A critical assessment of the evidence for selective female infanticide as a cause of the Viking Age
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36399/GroundingsUG.11.183Keywords:
Viking, Female Infanticide, Selective, NorwayAbstract
There currently exists in the study of Viking archaeology a strong support for the theory, popularised by Barrett (2015), that selective female infanticide in the Late Scandinavian Iron Age to Early Viking Age resulted in the sudden expansion of Scandinavian influence, through raiding, invading, and trading, across Europe that categorises the Viking age. This paper aims to critique the evidence for selective female infanticide as a cause of the Viking age and suggests that it may have been only a partial factor in causing the Viking Age. This paper will review the current literature on the subject and consider the evidence currently available, Archaeological and literary, in order to critique this currently dominant theory.
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