Viking women joined their men during invasion of Britain

A study has found that a huge number of Viking women accompanied their male partners to Britain during their invasion of the country.

The Norsemen invaded Britain in 900AD and in a series of raids hacked monks to death and stormed a priory in Lindisfarne.

Researchers examined bodies found at 14 burial mounds and discovered that six were women, with some carrying swords and shields, and seven were men.

The researchers came to their conclusion by examining objects found in the graves and looking at isotopes from their bones to identify where they were born.

The bones were also examined for signs of which gender they belonged to - previous studies had just assumed that because the body had a knife near it, it was a man.

One burial site at Repton Woods near Derby, for example, was identified as female even though the remains of three swords were recovered.

"These results, six female Norse migrants and seven male, should caution against assuming that the great majority of Norse migrants were male, despite the other forms of evidence suggesting the contrary," the Daily Mail quoted the report as stating.

"This result of almost a fifty-fifty ratio of Norse female migrants to Norse males is particularly significant when some of the problems with sexing of skeletons are taken into account," it said.

The study was written by Shane McLeod of the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies at the University of Western Australia.

"An increase in the number of finds of Norse-style jewellery in the last two decades has led some scholars to suggest a larger number of female settlers," he said.

"Indeed, it has been noted that there are more Norse female dress items than those worn by men," he added.