Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Janina Ramírez

Isotope analysis on the mass grave was conducted by the archaeologist Dr Cat Jarman across five years, and her discoveries have shed new light on the people who made up the Great Heathen Army.45 The primary bones (skulls and femurs) of 264 individuals had been stacked as in an ossuary, suggesting they were brought from another location, most likely a Mercian battlefield. The majority of the skeletons were male and between the ages of 18 and 45, in keeping with what we might expect of a Viking army. The bones reveal that they also ate a foreign diet, suggesting they originated from Scandinavia. However, a surprising 20 per cent of the bones were female. We can gather from this that women travelled with the army and lived with them at the camp. This reinforces the idea that the aim of the Great Heathen Army was not just to raid and pillage, but to conquer and settle. These women may have been wives, slaves, servants, relatives or even female warriors, but in their fragmentary state it’s hard to know more of the role they played.