Back in 1968, in south Finland’s Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Hattula, archeologists found a grave of a 1,000-year-old person. The person is believed to be a powerful woman, and in her grave, there were three brooches and a sword was also found.
University of Turku wrote, “The jewelry inside the grave indicates that the buried individual was dressed in typical female clothing of the period. On the other hand, the person was buried with a sword…which is often associated with masculinity.”
European Journal of Archeology talked about the findings as, “swords are rare items in graves of female-bodied individuals,” and that the research is showing the “evidence of powerful women, even female warriors and leaders in early medieval Finland.”
Also, the grave also was “either a double burial of both a woman and a man, or alternatively, a weapon grave of a female, and therefore a proof of strong female leaders or even female warriors in the Late Iron Age Finland.”
When it was 2021, researchers had revisited the grave again, and found out that the sword had no hilt on it. “The buried individual seems to have been a highly respected member of their community. They had been laid in the grave on a soft feather blanket with valuable furs and objects,” Ulla Moilanen, a doctoral candidate of Archaeology shared.
After the DNA analysis, it was learnt that the person had the XXY chromosome, or Klinefelter syndrome. The university shared, “although a person with XXY chromosomes is usually anatomically a male, the syndrome may also cause breast growth, diminished muscle mass, or infertility.”
They added that this situation “may cause delayed or incomplete pubertal development,” or “males feeling physically more feminine than other males.”
“They might not have been considered strictly a female or a male in the Early Middle Ages community,” Moilanen added. “The abundant collection of objects buried in the grave is a proof that the person was not only accepted but also valued and respected. However, biology does not directly dictate a person’s self-identity.”
What do you think? Let us know.