Kinship and sex distribution in multiple burials in Medieval Sweden
Sexing of young individuals' human skeletal remains is important but challenging in archaeological contexts, especially in the absence of grave goods. To better understand the treatment of children in death and the phenomenon of collective graves in early Christian burial contexts in Sweden, we sequenced 142 individuals, including 50 collective burials, dating between the late Viking Age and Middle Ages. Genomic sexing and kinship analyses suggest that the interment of children alongside adults in collective burials rarely reflected close biological kinship and that extended kinship played an important role in social structures. It appears that boys' and girls' gender roles were shaped early in life, although exceptions may have existed in their treatment.