The Birka Warrior Woman

Grave Bj 581 at Birka was long held up as the archetypal Viking warrior burial: sword, axe, spear, two horses and a gaming set for planning tactics. In 2017, genomics proved the warrior was a woman, overturning a century of assumptions and igniting a worldwide debate about women's roles in Viking society. She remains the most famous female burial of the Viking Age.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because this is a single real individual, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Birka Warrior Woman is your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who was the Birka Warrior Woman?

  The Birka Warrior Woman (10th century CE, Birka, Sweden) is one of the Historical figures entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by one sequenced ancient genome published in the study "A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Birka Warrior Woman mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Is the Birka Warrior Woman my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near this individual's in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Birka Warrior Woman?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Volga Bulgarsc. 850-1000 CE

• The Medieval Islanders of Soqotrac. 650-1150 CE

• Bishop Teodomiro of Iria Flaviad. 847 CE

• Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary1040-1095 CE

• Árpád Royals of the Székesfehérvár Basilica9th-12th century CE

• The Elbe Slavs of Niederwünschc. 900-1200 CE

• Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich1052-1078 CE

• The Early Medieval Slavs of Velimc. 650-950 CE

• The Salme Ship Warriorsc. 750 CE

• The Alans of the North Caucasusc. 350-1100 CE

• The Chen Clan of the Tang Frontierearly 8th century CE

• King Béla III of Hungary1148-1196 CE