The Suontaka burial is an example of the flexibility of gender roles in early Middle Age Finland (16.7.2021)

In 1968 at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Finland, a bronze-handle sword was found buried next to a deceased dressed in feminine clothes. There have been many theories about this discovery. It was thought to be a shared grave for a woman and a man, or alternatively, proof of female warriors in Iron Age Finland.

The DNA in the femur of the supposed warrior was very poorly preserved. However, in a new study it was possible to conduct an aDNA analysis on the sample using a novel computational analysis. In this analysis the quantity of the sex chromosomes was estimated by comparing the X and Y proportions in the DNA data of the Suontaka individual to the proportions in samples that were successfully analyzed in the past. Additionally, the reference samples were manipulated to appear as poorly preserved as the Suontaka sample, so they could be compared more accurately. In a female sample, the quantity of Y-DNA should be near zero and the quantity of X-DNA should be twice as high compared to a male sample. In the comparison analysis it was discovered that the most likely sex chromosome combination of the Suontaka individual was XXY, so they would have had the rare Klinefelter syndrome.

Klinefelter syndrome has been observed in ancient individuals before, but this is the first time it has been seen in an anomalous burial context. An XXY-individual is anatomically male, but the syndrome may cause abnormal qualities such as gynecomastia and lack of usual changes in puberty.

The Suontaka individual is an example of one’s social identity differs from the gender binary. This discovery shows that it was possible for these individuals to have been accepted in their communities. The respect may have stemmed from the physical qualities of the individual or alternatively the Suontaka individual may have belonged to a powerful family and thus their secure status allowed them to express their non-binary gender freely.

The Suontaka burial was studied as a part of the PhD thesis of Ulla Moilanen. The peer-reviewed results of the multidisciplinary study were published in the European Journal of Archaeology. A longer blog post on the Suontaka individual written by Ulla Moilanen can be found in Finnish at Kalmistopiiri.