Vikingatida krigargravar, en studie av Birka, Heath Wood och Nord-Trøndelag : Indikationer på kvinnliga krigare i gravar från vikingatiden?

Sammanfattning: Female warriors from the Viking Age is a subject that has been debated and interpreted in many different ways. The modern view on the binary gender roles is one of the reasons why it has been hard for archaeologists to interpret the female warrior graves. The graves are often interpreted in other ways then that the weapons in the graves would belong to the female individuals. Archaeologists rather explain the graves existence because of other reasons than that the female individuals would have been warriors. The issue of the study is whether the female warrior graves from the Viking Age differ from a female gender role, or if the warrior role possibly could be a part of a female gender? Also, why are there so few female warrior graves? The study will be based around three graves, Bj 581 from Birka in Sweden, Mound 50 from Heath Wood in England and T20248 from Nord-Trøndelag in Norway. The analysis and discussion are based on a gender perspective, new ideas will be added to the discussion based on age, gender roles, gender expression and social status. The results may indicate that female gender rolls might be changeable depending on the female individual’s social status, age and life stage.