Birka grave Bj. 463, Björkö, SE.
Excavation plan.
(source: Arbman 1943, fig. 74.)
In 1876, a grave (later known as Bj. 463), containing the skeleton of a young female was excavated at Birka, Sweden. The grave was excavated by Hjalmar Stolpe, who identified and excavated roughly 1100 graves at the site over the course of the 19th century.
Interestingly, Bj. 463 was spatially located at one of the most favorable locations in Birka, suggesting that the child buried within Bj. 463 was of significant importance. Through osteological analysis, the child was identified as aged roughly 5-6 years old. While osteological analysis could not explicitly reveal the biological sex of the skeleton, grave goods likely suggest that the child was gendered female.
The skeleton of this girl was contained within a rectangular coffin of dimensions 1.35 x 0.4 m and was surrounded by several objects, including a small knife, a bone needle case, a round gilded copper alloy brooch, and glass beads. Based on the art style of the gilded copper brooch, which contained three Borre-stye animal heads, the burial was dated to the mid-10th century. The inclusion of these grave goods, according to several scholars, indicates that this child was of high status, as children were not normally buried with such an abundance and quality of goods.
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