WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:04.160 Welcome. This is Marcia a Radio Eye and today I 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:10.279 will be reading National Geographic Magazine dated March twenty twenty five. 3 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:13.919 As a reminder, Radio Eye is a reading service intended 4 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:17.280 for people who are blind or have other disabilities that 5 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.760 make it difficult to read printed material. Please join me 6 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.920 now for the first article titled The Long Journey of 7 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:29.359 Canada's Last Reindeer. A famous herd with a storied past 8 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:32.560 confronts a new kind of future in the High North 9 00:00:33.280 --> 00:00:37.359 by Joshua Hunt. Beneath the glow of the morning sun, 10 00:00:37.479 --> 00:00:40.719 thousands of reindeer plod across the frozen far reaches of 11 00:00:40.759 --> 00:00:45.240 northwestern Canada. In the slow moving scrum, the animal's bodies 12 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.320 almost disappear under a cloud of vapor as warm breath 13 00:00:48.399 --> 00:00:51.600 collides with cold air. A forest of antlers seems to 14 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:55.359 dance in the mist. Glimpsed from afar, the migrating herd 15 00:00:55.439 --> 00:00:59.560 looks like one long, sinuous streak of brown painted across 16 00:00:59.560 --> 00:01:04.359 the snow canvavas of an Arctic landscape. In the distance 17 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:10.560 are four Inuvialuit herders on snowmobiles, armed with rifles and 18 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:13.760 keeping watch. They are alert, attuned to the rhythm of 19 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:16.959 hoofs falling on frozen earth and on this crisp morning. 20 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.560 Their job is to escort the reindeer to their calving grounds, 21 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:23.239 but in a grander sense, they are also helping to 22 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:27.120 write a new legacy for this storied herd. They're really 23 00:01:27.159 --> 00:01:32.079 smart animals, said dus Douglas Esagok, whose seven winters working 24 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:34.760 with the reindeer mak him among the most experienced of 25 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:38.000 the indigenous herders. I'm always talking to them when I'm 26 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:40.560 moving them. It kind of calms them down when they 27 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.640 recognize my voice or the sound of my snow machine. 28 00:01:44.120 --> 00:01:48.439 As Canada's last free ranging reindeer herd drives forward just 29 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:51.400 north of the Arctic Circle, the animals carry with them 30 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:54.879 a link to a legendary experiment. It began about one 31 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.280 hundred years ago after the number of local caribou that 32 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:03.200 the Inuvialu wheat long depended on began to decline, and 33 00:02:03.239 --> 00:02:06.680 a bold plan was hatched to address food scarcity by 34 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:10.960 importing reindeer. Caribou and reindeer are the same species, but 35 00:02:11.039 --> 00:02:15.159 the latter have been domesticated. Something similar has been tried 36 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:18.159 at the turn of the century in nearby Alaska, when 37 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:22.000 waves of reindeer boarded boats and trains to make improbable 38 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:26.520 journeys from Siberia and Norway to North America. In late 39 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:29.360 nineteen twenty nine, a chunk of what was then a 40 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:34.759 burgeoning Alaska reindeer population, some thirty five hundred reindeer, set 41 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.840 off for Canada under the care of Sami and Inuit herders. 42 00:02:39.400 --> 00:02:44.039 The arduous, zigzagging, fifteen hundred mile journey ended up lasting 43 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:47.080 more than five years, marking a difficult beginning to what 44 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:51.360 came to be known as the Canadian Reindeer Project. Now 45 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:56.439 decades on, a group of Nuvialuit stakeholders is taking the 46 00:02:56.479 --> 00:03:00.719 project further into uncharted territory. The herd, which has been 47 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:05.120 cared for with the help of the Inuvialuit but family owned, 48 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:09.319 was formerly purchased in twenty twenty one by the Inuvialuit 49 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:14.639 Regional Corporation. Under the watchful eyes of Esagoch and his colleagues, 50 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:17.960 the herd has more than doubled to nearly six thousand reindeer, 51 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:22.479 making possible an ambitious plan to build a sustainable path 52 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:28.240 to self reliance for Inuvialuit people living on their ancestral lands. 53 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:33.199 The ultimate goal is to have reindeer abundantly available for Inuvialuit. 54 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:37.479 That's goal number one, said Brian Reid, director of the 55 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:44.520 in Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization. There's the food's security 56 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:47.840 component to this herd, but there's also job creation and 57 00:03:47.879 --> 00:03:52.800 the economic component to it. The reindeer's transferred to Inuvialuit 58 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:57.639 ownership goes beyond an attempt at establishing stability for the future. 59 00:03:58.199 --> 00:04:02.080 It also represents a chance for the Inuvialuite people to 60 00:04:02.360 --> 00:04:05.680 take control of a herd imported to their homelands by 61 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:09.479 a colonial government in the nineteen thirties. When the reindeer 62 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:12.520 came to the Northwest Territories, the role they were meant 63 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:16.360 to play in the lives of Uvialuit people was mostly 64 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:21.120 to replace their ancestral food gathering customs. The Canadian government 65 00:04:21.240 --> 00:04:25.319 had been establishing administrative stations and allowing the creation of 66 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:29.360 trading outposts throughout the region following its acquisition of the 67 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:34.560 Northwest Territories in the late eighteen hundreds. The indigenous population 68 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:38.720 had for centuries subsisted primarily on hunting and fishing, but 69 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:42.959 with cariboo and decline, reindeer were imported to address food shortages. 70 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:48.360 This also changed the relationship the Inuvialuite had with the land. 71 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:52.480 As reindeer could be raised as livestock, reindeer are classified 72 00:04:52.480 --> 00:04:55.360 as domesticated animals, the same as a cow or a 73 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.480 chicken or a pig, said Wade felgrays all day and 74 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.399 just keep moving slowly and slowly and slowly, finding greener pastures. 75 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:06.000 In the years before the IRC took control of the herd, 76 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:10.720 the reindeer were owned by in an in new Viluite family, 77 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.920 the Binders, whose associations with the reindeer stretched back to 78 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.720 their arrival in the Mackenzie Delta. The Binders had grazed 79 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:22.399 the animals and sold reindeer meat, but had increasingly struggled 80 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:25.759 with too few herders to stave off predators and keep 81 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:29.079 the herd from splintering. As the number of reindeer dipped, 82 00:05:29.240 --> 00:05:33.120 the Inuvialuite leaders at the IRC were in the process 83 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:37.439 of recognizing the powerful role that a bolstered reindeer population 84 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:42.639 could play in the community. Plenty of Enuviluite continue to 85 00:05:42.720 --> 00:05:44.800 hunt for their food, but it can be a costly 86 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:48.199 and time intensive effort, and, as any hunter will attest, 87 00:05:48.519 --> 00:05:51.879 some seasons are better than others. Over recent decades, many 88 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:56.120 families have moved away from the traditional subsistence model, depending 89 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:59.680 instead on food markets and grocery stores stocked by Southern 90 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:02.879 food food supply chains. But in twenty twenty, at the 91 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:06.319 outset of the global pandemic, many of those supply chains 92 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:09.920 broke the RC, which began to envision a roll for 93 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:14.360 the herd in addressing food shortages. Could see clearly that 94 00:06:14.439 --> 00:06:18.240 the thread was not hypothetical but immediate. We've been able 95 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:21.959 to really capitalize on the country food that's abundant in 96 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.600 our region, but also tie in the reindeer herd so 97 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:28.560 we could alleviate the pressure on the local caribou herd 98 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:32.879 and save the sustainable protein source, said Wade. The purchase 99 00:06:32.959 --> 00:06:34.920 of the herd, he added, was part of a two 100 00:06:34.959 --> 00:06:39.879 pronged plan toward food sovereignty. The other initiative was the 101 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.920 opening of the Country Food Processing Plant in the town 102 00:06:43.079 --> 00:06:47.399 of Inuvik, where reindeer, among other food sources, could be 103 00:06:47.439 --> 00:06:50.480 prepared and then sent off for distribution to families in need. 104 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.920 Before any reindeer could be harvested, though, the herd needed 105 00:06:53.959 --> 00:06:57.560 to be nurtured back to full strength, the RC brought 106 00:06:57.639 --> 00:07:03.800 on Esagoch and fellow in to Valawite herder Steve Cockney Junior, 107 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:09.160 who then spent months reuniting the dispersed reindeer herd. One 108 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.680 of the main challenges was rounding up all the stray 109 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.560 animals that were spread out over a huge area, said Essegok. 110 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.519 Some groups had strayed as far afield as eighty miles, 111 00:07:19.879 --> 00:07:23.439 which meant days of travel for Esagok and his partner. 112 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.959 These smaller groups of reindeer were vulnerable to wolves and 113 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.319 other predators, and while many animals had been lost and 114 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:34.120 others roamed beyond the two herder's reach, Esagox said, we 115 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.839 brought all of them together, the ones that we were 116 00:07:36.879 --> 00:07:40.399 able to locate anyway. Since then, the ir C has 117 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.879 hired four additional herders, with the crew pulling two week 118 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:47.120 long shifts of four men on and two men off 119 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:50.120 at any given time. As a result of their efforts, 120 00:07:50.120 --> 00:07:53.360 the herd's numbers have swelled up to six thousand, enough 121 00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:57.160 for Country Food Processing to start its work with the reindeer. 122 00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:02.000 Last spring, the plant, now staffed by five full time employees, 123 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.959 led its first official harvest, preparing one hundred seventy six 124 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:09.240 reindeer from the herd as roasts, round meat, and ribs, 125 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:15.120 among other items that were then distributed to Inuvialuit community members. 126 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:19.040 The meals provide a crucial source of country food grown 127 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:23.439 and sourced in the region, allowing Inuvialuite households that may 128 00:08:23.480 --> 00:08:26.199 not be able to hunt for themselves a chance to 129 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.160 stay connected to the land and to this chapter in 130 00:08:29.240 --> 00:08:33.600 the Inuvialuit story. For Esigoch, the opportunity to play such 131 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:36.840 a critical role in this new form of food stability 132 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:41.000 and cultural revitalization has been a crash course in learning 133 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:44.519 by doing. In just seven years, he Cockney and their 134 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:48.919 team became the heirs to an indigenous tradition imported from 135 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:51.799 the other side of the Arctic, where the Sami had 136 00:08:51.840 --> 00:08:55.679 long mastered the practice. His responsibility to pass this knowledge 137 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:59.320 on to younger herders was made lest daunting, he said, 138 00:08:59.559 --> 00:09:02.879 by the fact that the region's indigenous hunters already have 139 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.320 most of the skills to do the job, given their 140 00:09:05.320 --> 00:09:08.120 familiarity with the landscape. It's not that heart of a 141 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:10.840 job if you grow up hunting, he said. We try 142 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:13.159 to talk to the younger guys and explain things the 143 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:15.720 best we can, but a lot of it is hands on. 144 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:18.879 You learn by doing it and by watching and observing 145 00:09:18.960 --> 00:09:22.440 the animals. The reindeer teach them too, he said. Often 146 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:24.879 it feels as if they are the ones leading the way. 147 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:28.519 How reindeer got to America. In the eighteen nineties, the 148 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:32.440 idea of raising domesticated reindeer took root in Alaska, leading 149 00:09:32.440 --> 00:09:35.759 to a herd being imported to replace dwindling numbers of 150 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:40.240 free range in Cariboo as a regional food source. Next, 151 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:43.440 where space and time merge, the glow we see from 152 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:46.960 distant galaxies is as old as Earth's ancient rocks. A 153 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:52.120 dazzling project puts the age of starlight in perspective. Periods 154 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:55.320 of time lasting thousands, millions, or even billions of years 155 00:09:55.399 --> 00:09:59.240 might seem unfathomable. So Mark Chan, a photographer and teacher 156 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.799 in Houston, decided to visualize this very mysterious idea of 157 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:06.600 deep time in more relatable terms, the stars over our 158 00:10:06.679 --> 00:10:09.960 heads and the rocks under foot. Since twenty twenty two, 159 00:10:10.039 --> 00:10:13.440 he's been hiking into wild places, including national parks, at 160 00:10:13.519 --> 00:10:17.360 night and deploying a custom made projector to layer Nassau 161 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:22.320 images of star symp systems onto iconic natural formations in 162 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:27.279 split second verse. Each resulting photograph features an earthly setting 163 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:30.600 roughly as old in years as the stars distance from 164 00:10:30.679 --> 00:10:35.600 Earth in light years. This blend of geological and galactic perspectives, 165 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:39.120 capturing how our planet has coexisted with the universe, is 166 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:42.480 now part of an ongoing series he called Pilgrimage of Light. 167 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:45.919 By comparison, we humans have been here for only a 168 00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:51.720 flash by Hicks Wilgan. Twenty million years ago, subterranean pressure 169 00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:57.480 raised the gigantic limestone formations the house to day's Carlsbad caverns, 170 00:10:57.559 --> 00:11:01.639 juxtaposed here with a spiral arm of the Pinwooll galaxy 171 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:08.759 twenty two point three million light years away Scorpius. This 172 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:11.919 star cluster, some twenty eight thousand light years from Earth, 173 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:14.879 appears on trees at the base of Half Dome, an 174 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:19.159 impressive cliff carved by glaciers moving through Yosemite Valley during 175 00:11:19.240 --> 00:11:22.399 multiple ice ages, the last of which was thirty thousand 176 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:27.559 years ago. Constellation Virgo sediments within the dry lake bed 177 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:31.039 that forms Bryce Canyon first appeared thirty million years ago, 178 00:11:31.159 --> 00:11:34.799 about the time when M one four, also known as 179 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:39.039 the Sombrero galaxy emitted the light scene in the Hubble 180 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:46.159 telescope constellation Carina with snow falling Photographer Mark chen cast 181 00:11:46.200 --> 00:11:50.320 an image of star cluster n GC thirty three twenty 182 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:53.559 four beneath the lights of the South Rims Grand Canyon Village. 183 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.360 The cluster's proximity to Earth ninety nine two hundred and 184 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:01.480 sixty light years loosely corus responds to how long Age 185 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:06.679 humans started living in settlements. Next, the warrior women of 186 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:10.960 the Viking Age. For centuries, historical accounts of the Great 187 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:14.799 Norse fighters focused on men and their remarkable feats in battle. 188 00:12:15.559 --> 00:12:18.559 Now new evidence shows that some Viking women excelled as 189 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.039 warriors too, and wielded power far beyond the battlefield. By 190 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:27.000 Heather Krinkle, it was on a sleepy Sunday morning in 191 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:30.679 Stockholm's Central train station when I felt once again a 192 00:12:30.759 --> 00:12:33.480 familiar thrill, the jolt of being hauled out of the 193 00:12:33.480 --> 00:12:37.799 moment and transported to another older world. I was in Scandinavia, 194 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:40.679 researching a story and having a coffee with an Uppsala 195 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:46.960 University archaeologist, Charlotte headin Steyrna Johnson. She had offered to 196 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:49.759 show me Birka the site of an early Viking town 197 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:53.039 on an island west of Stockholm. As we passed the 198 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:56.919 time before our faery departed from a nearby k head 199 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:00.000 in Styrnay Johnson reached into her pack and pulled up 200 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.320 a large copy of an engraving that had appeared in 201 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:07.759 a nineteenth century Sweetest newspaper. Unfolding it carefully, she placed 202 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.279 it on a table and smoothed out the wrinkles. As 203 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:12.320 I gazed down at the paper, I felt the solid 204 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.320 walls of the train station slip away, and the Viking 205 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:18.759 age suddenly reach out to me. The engraving, rendered in 206 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:23.600 almost photographic detail, portrayed a large underground Viking burial chamber 207 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:28.440 containing skeletal remains and an arsenal of Viking weapons. In 208 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:32.799 eighteen seventy seven, Head and steer Na Johnson explained a 209 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:37.879 Swedish archaeologist named how Mehr Stolpa had discovered the grave 210 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:41.639 now known as VJ five eighty one, near a Viking 211 00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:45.759 military garrison in Birka. I stared at the depiction of 212 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:47.919 the grave at the far end of the chamber. On 213 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:51.559 a ledge, Stolpa and his team found not just one, 214 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:55.600 but two horse skeletons lying side by side in the center, 215 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.960 a human skeleton rested on its side, hinged forward at 216 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:01.519 the hips, as if the body had once been seated 217 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:05.679 on something. Two iron stirrups lay near by, as well 218 00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:08.840 as surviving bits of costly clothing and an ancient board 219 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:13.360 gang arranged around the skeleton. Stolpa found in arsenal fragments 220 00:14:13.360 --> 00:14:16.559 of a sheathed sword of broad axe, a battle knife 221 00:14:16.559 --> 00:14:20.000 for hand to hand fighting, two spears, two shields, and 222 00:14:20.120 --> 00:14:23.639 more than two dozen arrows. Notably absent were items of 223 00:14:23.720 --> 00:14:28.679 jewelry that researchers had long associated with Viking women, including brooches. 224 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:32.480 Based on the contents of this spectacular grave, it was 225 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:36.200 Stolpe's conclusion that the occupant was a man, an important 226 00:14:36.200 --> 00:14:41.480 male warrior. This finding was widely accepted by other Scandinavian researchers, 227 00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:47.200 and as news of Stolpe's discovery spread, Sweden's Nielistrude tigning 228 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:52.360 New Illustrated magazine published a remarkable engraving of the Birka 229 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:58.000 warrior's burial, inspired by the archaeologist's technical drawing. So detailed 230 00:14:58.039 --> 00:15:01.120 and compelling was this illustration that it was published and 231 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:04.440 re published for decades in books on the Vikings. The 232 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:08.440 burial was unusually rich in grave goods, even by today's standards, 233 00:15:08.679 --> 00:15:11.639 had in Styrna, Johnson says, and it got a lot 234 00:15:11.720 --> 00:15:15.919 of attention. For nearly one hundred forty years. Stolpa's interpretation 235 00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:20.960 of the burial went unquestioned by archaeologists. Generations of Scandinavian 236 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:25.039 researchers accepted the view that warfare was the exclusive business 237 00:15:25.080 --> 00:15:28.320 of men during the Viking Age, a period that began 238 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.799 around the mid eighth century a d and gradually wound 239 00:15:31.799 --> 00:15:35.919 down in the mid eleventh century. Medieval Scandinavian poets, after all, 240 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:40.360 and vividly evoked the surreal horrors of Viking combat in 241 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:45.240 their nightmarish versus. A sword was slaughter, fire or corpse gleam. 242 00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.840 Spears were blood snakes or the fires of odin the 243 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:52.919 battle itself was weapon, thunder, spear storm, and army reddening. 244 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:58.399 In all, Scandinavia's early poets coined around three hundred, three thousand, 245 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:02.080 five hundred figures of speech to describe warfare and weaponry, 246 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:07.039 a terrifying richness of language clearly agreed scholars. The brutal 247 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:09.840 realm of Viking combat was no place for a Woman, 248 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:15.159 the Birko warriors, male identity stuck Birka, and the entire 249 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:18.679 Viking world were arguably getting even more attention to day. 250 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:22.120 With a host of new excavations across the North and 251 00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:26.279 the advent of advanced investigative techniques such as ancient DNA 252 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:32.000 sequencing and isotopic analysis, archaeologists have been uncovering an increasingly 253 00:16:32.120 --> 00:16:36.399 complex picture of Viking life. Evidence now shows, for example, 254 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:40.840 that the Viking Age began decades earlier than previously suspected, 255 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.440 when heavily armed Viking warriors sailed to what is now 256 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:48.799 Estonia around seven fifty and met violent deaths at the 257 00:16:48.840 --> 00:16:51.799 hands of their enemies. And over the next three centuries, 258 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:56.159 Viking expeditions crossed at least eight seas, journeyed to some 259 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:00.679 three dozen countries, and encountered more than fifty two cultures, 260 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:05.559 from Canada's east coast to the steep mountain passes of Afghanistan. 261 00:17:06.160 --> 00:17:08.640 No other Europeans of the day were so daring, so 262 00:17:08.799 --> 00:17:13.839 driven by curiosity and wanderlust. In Eastern Europe, Viking trading 263 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:18.279 expeditions journeyed along the dangerous rivers of modern day Russia, 264 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:23.319 Belarus and Ukraine, fending off attacks from mounted warriors on 265 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:26.559 the Eurasian steps to reach two of the richest cities 266 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:31.319 in the world at the time Constantinople now Istanbul and Baghdad, 267 00:17:32.079 --> 00:17:35.720 and by at least the early eleventh century, intrepid parties 268 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:39.480 of these Scandinavian ski seafarers landed on the coast of 269 00:17:39.480 --> 00:17:43.599 North America. On the northernmost tip of Newfoundland, researchers have 270 00:17:43.720 --> 00:17:47.400 discovered the remains of a Viking base camp inhabited in 271 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:51.519 ten twenty one, exactly four hundred seventy one years before 272 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:56.640 Christopher Columbus laid eyes on the Americas. Clearly, the Vikings 273 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.880 had a remarkable talent for making history, But for decades 274 00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:03.240 many scholars focused on the men of the North, assuming 275 00:18:03.319 --> 00:18:07.119 they were the only seafarers, pillagers, and traders. But what 276 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:10.799 about the North women? What were they doing during that time? 277 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.720 Archaeologists seldom paid as much attention to them, assuming that 278 00:18:14.799 --> 00:18:18.640 Viking women were primarily homebodies. When you go into a museum, 279 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:22.359 says Marianne Mohen, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo, 280 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:25.000 chances are you will find the women doing one of 281 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:28.559 two things, holding babies or cooking. Was it really that 282 00:18:28.680 --> 00:18:33.000 simple and straightforward. Until recently, there were few clear answers. 283 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:36.319 But as more Scandinavian women gravitated toward the field of 284 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:40.640 archaeology in the late twentieth century, some began examining the 285 00:18:40.680 --> 00:18:44.279 lives of the North women from fresh perspectives. Today, their 286 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:49.119 analyzes of new excavations and old museum collections are revealing 287 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:54.000 many surprises and a larger female presence. Some Viking women 288 00:18:54.079 --> 00:19:01.880 wielded great influence in the North as powerful queens, regents, cirruses, sorceresses, landowners, 289 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:07.359 leaders of sacred cults, alliance builders, traders, and travelers. Beneath 290 00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:10.960 a huge earth and burial mound at Osburg in Norway, 291 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:14.559 for example, researchers in nineteen o three discovered a sleek 292 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:18.920 Viking longship adorned with fine carvings. It is the most 293 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:22.839 lavish Viking grave known to archaeologists. The ship rimmed with 294 00:19:22.920 --> 00:19:26.200 tapestries and other artworks, and contained the remains of two 295 00:19:26.359 --> 00:19:29.440 high status women, one of whom was likely a respected 296 00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:34.240 ritualist and powerful sorceress, judging from her grave goods. In 297 00:19:34.279 --> 00:19:38.519 the Viking world, sorceresses were said to possess many magical powers, 298 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:42.000 from predicting the future and controlling the weather to performing 299 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.279 battle magic dark rituals to turn the tide of war. 300 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:51.000 In Viking warfare, says Neil Price, an archaeologist at Uppsala University, 301 00:19:51.480 --> 00:19:54.519 magic was as important to fighting as sharpening your sword. 302 00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:59.279 Many most of this magic was conducted by women. Other 303 00:19:59.319 --> 00:20:02.440 women were skilled old artisans who played a critical role 304 00:20:02.519 --> 00:20:05.799 in outfitting the famous Viking raiding and war fleets. They 305 00:20:05.839 --> 00:20:08.640 produced a high quality wool cloth for the sales on 306 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:14.079 Viking longships, who was an enormous task. Experimental archaeology conducted 307 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:18.400 at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, for example, 308 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:21.680 as revealed that producing just one sale for a large 309 00:20:21.720 --> 00:20:25.480 warship would have required at least ten thousand, two hundred 310 00:20:25.559 --> 00:20:29.200 sixty nine hours of labor, the equivalent of some three 311 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:32.680 point five years using a standard of eight hour work 312 00:20:32.759 --> 00:20:37.039 days without any weekends off. In addition, women made all 313 00:20:37.079 --> 00:20:40.480 the high quality wooden woolen clothing worn by the crew 314 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:44.119 of such a warship, and Danish textile expert Lee's Vandr 315 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:48.160 Jorgensen has calculated that as much as seventeen point five 316 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:51.240 years of labor by a team of women was needed 317 00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:56.200 to clothe a crew of seventy. Clearly skilled female artisans 318 00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:59.319 were integral to the success of the Viking raids and 319 00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:02.799 other military campaigns abroad, but the involvement of women in 320 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.000 Viking warfare did not end there. Remarkable evidence now suggests 321 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:09.960 that at least a few of the North women were 322 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.960 trained in combat as warriors. The revelations began just over 323 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:18.759 a decade ago in twenty fourteen, when Anna Schelstrom, a 324 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:24.640 biological and medical anthropologist at Stockholm University with a reputation 325 00:21:24.759 --> 00:21:28.200 for thorough research, started examining the remains of the famous 326 00:21:28.240 --> 00:21:31.720 Buca warrior as part of an ongoing study on the 327 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:35.000 health of the Vikings. During her scientific assessment of the 328 00:21:35.079 --> 00:21:40.400 individual in BJ five eighty one, Cheldschum determined that the 329 00:21:40.400 --> 00:21:43.279 warrior would have been roughly five feet seven inches tall, 330 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:47.240 just slightly shorter than the average Viking mail, and probably 331 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:50.319 died between the ages of thirty and forty years. But 332 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:54.119 as the anthropologist began evaluating the sex of the skeleton, 333 00:21:54.519 --> 00:21:59.359 she discovered something intriguing. Several key anatomical indicators didn't fit 334 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:02.240 the profile of a male. The width of the greater 335 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:06.720 sciatic notch on the warrior's pelvis, for example, was considerably 336 00:22:06.759 --> 00:22:10.319 broader than the mean value for males. It resembled that 337 00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:14.319 of female's whereover, the warrior's pelvis possessed a wide groove 338 00:22:14.759 --> 00:22:20.400 known as the preuricular sulcus, usually a female characteristic, and 339 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.599 the warrior's chin was small and pointed, another female traite. Indeed, 340 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:28.640 several features of the skeleton, Schelstrom explained to me later 341 00:22:28.759 --> 00:22:31.799 via e Maale, were feminine. Puzzled, she asked two other 342 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:36.519 anthropologists to evaluate the sects of the skeleton independently. Both 343 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:40.480 came to the same conclusion. The famous warrior, Viking warrior 344 00:22:40.519 --> 00:22:43.599 at Birka, seemed to be a woman. The old Norse 345 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:49.400 sagas contained intriguing stories of warrior women. Danish scholar Saxo 346 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:53.880 Grammaticus included several of these legendary female figures in his 347 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.160 book Gesta Deorum Story of the Danes, completed in the 348 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:03.000 early twelve hundreds. One of the most famous was lud Gerda, 349 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:07.440 who married a Viking warlord. According to Saxo Grammaticus, she 350 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:10.279 was an accomplished warrior who refused to dress as a 351 00:23:10.279 --> 00:23:13.359 man in battle. Indeed, she fought with her hair unbound 352 00:23:13.440 --> 00:23:17.279 and streaming down her back, But most twentieth century archaeologists 353 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:20.759 dismiss such stories out of hand as the inventions of 354 00:23:20.920 --> 00:23:24.440 medieval story tellers. They believed Viking women spent their days 355 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:29.000 as traditional homemakers, preparing food, cooking, making clothes, and caring 356 00:23:29.119 --> 00:23:33.319 for children. Hence Styrna Johnson wasn't so sure. She had 357 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:36.759 conducted extensive research at Birka and knew that the garrison 358 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.200 hall there had once bristled with iron weapons, and that 359 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:44.119 it rested upon offerings of iron spearheads. It was a 360 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:48.799 profoundly martial place, one dedicated to the spear lord himself Odin. 361 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:51.880 The decision to bury an individual so close to the 362 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:55.720 Viking garrison and its sacred ground was in itself a 363 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:59.000 mark of high esteem, one likely awarded to a distinguished 364 00:23:59.079 --> 00:24:02.359 military figure. Could a woman warrior have been buried in 365 00:24:02.400 --> 00:24:06.319 that prestigious grave, as luck would have it headed. Styrna 366 00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:10.960 Johnson and Chelstrom had received generous funding to conduct a 367 00:24:11.039 --> 00:24:15.519 large DNA study of prehistoric human remains in Sweden. The 368 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:19.279 well preserved Buka warrior skeleton was a prime candidate for 369 00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:23.240 the project, so in twenty fifteen, scientists at Stockholm University 370 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:27.319 proceeded to take two tiny samples, one from the individual's 371 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.839 canine tooth, the other from an upper arm bone, and 372 00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:36.000 successfully extracted ancient DNA from both. With this, geneticists generated 373 00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:39.839 genome wide data to identify both the sex and the 374 00:24:39.880 --> 00:24:44.119 ancestry of the fighter on a molecular level. Heaven Styrna 375 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:47.519 Johnson had received the results from these tests not long 376 00:24:47.559 --> 00:24:50.440 before we met at the train station in Stockholm. The 377 00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.720 individual in the famous warrior grave, she told me, had 378 00:24:53.720 --> 00:24:57.960 genetic affinities to the modern inhabitants of southern Sweden. But 379 00:24:58.039 --> 00:25:01.720 the most fascinating result came from the DNA analysis of 380 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:06.000 the warrior's biological sex. The individual in BJ five eighty 381 00:25:06.039 --> 00:25:10.880 one Hedden, Steerna Johnson announced is a woman. This line 382 00:25:10.920 --> 00:25:15.680 of scientific research soon got more complicated, however. In twenty seventeen, 383 00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:19.559 Steerne Johnson and nine of her colleagues published their DNA 384 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:22.359 study on the Burka woman in the American Journal of 385 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:26.480 Physical Anthropology. To their surprise, the eight page report, which 386 00:25:26.559 --> 00:25:33.599 was peppered with phrases like epiphysial union and nucleotide positions, 387 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:37.759 set off a firestorm. While some Viking specialists were impressed 388 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:41.000 by the research, others took strong issue with it. Some 389 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:44.519 critics suggested, for example, that the Birka great may have 390 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:48.759 originally contained both a male warrior and a female companion, 391 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:51.799 and that the skeleton of the male was removed at 392 00:25:51.839 --> 00:25:54.440 some point, but there was no evidence at all to 393 00:25:54.480 --> 00:25:57.319 show that a second body was ever interred in the grave. 394 00:25:58.079 --> 00:26:02.000 Other researchers raised a more theoretical objection. The dead, they noted, 395 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:05.880 did not bury themselves. Mourners, they suggested, could well have 396 00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:09.119 placed a trove of costly weapons belonging to the dead 397 00:26:09.160 --> 00:26:13.200 woman's father or husband in the grave as symbols of 398 00:26:13.279 --> 00:26:17.000 the woman's high status. But other evidence clearly indicated that 399 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:20.839 the weapons were hers. Some old Scandinavian poems, for example, 400 00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:25.119 explicitly described the practice of Mourner's bearying dead warriors with 401 00:26:25.200 --> 00:26:28.759