Medieval History
?To assume that Viking men were ranked above women is to impose modern values on the past, which would be misleading,? cautions Marianne Moen. She has been studying how women?s status and power is expressed through Viking burial findings. Her master?s thesis The Gendered Landscape argues that viking gender roles may have been more complex than we assume.
Exploring new perspectives of Viking society is a theme which also will be the focus of the forthcoming Viking Worlds conference in March 2013, where Moen is a member of the organising committee.
Our assumptions of gender roles in viking society could skew the way we interpret burial findings, Moen points out. She uses the 1904 excavation of the Oseberg long boat to illustrate the point. Rather than the skeleton of a powerful king or chieftain, the ship surprisingly contained two female skeletons. ?The first theories suggested that this must be the grave of queen Åsa mentioned in Snorri?s Ynglinga saga, and that the other skeleton was her slave servant,? says Moen. Åsa Haraldsdottir was the mother of Viking king Halfdan the Black.
However, later carbon dating revealed that the buried ship was from around 834 AD - a date which made this theory unfeasible. But the idea of a queen mother and her servant became persistent amongst archaeologists.
Click here to read this article from Science Nordic
Click here to read her thesis The Gendered Landscape: A discussion on gender, status and power expressed in the Viking Age mortuary landscape
Click here to learn more about the Viking Worlds Archaeology Conference, which will be held in Oslo
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Medieval History
Don?t underestimate Viking women
Exploring new perspectives of Viking society is a theme which also will be the focus of the forthcoming Viking Worlds conference in March 2013, where Moen is a member of the organising committee.
Our assumptions of gender roles in viking society could skew the way we interpret burial findings, Moen points out. She uses the 1904 excavation of the Oseberg long boat to illustrate the point. Rather than the skeleton of a powerful king or chieftain, the ship surprisingly contained two female skeletons. ?The first theories suggested that this must be the grave of queen Åsa mentioned in Snorri?s Ynglinga saga, and that the other skeleton was her slave servant,? says Moen. Åsa Haraldsdottir was the mother of Viking king Halfdan the Black.
However, later carbon dating revealed that the buried ship was from around 834 AD - a date which made this theory unfeasible. But the idea of a queen mother and her servant became persistent amongst archaeologists.
Click here to read this article from Science Nordic
Click here to read her thesis The Gendered Landscape: A discussion on gender, status and power expressed in the Viking Age mortuary landscape
Click here to learn more about the Viking Worlds Archaeology Conference, which will be held in Oslo
- Asnc-related News Stories
Many of you will have seen the news about the Ardnamurchan Viking boat burial. On a somewhat related note, Fintan O'Toole continues his 'history of Ireland in 100 objects' in The Irish Times and enters the Viking Age. Previous articles by...
- Archaeological Research Reveals New Insights About The Vikings In Wales
Recent excavations by archaeologists from the National Museum Wales at the Viking age settlement of Llanbedrgoch on the east side of Anglesey have shed important new light on the impact of Anglo-Saxon and Viking-age worlds operating around the Irish...
- Researchers Look To Save Deteriorating Viking Treasures Of Oseberg
Conservation experts in Norway are conducting tests to see if a solution can be found on how to save important archaeological finds from the Viking Age that were discovered in Oseberg in 1904. Researchers from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo,...
- Language, Texts, And Gender In The Viking Diaspora Viking Identities Network Iv
Call for Papers Language, Texts, and Gender in the Viking Diaspora Viking Identities Network IV 30-31 March 2009 University of Leicester The Viking Age is traditionally seen as the aggressive, militaristic expansion of a Scandinavian seafaring and warrior...
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Authentic Viking DNA Retrieved From 1,000-year-old Skeletons Archeologists Discover Unique Things in Veliki Novgorod Through a sea of tourists Danewerk und Haithabu sollen Weltkulturerbe werden Viking warship to begin homeward journey Grim discovery...