ANS -- Better Identification of Viking Corpses Reveals: Half of the Warriors Were Female

This one is just a link because there's a really long but very interesting discussion attached to the fairly short article.  If you like such things I recommend it. 
The thing I thought was most important is the circular reasoning that has been used til now:  they assumed that if a body was buried with sword and shield, then it must have been male, so they didn't bother to check.  Once they started checking, they found that, in this particular group, 42% (not fifty percent) of the skeletons were female.  Were they really warriors?  Read the discussion for many perspectives on why these women were accorded a warrior's burial, if that's what it was.... 


Find it here:   http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/09/female-viking-warriors-proof-swords#470354  

Better Identification of Viking Corpses Reveals: Half of the Warriors Were Female