Meet Erika the Red: Viking women were warriors too, say scientists

Researchers re-create the face of a woman buried with an impressive collection of weaponry for a National Geographic documentaryThink of a Viking warrior and you probably imagine a fearsome, muscular, bearded man. Well, think again. Using cutting-edge facial recognition technology, British scientists have brought to life the battle-hardened face of a fighter who lived more than 1,000 years ago. And she ’s a woman.The life-like reconstruction, which challenges long-held assumptions that Viking warrior heroes such as Erik the Red left their women at home, is based on a skeleton found in a Viking graveyard in Sol ør, Norway, and now preserved in Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History. The remains had already beenidentified as female, but her burial site had not been considered a warrior grave “simply because the occupant was a woman”, according to archaelogist Ella Al-Shamahi.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - November 2, 2019 Category: Science Authors: Dalya Alberge Tags: UK news Archaeology Science Television Norway Source Type: news