13 Archaeological Discoveries Of 2019 That Filled Us With Wonder

Published December 25, 2019
Updated December 13, 2022

Warrior Woman And Her Axe Found In 1,000-Year-Old Viking Cemetery

Remains Of Slavic Warrior Woman

Mira FrickeA piece of the ancient remains of a likely-Slavic warrior woman recently found on the Danish island of Langeland.

Researcher Leszek Gardela from the University of Bonn initially thought this buried warrior woman to be a Viking. The ancient remains were, after all, found buried in a Viking cemetery on the Danish island of Langeland. The axe alongside her, however, suggested otherwise.

Published in Science of Poland, the study explained that this was actually a Slavic warrior woman. Gardela’s hypothesis originated from the weapon, which was much more typical of one culture than another.

“So far, no one has paid any attention to the fact that the axe in the grave comes from the area of the southern Baltic, possibly today’s Poland,” she said.

To her point, the design of the warrior’s 1,000-year-old burial place firmly hinted Gardela was right. The chambered construction, common in cemeteries in the southern Baltic region, strongly pointed toward more Slavic origins than Nordic ones. So how did she get there?

As Gardela explained, the Danish territory in question was a melting pot during the Middle Ages. Scandinavians and Slavs lived side-by-side, with the researcher’s own study on the Slavic-Danish burial indicating previous consensus that argued against the presence of Slavic warriors in the region had been off-base.

The document, a study of ninth- and 10th-century warrior women called Amazons of the North, encompasses burial sites in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Gardela was inspired by the aggravation that old Icelandic texts placed strong Valkyrie women alongside mythical beings such as trolls and dragons.

“There are many female warriors — they participate in expeditions in full gear, they even lead entire armies to attack,” said Gardela.

Fortunately, the remains of this particular warrior woman were preserved enough to cement that point for good.

author
Marco Margaritoff
author
A former staff writer for All That’s Interesting, Marco Margaritoff holds dual Bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a Master's in journalism from New York University. He has published work at People, VICE, Complex, and serves as a staff reporter at HuffPost.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.