Bj 581

What’s that – BMW’s snazzy new hatchback?

Miles off. It’s the designation that’s been given to the grave of a 10th-Century Viking warrior found in Birka in south- east Sweden.

Cool. So why are we talking about it?

When the grave was first unearthed in the 1870s, the shields, swords, axes and remnants of horses buried alongside the body led researchers to believe it belonged to a male Viking warrior.

But they were wrong?

Yep. A new DNA analysis has found the skeleton only has X chromosomes, and no Y chromosomes. This means it must have belonged to a woman.

Wow! Does that mean this was the grave of a real-life shield-maiden?

Well, there’s a bit of disagreement among researchers. Some say that there is still no solid proof the Viking woman was a warrior. Others say that if we automatically assume men buried in such a manner were warriors, then why would we make different assumptions when the body is female?