Conflict Archaeology in the Midden Heaps of Clickbait

This 'Viking warrior woman' was probably a queen

In 2017, Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University argued that the individual discovered in a grave near Birka, Sweden in the 1880s (see photo reconstruction) was in fact a Viking warrior woman. Misidentified as male until DNA evidence proved otherwise, the skeleton was found with rich grave goods, including weapons and a sword, and so was pre…