AMAZON
WOMEN WARRIORS PART - 2
![](amazons.jpg)
A
ceremonial headdress known as a calathus on the skull of a Scythian
woman. (www.archaeolog.ru)
For
a long time, modern scholars believed that the Amazons were little
more than a figment of ancient imaginations.
These
were the fierce warrior women of Ancient Greek lore who supposedly
sparred with Hercules, lived in lesbian matriarchies and hacked
off their breasts so they could better fire their arrows. Homer
immortalized them in “The Iliad.” Eons later, they played
a central role in the Wonder Woman comics.
Some
historians argued that they were probably a propaganda tool created
to keep Athenian women in line. Another theory suggested that they
may have been beardless men mistaken for women by the Greeks.
But
a growing body of archaeological evidence shows that legends about
the horseback-riding, bow-wielding female fighters were almost certainly
rooted in reality. Myths about the Amazons’ homosexuality
and self-mutilation are still dubious at best, but new research
appears to confirm that there really were groups of nomadic women
who trained, hunted and battled alongside their male counterparts
on the Eurasian steppe.
In
a landmark discovery revealed this month, archaeologists unearthed
the remains of four female warriors buried with a cache of arrowheads,
spears and horseback-riding equipment in a tomb in western Russia
— right where Ancient Greek stories placed the Amazons.
The
team from the Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of
Sciences identified the women as Scythian nomads who were interred
at a burial site some 2,500 years ago near the present-day community
of Devitsa. The women ranged in age from early teens to late 40s,
according to the archaeologists. And the eldest of the women was
found wearing a golden ceremonial headdress, a calathus, engraved
with floral ornaments — an indication of stature.
The
discovery presents some of the most detailed evidence to date that
female warriors weren’t just the stuff of ancient fiction,
according to Adrienne Mayor, author of “The Amazons: Lives
and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World.”
“For
a while, people have assumed that myths about the Amazons that the
Greeks told were just fantasy,” said Mayor, who was not involved
in the excavation. “Now we have proof that those women did
exist and that the lives of those women warriors really did influence
the Ancient Greek ideas and visions of what they said about the
Amazons.”
Earlier
excavations have turned up similar evidence, though not always so
well preserved. In 2017, Armenian researchers discovered the remains
of a woman in her 20s who they said resembled Amazon myths. They
found that she died from battle injuries. Their report in the International
Journal of Osteoarchaeology noted that she had an arrowhead buried
in her leg and that her bone and muscle structure indicated she
rode horses.
The
new discovery in Russia marked the first time multiple generations
of Scythian women were found buried together, according to the researchers.
The youngest of the bodies may have belonged to a girl roughly 12
or 13 years old. Two others were women in their 20s, according to
the researchers, and the fourth was between 45 and 50.
Mayor
said the findings suggested that young girls were trained early
on, just like boys, to ride horses and use bows and arrows.
“This
was an egalitarian society,” Mayor told The Washington Post
on Tuesday. “The fact that you have a range of ages is important
because people previously thought that mothers wouldn’t be
out fighting because they had children.”
“In
these small tribes on the harsh steppes, it makes sense that every
single person has to have the same skills and competence to defend
the tribe as necessary,” she added. “It confirms that
these women really were warriors throughout their lives.”
The
discovery also represents the first time such a remarkably well-preserved
headdress was found on a warrior woman’s head. According to
the researchers, the headdress was 65 to 70 percent gold —
a far higher portion than is often found in Scythian jewelry, which
is typically about 30 percent.
Valerii
Guliaev, who led the expedition, called it a “unique find”
and said it underscored how women and men received equal treatment
in Scythian society.
“The
Amazons are common Scythian phenomenon,” Guliaev said in a
statement. “All burial rites which were usually made for men
were done for them.”
Mayor
said she expects future research to bolster the case for the existence
of female warriors. Before the development of DNA testing and bioarcheology,
researchers often assumed that any excavated tomb or grave that
contained weapons and human remains belonged to a man. But new analysis
has already showed that about one-third of armed Scythian skeletons
unearthed in such digs were women, she said.
“Just
because there are weapons doesn’t mean it was a male burial,”
she said. “That assumption has gone out the window.”
Source
:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/
science/2019/12/31/amazons-were-
long-considered-myth-these-discoveries
-show-warrior-women-were-real/