The archaeologists found that, while men did receive non-normative burials, more women received them than men in every age category. "Only women were buried face down, or prone," they note, "a form of non-normative burial treatment often seen as having negative connotations." In fact, two of those prone women appear to have been bound or restrained. Additionally, "older men are more likely to receive high status [grave] goods," Cave and Oxenham write. "Whereas women receive few high status burials as they age, men receive more."

Prehistoric women shouldered a major share of the hoeing, digging, and hauling in early agricultural societies, according to a new study. Now, by analyzing the bones of these women, scientists have shown that their upper body strength surpassed even today’s elite female athletes. The findings refute popularly held notions that early agrarian women shunned manual labor in favor of domestic work, and they suggest that then—as now—a woman’s work was never done.

"By using the chainsaw, the nun said, she was trying to live up to something her school teaches its students: "Do what you can to help.""

This finding should make all archaeologists question previous identifications of the sex of Viking warriors.