1000 year old grave of a nonbinary intersex person found in Finland
A Medieval grave in Finland contained the remains of what seems to be a nonbinary person.
Researchers Ulla Moilanen, Tuija Kirkinen, Nelli-Johanna Saari, Adam B. Rohrlach and Johannes Krause writes in the paper “A Woman with a Sword? – Weapon Grave at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Finland”:
In 1968, a weapon grave with brooches was found at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Hattula, Finland.
Since then, the grave has been interpreted as evidence of powerful women, even female warriors and leaders in early medieval Finland. Others have denied the possibility of a woman buried with a sword and tried to explain it as a double burial.
We present the first modern analysis of the grave, including an examination of its context, a soil sample analysis for microremains, and an aDNA analysis.
Based on these analyses, we suggest a new interpretation: the Suontaka grave possibly belonged to an individual with sex-chromosomal aneuploidy XXY. The overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person whose gender identity may well have been non-binary.
Caroline Anders writes in the Washington Post:
The collection of items lying with the bones seemed to evade traditional Western notions of gender. The swords suggested that the person they were buried alongside might be a man, but the jewelry indicated that the body belonged to a woman…
…according to a recent study from Finnish and German researchers, they were a male-bodied person of some wealth or importance buried in traditionally feminine dress. And that raises questions about the fluidity of gender in early medieval Finland. Researchers say it’s possible that this person was nonbinary — not strictly male or female.
Although much of archaeology and much of the world are still bound by binary ideas of gender, research has repeatedly shown that not everyone identifies with a rigid male-female classification.
“We’ve always been here,” author Dianna E. Anderson said. “Being nonbinary isn’t an invention of the 21st century. We may have only started using those words, but that’s just putting language to an existing gender that’s always been around.”
See also: 1,000-year-old grave may belong to nonbinary leader, challenging centuries-old gender roles
Top illustration from the Washington Post: A reconstruction drawing of the grave at Suontaka Vesitorninmaki, Hattula, Finland. (Veronika Paschenko)
Second image: The objects found in the Suontaka grave. A: bronze-hilted sword B: hiltless sword with silver inlays (inset); C: two oval brooches with textile fragments; D: twin-spiral chain-bearer; E: sheathed knife; F: penannular brooch; G: sickle. A: © Finnish Heritage Agency. (From paper)
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