The inhabitant of a medieval grave in Finland may have been nonbinary, a new study finds

A nonbinary person may have occupied a grave thought to be 1,000 years old, researchers say. The presence of both jewelry and a pristine sword in the grave signal that the person buried there possessed both masculine and feminine qualities.

A new analysis of the grave's contents has produced a new hypothesis: The person buried there may have been nonbinary. The findings suggest that nonbinary identity -- that is, when a person identifies as neither male nor female -- may have existed in medieval Europe. The elaborate manner of burial suggests that nonbinary people may have occupied a special role in medieval society worthy of respect, researchers wrote in a new study published in the European Journal of Archaeology.