Incidentally, worth recalling that Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is said to have led an army to sack Taunton in 722… :) http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_tiberius_a_vi_f010v …pic.twitter.com/5GO4S1cRoh
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Incidentally, worth recalling that Queen Æthelburg of Wessex is said to have led an army to sack Taunton in 722… :) http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=cotton_ms_tiberius_a_vi_f010v …pic.twitter.com/5GO4S1cRoh
Procopius on a 6thC English princess who led an army overseas to the mouth of Rhine to punish her faithless fiancé: https://archive.org/stream/L217ProcopiusVHistoryOfTheWars7.368.GothicWar/L217-Procopius%20V%20History%20of%20the%20Wars%207.36-8.%20%28Gothic%20War%29#page/n263/mode/2up …
The sword of the female Viking warrior in grave Bj 581 at Birka, Sweden: http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/fid.asp?fid=263195&g=1 …pic.twitter.com/NWnFAEDzY3
A silver terminal for a Viking cap found in Birka grave Bj 581 (the female warrior burial): http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/fid.asp?fid=106830 …pic.twitter.com/oRwfJ1J0dh
The axe & stirrups from the female Viking warrior burial (grave Bj 581) at Birka, Sweden: http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/bild.asp?uid=331954 … & http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/fid.asp?fid=561205 …pic.twitter.com/UF9AaUp3mo
The iron & silver arrowheads belonging to the female Viking warrior in grave Bj 581 at Birka, Sweden: https://www.flickr.com/photos/historiska/6851604739/in/photostream/ …pic.twitter.com/qtBhu8eGTQ
Finally, elk-horn gaming pieces from the Birka grave, seen by the authors as indicating strategic+tactical knowledge http://mis.historiska.se/mis/sok/fid.asp?fid=561857 …pic.twitter.com/5TqBc0I3xL
And lastly, a few notes & thoughts. First, the supporting information file is worth a read: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/ajpa.23308/asset/supinfo/ajpa23308-sup-0002-suppinfo2.docx?v=1&s=caf54d8109a0e9b0582d257a49aa8a719b82f23a … In particular, it incl >
> a brief discussion of the burial & attempts to lay to rest concerns that the skeletal remains analysed might not have come from Bj 581. >
> Second, authors argue that shouldn't assume weapons buried in female graves=symbolic but those in male=indicative of warriors. However, >
The female warrior hypothesis is unsupported. It's more likely she was buried with a family member's weaponspic.twitter.com/XARKyuR3t2
There are caveats over the interpretation which I note at the end of my thread, but I'm not sure what you suggest is wholly credible. Such >
> burials are v unusual, remember, plus not just weapons+horses but apparently 'male' attire too. Could be symbolic (see my caveat for >
> symbolic weapons burials in Anglo-Saxon England), but by no means has to be & def male weapons burials often have few obvious injuries :)
More honest headline would be, skeleton found in grave with weapons is female. Thence many interpretations are possible, inc female viking
That was kinda the point of my caveats ;) Fwiw, I'd say not 'unsupported' as you put it earlier, but rather plausible but not certain, as >
> need to be aware of possibility of symbolism in *all* weapons burials+study only tells about 581's genetics, not their identity in life :)
Powerful women in early med church & royal dynasty. Military women only viking phenon? Only high status women? Grave gd untypical of life?
It's a good question, do weapons mean a warrior? Not necessarily, but authors do marshal other grave evidence & make interesting case. As >
> for non-Vikings, I'd say yes, definitely some AS examples, for instance...
Too quick to dismiss military gear as symbolic? Gender roles less defined in elites? Possible, if not usual for high status women to fight
Indeed: the authors make the point that weaponry often simply assumed to be non-symbolic when found with men, but symbolic with prob women >
> , & they argue this is wrong (see p. 6).
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