Tests of the bones of two Viking
women found in a buried longboat have dispelled
100-year-old suspicions that one was a maid sacrificed
to accompany her queen into the afterlife, experts
said on Friday.

The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the
younger woman had been healing for several weeks --
meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution
as suspected since the 22-metre (72 ft) long Oseberg
ship was found in 1904.

"We have no reason to think violence was the cause of
death," Per Holck, professor of anatomy at Oslo
University, told Reuters after studying the two women
who died in 834 aged about 80 and 50.