usually, men and women
buried together,
it's very hard to know
what their relationship is.
Whether they're a couple,
whether one is a servant of
the other, we don't know.
So, the idea of a double burial
is not crazy.
They're never common,
but they do exist.
If you look at 581,
it's very clear.
Stolpe writes explicitly
that this is
the only body in the grave.
There is nothing
in his documentation
to suggest otherwise.
If we look at the objects
in the burial,
they're all grouped around
the skeleton that we have.
There are no other bones labeled
as being from the grave.
We've even DNA tested thedifferent
parts of the skeleton,
and it's from
the same individual.
There's no doubt at all that
she was alone in the burial.
- A woman was buried in Bj 581,
and she was buried alone.
But the grave is remarkable
for other reasons.
- The biological sex
of the skeleton
was not our only question.
Be it man or woman,
it's a super interesting grave.
- The grave caused a sensation
when it was discovered in 1878
because it contained
so many weapons.
- Finding weapons is not that
unusual in Viking archaeology.
We find them sometimes
in graves,
we find them on settlements.
We know that they were
a very common part
of the material world.
What sets this burial apart
is that it doesn't
just have weapons,
it has all the weapons.
- It is a veritable arsenal.
There's a war axe,
a combat knife,
two spears of different types,
two shields,
no fewer than 25 arrowheads,
and, of course, a sword.
♪♪
Close study of these weapons
tells when and where
they were made,
and possibly more about
the person buried with them.
- We are fascinated
by weapons today,
just because of the fact
that they are power objects.
If you can look at them
the right way,
you can learn things
about the people
who owned them and used them,
and also about the people
who made them.
They tell you
fascinating stories.
- Viking weapons
were much feared,
particularly the axe.
- The Norsemen were axe people.
They were famous for their skill
in the use of the axe.
♪♪
This is a very swift
and devastating weapon,
specially made for fighting.
This is a weapon to kill
an opponent in a single blow.
- The two spears
found in the grave
indicate how popular they were
in the Middle Ages...
And how effective.
- The spear is
the weapon of choice
of the god Odin,
who is the god of war.
These are not for throwing.
These are for
close-quarter fighting.
It's a weapon
for the battlefield.
- Spears were also
less expensive to produce,
which meant
warriors could afford
to equip themselves fully.
♪♪
It's possible the weapons
were simply decorative,
never taken to battle.
But analysis shows
a trained warrior used them.
They were not ceremonial.
A swordsman, or woman,
was muchrespected in Viking communities.
- The sword has its position
because it being expensive
and connected to people
with wealth and influence,
but also because it's a uniquely
efficient personal weapon.
So, owning a sword
was also making a point
that you belonged
to an elite in society.
In the grave of Bj 581,
we have a sword.
It's a beautiful sword,
but it's also a common sword...
A sword that someone
who needs a good sword.
It's the sword of a warrior.
♪♪
- The question remains...
Is the person buried
with the weapons
the same person who used them?
One thing to consider
is the granite stone
that initially slowed
Stolpe's excavation.
The island has hundreds
of mounds of earth,
each indicating a burial site.
Some are marked with a large
rock, like a gravestone.
- Sometimes they put up stones
on top of the graves,
and when they're bowder stones
like this,
that indicates
that it was a male grave.
And the female graves
had an egg-shaped,
rounder stone on top of them.
So, not always,
but if you're lucky,
we will find the raised stones
or the stone eggs.
- When Hjalmar Stolpe
arrived in Birka in 1871,
he was captivated by
these boulders.
♪♪
The granite stone on top of
Bj 581 was 8 feet across.
♪♪
Stolpe's notes don't mention
the shape of the stone,
only its size.
♪♪
- The 581 is this... this one.
And if we imagine
this huge stone boulder
on top of the grave,
it would have been
highly visible from the sea.
There were no trees here
in the Viking Age,
so it would have been
almost like a landmark
when you entered into
the harbor of the town.
So, it was a chamber,
a subterranean chamber
made of wood,
like a room
underneath the earth,
slightly less than 4 meters longand
approximately 2 meters wide.
So, in this part,
there would have been
a ledge with two horses.
Cramped together,
two horses very tightly packed.
And then we have the chamber
with the dead woman.
When she was found, she was
lying slightly on her side,
so the sword would have been
behind her back,
at least in the position
that she had when was found.
There would have been one shield
at the top of the grave,
in the head end,
and one shield at the bottom,
in the foot end.
She would have had
a quiver and a bow,
so her archery equipment
would have been
to her right side, let's say.
One spear in the cauldron, one
spear to the left side of her.
And the battle knife would have
been fastened to her belt,
so that would also be very close
in contact with the body.
We have perhaps the most
interesting burial of them all,
and Hjalmar Stolpe already,
when he excavated,
noted that this might be
the most interesting
and amazing burial
in the whole cemetery.
Horses, weapons, shields...
Everything you need to be
a professional warrior...
And we now know that this
warrior was actually a woman.
- The woman is buried in an
unquestionably important grave.
But that still does not mean
she is the person
who used the weapons
she was found with.
-[ Speaking French ]
-[ Speaking French ]
- The staging of the grave
can also tell us
something about its occupant.
-[ Speaking French ]
- The archaeologists consider
the body in Bj 581...
Its placement and position.
The body is lying on its side.
♪♪
The majority of the bodies
in the town's other graves
are positioned on their backs.
♪♪
- We know that
the person buried there
was sitting down in a chair,
perhaps even on the saddle
from the horses.
- The sitting position of the
deceased means she's upright,
giving her a different
visual perspective.
- If you look at what the dead
are looking at...
There they are,
sitting in their graves...
All of them
are looking into the town.
Are they guarding it?
Are they protecting it?
We don't know,
but there's some reason why
they're positioned as they are.
- Viking funeral rites
are closely linked
to their religion.
They venerated many gods,
which earned them
the label "pagan"
from the rest
of Christian Europe.
- If you ask people today, "What
do you know about the Vikings?"
the one thing
that everybody knows
is that they go to Valhalla
when they die.
- Valhalla is the mythic place
where warriors who die in battle
go in the afterlife.
The Valkyries select who goes
to Valhalla to serve Odin,
the god of gods.
-[ Speaking French ]
- They either bury the dead
or cremate them.
And cremation is by far the most
common treatment of the dead,
and that's actually what we find
in most of the Birka burials.
Inhumation, burying a body,
is much more rare.
- While the focus of
Viking burials
was typically the afterlife,
that wasn't always the case.
- We normally think of
Viking burials
as kind of like a machine
to send the dead person
into the next world.
Probably most of them are.
But occasionally,
you'll also find the idea
that they're actually not
going anywhere.
They're supposed to stay
in the grave.
And it may well be that
the dead actually live there.
Maybe the person in 581
lived in that grave.
- Whoever buried
the woman in Bj 581
may have wanted her to remain
part of the community,
with her complete
military arsenal.
- Inside each individual grave,
it's always different
in terms of precisely
what objects are there,
where are those objects,
and probably the sequence
in which it's placed.
Everything is very exact.
They don't just throw
some things in a hole.
There is a meaning.
- Viking funerals are legendary
for their scale and excess,
with relatives traveling from
all over to visit the deceased.
- We have a couple of
eyewitnessdescriptions of Viking funerals,
and they're full of music,
of drinking,
of eating, of sex,
of violence, actually.
Killing animals,
even sometimes killing people.
♪♪
- One of the eyewitnesses
is Ibn Fadlan,
secretary to the ambassador
of the Caliph of Baghdad.
In 921, he sailed up the Volga
in the company of the Rus',
the Vikings who settled
in the area.
Along with a translator,
he spent months in their company
and brought back accounts
of the people who raided
and traded along the river.
♪♪
He mentions a chief's funeral
with horses and slaves
sacrificed
in a boat used as a pyre.
Beside him were
the personal things
he'd need in the afterlife.
Fabulous jewelry has been found
in the graves
of some wealthy women.
But no jewelry was found
in Bj 581,
only tools of violence
and warfare.
The reaction to what was found
in Bj 581 illustrates
how easily cultural bias can
lead to incorrect conclusions.
♪♪
- We have to be careful
with making that jump...
So, loads of weapons
equals a warrior.
We have to be clear that that is
an assumption we're making,
but it's quite a good one.
The one thing we can be sure of
is that the decision to fill,
in this case 581,
with weapons makes a connection
between that dead person,
this precise person,
and all those weapons.
That is an idea of warriorness,
of warriorhood.
Does it reflect
who they were in life?
We think it does.
Nobody had any problem at allabout
the warrior interpretation
of this burial all the while
this person was male.
And suddenly, lots of people
have a problem
with the warrior part
the moment
this person is female,
and that doesn't add up.
♪♪
- It's difficult to know if
thewarrior women in Norse mythology
have any basis in reality.
-[ Speaking French ]
- In the legendary sagas,
there is a very clear depiction
of a minority of women
fighting on the battlefield.
We find the famous
shield-maidens,
and these are the figures
that have really caught
the popular imagination,
but these are legends.
- Legends or not,
the male warriors
sometimes wore pendants
representing female warriors...
Proof that the image
of a woman at arms
could be seen as a lucky charm.
After all, it was women,
the Valkyries,
who sought out
the bravest fighters
and led them
to Odin in Valhalla.
And for Vikings,
it was generally women
who were in touch
with magic and spirts.
- If you want to communicate with
everything out there,
whether it's gods or the elves
that live behind your house,
or the spirits of the dead,
that communication is
very largely through women,
and that is
a huge domain of power.
Women could be queens,
women could be slaves,
and all points in between onthe
social scale, just like men.
They have pretty muchsole
control over the household,
over the farm economy.
Women can also be merchants.
And this is a lot of power.
This is the things that govern
the viability of the community.
One of the things that we finda
lot in women's graves is keys.
The key opens a lock.
In other words,
if you have the key,
you control
who gets to the things
that are valuable enough
to lock away.
That's a significant thing.
- While it was not common,
there is evidence
Viking women did take part
in violent raids.
- There actually are some rare
instances of women fighting.
There is a battle fought by the
Byzantines against the Rus',
these Scandinavian peoples
of the eastern rivers.
The Rus' lose their battle,
and the Byzantines describe
how they go over
the battlefield afterwards,
they're picking up
the weapons and the armor.
It's just like a list
of things they found.
And they find women
among the Rus' dead...
Women in armor
who have been fighting them
along with the men.
In Ireland, there is a source
from the 12th century,
"The War of the Irish
with the Foreigners."
And there's one that relates
a series of 10th-century raids
on Ireland...
The same date
as the Birka grave...
In which it lists
the names of the commanders
of the Viking fleets.
The last name in the list,
it talks about
the Fleet of the Red Girl...
That she's a Viking,
she's a ship's captain,
and she commands a fleet.
That is quite an impressivepackage
of roles for one person.
[ Men shouting ]
So, those women are there
in the documentary record.
I don't think
the new work around 581
should surprise us
in the slightest.
♪♪
- What role do
these historical texts play
in confirming the identity
of the woman in Bj 581?
♪♪
- When it comes to interpreting
581 with those sources,
I think the first thing to say
is that we don't need them.
We can draw our conclusions
about a high-status
female warrior
from the archeology alone.
- It's so important
that this person is buried
with this sword beside.
You can tell, just by looking
at the sword in that grave,
that this is a person
who respects and knows
what the sword is,
who is familiar with its use,
and whose identity is defined
partly by owning this weapon.
♪♪
- Mastering combat techniques
and weapons
takes many years
of practice and training.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
To become a master of arms,
the woman from grave Bj 581
must have spent a large part
of her life with warriors.
♪♪
- Ya!
-[ Grunts ]
[ Swords clanging ]
♪♪
♪♪
-[ Speaking French ]
-[ Grunts ]
-[ Speaking French ]
♪♪
- The differences
in physical strength
between men and women
do provoke questions
about the woman in Bj 581's
capability with a sword.
- A sword like this could be used
by a young person,
could be used by a woman.
It doesn't take an exceedingly
strong physique to use it.
In fact, it's well-balanced.
It's nimble in the hand.
It's built for speed
and precision,
and it's to be used together
with a shield as a unity.
♪♪
-[ Grunts ]
- Of course,
it takes lifelong training
to learn how to use it properly.
♪♪
Look at the swordsmen
like elite sportsmen.
These were people in society
who had active lifestyle.
They were... they were healthy
until they died.
- A life dedicated to war
inevitably has
its share of injuries.
♪♪
Typically, years of
training and violence
leave scars on the body,
even the bones.
♪♪
- You can never say
it's a warrior.
I mean, we can see
a victim of violence.
- If she were a warrior,
the bones of Bj 581
would likely have the marks
to prove it.
Certain injuries are indicative
of sword fighting.
- When you raise your arm
and you try to defend yourself,
you may fracture
your radius or ulna.
♪♪
This is something
that could happen,
and you can see that
in assault victims.
But these kind of fractions
may also occur indirectly
when you fall
on an outstretched hand.
So, these fractures
in themselves
can't be used
as evidence for fighting.
You need something more.
- Researchers want to know
whether there is evidence
of these fractures
on the remains.
♪♪
- Well, in case of Bj 581,
I couldn't see any types
of fractures on the forearms.
- While there's no
physical evidence
of fighting on the bones,
that doesn't mean the woman in
grave Bj 581 wasn't a warrior.
♪♪
- The prevalence
of the weapon-related trauma
in materials from the Viking Age
is fairly low compared to
Medieval churchyards.
♪♪
- The village
where Bj 581 was found
would have been no stranger to
raids from other Viking gangs.
♪♪
Birka was an important
trading village.
Vikings came and went.
And a merchant town
was a good place
to sell the spoils of plunder.
- Birka is exactly
the sort of place
that Vikings liked to raid.
And that means
a Viking market town
is just as vulnerable as
everybody else's market towns.
[ Men shouting ]
- There were ramparts.
- There were defensive structures.
There were harbors...
Pile the barricades
out into the waterfront.
And a hill fort.
We're standing
within the hill fort
at the moment.
Protecting, defending,
but also controlling
all the activities
down in the town.
- To ensure
the merchants' safety,
the town housed 40 to 60
warriors in the garrison
at the bottom of the fort.
Many of these guards
were archers
whose job was to stop intruders
while they were still far away.
A vast quantity of arrowheads
was found in the soil
around the ramparts... proof
of the warriors' activity.
One attack in particular
left significant
archeological traces.
- And when the attackers came,
they came up this hill.
So, you can see, there were
showers of arrowheads
down on the hillside
and up here.
Probably entered into
that entrance
because that's where we have
the most heavy fighting.
- Dozens of arrowheads
from all over Viking territory
have been found.
There are a multitude of them,
with different origins
and functions.
There are some
in the Bj 581 grave
that have special
three-faceted tips,
made in Russia and capable of
piercing armor.
♪♪
But the woman's remains weren't
the only ones in Bj 581.
She was buried with two horses.
Skeletal remains of animals
have only been found
in the graves
of high-ranking individuals.
♪♪
The fact that there are so many
graves with horses in Birka
shows it was a prosperous town.
♪♪
In addition to the two horses,
Bj 581 also contained
a range of riding equipment...
Stirrups, a bit, spurs.
It's possible the horses
were meant to join the woman
in Valhalla.
♪♪
Another set of objects
found in the grave
suggests the woman may have
planned the raids.
- On her lap, there was a pouch
with gaming pieces and dice,
and by her side,
there was a gaming board.
♪♪
- It's rare to find
a complete set,
and it's rare to find a board.
When we do find those things,
especially when they're
very close to the body,
they are almost always in graves
of high-ranking
military commanders.
There are a few other graves
like that on Birka,
a few other ironbound gaming
boards, but not many.
They are all the graves
of the super rich.
We don't know exactly,
but it's probably hnefatafl,
which is
the main Viking board game.
It is like chess, in a way.
It's effectively a war game.
The idea is
you have to take the King.
- There is a connection
between the board game
and military strategy.
Both practical,
but probably also as a symbol
of having acquired the knowledge
of military tactics.
- So, if we know thatcomplete
sets of games like this
are associated
with military leaders,
they're associated with
an idea of military strategy,
that certainly makes
precisely those associations
with this grave.
This is one of the reasons
why we think
this person is
a high-ranking commander.
♪♪
- If the woman was
a Viking warrior,
she would likely
have also been feared.
- All the clichés
of rape and pillage
are not just clichés.
So, presumably, this woman
is in charge of things
that we would regard
as atrocities.
[ Shouting, weapons clanging ]
- How the woman
in grave Bj 581 died
will likely remain a mystery.
A text refers to the swift
disappearance of Birka
in the middle
of the 11th century.
The growing influence
of Nordic royal families
and Christianity
likely played a role.
In 1066,
Anglo-Saxons defeated Vikings
on the battlefield in England,
marking the end
of the Viking Age.
♪♪
But several weeks later,
another Viking descendant,
William the Conqueror,
seized England for the Normans.
In less than three centuries,
the Vikings left their mark
on Europe.
Their legacy was not
well-documented,
and as they converted
to Christianity
and assimilated
with colonized countries,
Viking identity disappeared,
despite their rich heritage.
♪♪
The female warrior
in grave Bj 581
has expanded our understanding
of that heritage.
- A while ago,
someone asked Charlotte and I
if we'd like to get
in a time machine
and go back
and meet this person,
and our immediate reaction
was, "No!"
I think she'd be terrifying,
actually.
- I'm not sure I would like
to meet her,
but of course I would like
to see her from afar.
I think that would be enough,
actually.
- The discovery of
the true identity
of the person buried in Bj 581
is a fitting tribute
to Viking culture.
- The Viking lifestyle,
especially if you were
a warrior,
it was all about
being remembered,
and I actually think that
she would have loved for us
to be standing here today,
talking about her and talking
about her achievements
more than 1,000 years later.
♪♪
- The story of
the warrior from Bj 581,
and Viking women,
has only just begun.
♪♪