Warrior woman: Ella Al-Shamahi on the female Viking fighters who held their own on the battlefield

[Judi Lynn]

The paleoanthropologist's new documentary details the role of Viking women warriors — and asks why they were erased from history

By David Woode
Friday, 29th November 2019, 12:13 pm

Ella Al-Shamahi is excited. The paleoanthropologist's eyes widen as she studies the slightly menacing facial reconstruction of a female Viking warrior who has a gory battle wound.

It's believed to be the first time anyone has seen what a female Viking warrior could have looked like – and strengthens the argument that women were equipped to fight and hold their own against men on the battlefield more than 1,000 years ago.

Experts initially assumed that the skeleton, discovered in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway, was that of a man – until DNA analysis proved otherwise.

Al-Shamahi, 36, who is also a science presenter and stand-up comic (more on that later), noticed a dent in the skull while she was viewing the remains at Oslo's Museum of Cultural History and so commissioned a probe.

More:
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/warrior-woman-ella-al-shamahi-female-viking-fighters-battlefield-national-geographic-1327925

[cilla4progress]

1. So cool!

I'm reading a Norse novel verrrrry slowly...Half Drowned King, that recounts this. Author is a woman descendant of Herald Fairhair, first King of Norway. There is a courageous woman at the center of the story..Tough times, and people.

[Karadeniz]

2. We've been shut out!!!