A group of archaeologists have found a woman, buried arch in a 10th century cemetery in Hungary, who would have lived “like a man” for the time. It’s such an unusual discovery that researchers didn’t risk categorizing it.
“Assessing an individual’s possible occupation is a complex problem,” highlighted the research team recently in PLOS One.
The burial was one of 262 discovered in the early 1980s at the archaeological site of Sárrétudvari-Hízóföld (SH) in east-central Hungary.
Dating back to the period of the Hungarian conquest, the cemetery included men and women of all ages. Although 58 of the burials contained weapons used in archery – arrowheads, quivers or bow plates – only one of the graves contained weapons it also contained jewelry found exclusively in female graves.
To better understand this unusual burial – called SH-63 – the research team analyzed the person’s bones and DNA. It turned out that SH-63 was a older adult woman who will have “lived like a man”for the time.
As described by , during the period of the Hungarian Conquest, the Magiares (as they were known) arrived in the Carpathian Basin in the early 10th century, integrating with or conquering local populations, in part thanks to their mounted archery capabilities.
Researchers observed that, during this period, it was common to find weapons in men’s graves. However, only simple arrowheads are found in women’s graves, often interpreted as amulets and not weapons.
However, in this rare case, the researchers concluded “that this individual does, in fact, represent the first known female burial with a weapon from the period of the Hungarian Conquest in the Carpathian Basin.”
The researchers identified several healed fractures in the woman’s skeleton. The bone in his right arm had been broken in two places, as had his right and left shoulder blades.
However, the bone injuries that affected this woman were also observed in men at the cemetery, specifically those who were buried with weapons and equipment. horse riding. By analyzing the variation in SH-63’s bones and joints, researchers discovered that she probably practiced some type of repetitive physical activity (like horse riding, precisely).
Kori Filipeka bioarchaeologist at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom who was not involved in this research, told Live Science that SH-63 highlights the “gender roles” that would have been “potentially neglected”over the decades and disregarded in studies.
The new research also highlights problems with assigning biological sex based solely on grave goods, the expert said. “The authors’ analyzes of the SH-63 burial hope to incite reevaluations of other burials ‘armed’ weapons discovered in this region”, he considered.
