Estrid Sigfastsdotter

Estrid's grave, above the street in the center of the picture

Estrid Sigfastsdotter

Estrid Sigfastsdotter (not to be confused with the older Estrid , the wife of Olof Skötkonung ) was an influential woman who lived in Broby bro in the municipality of Täby in Uppland in Sweden between 1020 and 1080 . It is considered to be one of the oldest identifiable skeletal finds in Sweden. Their life can be reconstructed through inscriptions on rune stones. She is one of the first known Christian women in Sweden. Their skeleton may have been preserved, as people mostly cremated their dead before the arrival of Christianity.

Estrid's (Old Norse: Æstriðr, Ástríðr) skeleton is said to be one of the three skeletons that archaeologists found in 1995 on a previously unknown, approximately 1000-year-old burial ground at Broby bro. The archaeologists found the skeletons of an elderly man (possibly Estrid's second husband, Ingvar), an elderly woman and a ten-year-old boy. The discovery was made right next to the place where the burial mound ( cenotaph ) for Estrid's first husband Osten, who died in Greece (rune stone U 136) and the grave of one of her children (rune stone U 137) were found.

• Broby bro rune stones, set by Estrid
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The runestones nearby make it likely that it was a burial ground of the Jarlabanke family , and the woman who named Estrid on six stones, Jarlabanke's grandmother, could have carved several rune stones in the area. In addition to the runic texts, it is known that Estrid stayed behind during a pilgrimage to southern Europe in the Benedictine Abbey of Reichenau Monastery in Lake Constance in southern Germany . She probably lived to be 60 to 75 years old.

literature

• Lars Andersson: Jarlabankes farmor Estrid: Fuck hon sin sista vila vid Broby bro? Popular arkeologi 17.2 (1999), pp. 19-22.
• Maja Hagerman, Claes Gabrielsson (photos): Tusenårsresan. Stockholm: Prisma, 1999. pp. 147–157: Estrid: Tiden är 1000-tal , the Jarlabanke family.