Scientists reconstruct face 1000 year old Viking warrior woman

The Viking warrior WOMEN: Scientists reconstruct the face of 1,000-year-old female with a 'battle wound' on her skull who was buried with a hoard of weapons in Norway

• The woman is based on skeleton found in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway
• She was buried surrounded by a hoard of deadly weaponry in the grave
• British scientists brought her to life using facial recognition technology 
• The female warrior has now been preserved in Oslo's Museum of Cultural History

Scientists have re-created the face of a female Viking warrior who lived more than 1,000 years ago. 

The woman is based on a skeleton found in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway, and is now preserved in Oslo's Museum of Cultural History.

While the remains had already been identified as female, the burial site had not been considered that of a warrior 'simply because the occupant was a woman', archaelogist Ella Al-Shamahi told The Guardian. 

But now British scientists have brought the female warrior to life using cutting-edge facial recognition technology. 

Scientists reconstructed the face of the female warrior who lived more than 1,000 years ago by anatomically working from the muscles and layering of the skin

And scientists found the woman was buried with a hoard of deadly weaponry including arrows, a sword, a spear and an axe. 

Researchers also discovered a dent in her head, which rested on a shield in her grave, that was consistent with a sword wound.  

It is unclear whether the brutal injury was the cause of her death however it is believed to be 'the first evidence ever found of a Viking woman with a battle injury', according to Ms Al-Shamahi. 

She added: I'm so excited because this is a face that hasn't been seen in 1,000 years… She's suddenly become really real.

Archaeologist Ella Al-Shamahi comes face to face with the skull of the Viking woman who was found buried among a hoard of deadly weaponry in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway

The expert who is a specialist in ancient human remains is set to present a National Geographic documentary featuring the reconstruction. 

The face was built up anatomically working from the muscles and layering of the skin. 

Dr Caroline Erolin, a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee in the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification which worked on the reconstruction said: 'The resulting reconstruction is never 100 per cent accurate, but is enough to generate recognition from someone who knew them well in real life.' 

The technology also recreated the woman's grave showing the placement of the weapons. 

The documentary shows Ms Al-Shamahi travelling across Scandinavia examining Viking burial sites and using visualisation techniques to reconstruct the contents.      

Ms Al-Shamahi said while women risked being overpowered in hand-to-hand combat, they could have fired deadly arrows from horseback over longer distances making them 'an equal match for men'.

Viking expert and archaeological consultant on the project Professor Neil Price added: 'There are so many other burials in the Viking world… It wouldn't surprise me at all if we find more (female warriors).

By EMILY WEBBER 

Archaeologists uncovered two rare Viking burial boats

Archaeologists have uncovered two rare Viking boat graves in the Swedish village of Gamla Uppsala.

One of the boats is intact, still holding the remains of a man, a horse and a dog.

Experts from Arkeologerna, archeologists with Sweden's National Historical Museums agency, believed that it would be a routine dig, so they were were shocked to find the two ships, the group's Ninna Bengtsson said.

There are only about 10 other known boat burial sites like this in Sweden,Arkeologerna said. Ship graves of this kind were generally used in the Vendel Period, from about A.D. 550 to 800, and the Viking Age, from about A.D. 800 to 1050.

Most people at the time were cremated, with these sorts of boat burials reserved for society's elite.

"It is a small group of people who were buried in this way. You can suspect that they were distinguished people in the society of the time since burial ships in general are very rare," archeologist Anton Seiler said in a news release.

In this sort of burial, the person was placed along with his or her riches in a boat that was then put into the ground.

The archaeologists also found a sword, an ornate comb, a spear and part of a shield in the intact boat. The identity of the man remains unknown.

The other of the two boats did not hold up as well. It was probably damaged during work on the land in the 16th century.

The group began excavation on this site last fall but was forced to take a break in the winter due to cold weather. They restarted the process in June and are working to move the artifacts to a facility for further investigation.

It's been 50 years since the last burial ship was found in Gamla Uppsala, according to Seiler.

"It is extremely exciting for us since boat burials are so rarely excavated," he said. "We can now use modern science and methods that will generate new results, hypotheses and answers."

Skeppsgrav från vikingatiden

Arkeologernas nya fynd

Enligt Vestfolds kommun handlar det av allt att döma om ett skepp från vikingatiden.

Skeppet som ligger relativt nära markytan har hittats med hjälp av georadar, vars bilder visar en tydlig båtform under marken.

– Bilderna visar en båtform och vi kan se svaga spår av en cirkulär fördjupning runt båten. Kanske är det ett tecken på att en gravhög tagits bort från platsen, säger Terje Gansum, som är sektionschef för kulturarv i Vestfolds kommun.

Historisk dag

Det är fortfarande oklart hur mycket av farkosten som finns kvar, men vikten av fyndet går inte att underskatta, enligt norske klimat- och miljöministern Ola Elvestuen.

– Det här är en historisk dag, en stor begivenhet. Det är unikt i norsk historia och internationellt, det går inte att överdriva betydelsen av det här, säger han.

Unikt fynd

Sedan tidigare har bara sju skeppsgravar från vikingatiden (år 800 till 1050) bekräftats i Europa. Tre av dessa finns i just Vestfold.

I fjol hittades dock en förmodad skeppsgrav på ett gravfält i Haldens kommun i sydöstra Norge och nu har alltså troligen ytterligare ett vikingaskepp hittats i Borreparken.