Tooth protein (rather than sword) determines sex

[jellyfrizz]

Isles of Scilly Iron Age warrior was probably a woman - BBC News

I do hope they do go back and look at other burial sites where they have assumed bodies are male because of the presence of swords.

Just read this in today's Grauniad over my coffee.
I agree, I'm fed up with women being side-lined and ignored.

I love the idea that they may have had to add a big post it note in the museum saying "edit, this is a woman!" Till the proper spiel could be updated!

How long until some idiot says she must have been trans or nonbinary?

I've started the timer

I was just coming here to post this article. Fascinating.

'The body said the discovery of the sword and mirror is considered to be "highly unusual" as swords were normally found with men and mirrors with women in other burials of the same period.'

I've heard some say that there is a presumption that a body is female if there's a mirror buried with it (presumably vice versa for swords). Not sure if the sex has always been checked.

Don't they look at the pelvic girdle ffs? The skeleton differs between men and women, sword or not.

My understanding is that there wasn't one. Just a few bits of bone. Hence the protein analysis.

In this case, that is.

I bet Willoughby will be straight onto that, given the regular trotting out of the burial found to have Klinefelters as some kind of gotcha about Willoughby’s skeleton will always show their male physiology.

What sex would you have said this person was without DNA?

If men of that era have swords and women of that era have mirrors then they are of course going to be confused about what sex they were.

They presumed she was female and then DNA proved it.

Off topic but...

My mum's from the Isles of Scilly, her family go back generations there.

I could be descended from warrior woman!

So even our tooth enamel is distinctively female. Isn’t it interesting? Our sex really is written in every single part of our bodies.

I find myself wondering who she was and what her life was like.

Teeth are So transphobic!