Females and males treated differently
1. Were females and males treated differently? Is there a relationship between age and treatment? Special treatments limited to certain age/sex categories? Any gender patterns in body position or orientation? What objects most reliably signaled male or female? Who had converted to Christianity? What categories of people were buried with Christian symbols?
2. Does the treatment of the Fröjel dead suggest that Viking society was egalitarian? Or are there high status (elite) treatments extended to infants or young children, suggesting inegalitarian organization? Are there any particular grave good types that mark ascribed status? (like copper does in the Moundville case), or were the highest status burials at Fröjel simply given more of the same kinds of grave goods as those with less? Do any objects mark achieved status?
3. We have learned that cross-culturally deathways may involve the “beautification” of the dead (such as the Sumerian concept of hi-li). Was this true at Fröjel? If so, describe what form this beautification took, and which category of individuals were most “beautified.” How was costuming used to express/create identities in death? How was costuming used to express/create status differences in death?
4. Were some burials “atypical”? By this, we don’t mean simply “outliers,” but burials that are exceptional in how they deliberately defy strong burial conventions.
5. Were there dietary differences between males and females? Between people of different social status? Ages? If so, how do you interpret them? Plot the individual δ15N / δ13C values on the chart on p. 29 to answer these questions.
Sample Solution
Like many traditional civilizations, Viking Age society at home and abroad was essentially male-dominated. Men did the hunting, fighting, trading and farming, while women`s lives centered around cooking, caring for the home and raising children. The majority of Viking burials found by archaeologists reflect these traditional gender roles: men were generally buried with their weapons and tools, and women with household items, needlework and jewelry. Though the man was the “ruler” of the house, the woman played an active role in managing her husband, as well as the household. Norse women had full authority in the domestic sphere, especially when their husbands were absent.
