Understanding people who lived in the distant past can be a tough challenge as more time passes.
Historians and scientists usually have to rely on surviving artifacts, written records, and prevailing trends of the time to piece together the lives of ancient individuals.
According to a paper published in 2021 in the European Journal of Archaeology, the warrior’s grave was discovered in Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Hattula, Finland, in 1968.
Inside the grave, a bronze-handled sword was found along with items suggesting that the buried person may have been a woman or, possibly, someone whose gender identity did not fit the traditional binary concept.
“On the other hand, the person was buried with a sword – possibly two, according to some interpretations – which is often associated with masculinity.”
Over the last 50 years, interpretations of this grave have ranged from it being a dual burial of a man and a woman to evidence of powerful female leaders or warriors in Late Iron Age Finland.
The presence of a sword alongside traditionally feminine items sparked debates and theories for decades.
DNA analysis on the remains suggests the warrior may have had Klinefelter syndrome, a condition where an individual has an extra X chromosome (XXY).
This discovery adds another layer of complexity to how gender roles and identities were perceived in that society.
Ulla Moilanen, a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University of Turku, commented that this could be an example of a person whose social identity didn’t align with the traditional male or female categories.
“The abundant collection of objects buried in the grave is a proof that the person was not only accepted but also valued and respected.”