**BS- Amazons anyone??? (i'll take two<g>)
Copyright 1997 by Reuters / Wed, 5 Feb 1997 18:31:54 PST
LONDON (Reuter) - Amazons, the mythical female warriors first described by the ancient
Greeks, may have actually once existed in Russia, New Scientist magazine reported Thursday.
Jeannine Davis-Kimball of the Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads in Berkeley, Calif.,
told New Scientist that 2,000-year-old burial mounds excavated on the Russian steppes
indicated that some of the women buried in them were fighters.
The grave mounds, left by nomadic tribes who roamed the steppes of central Asia from about
600 to 200 BC, are full of bronze arrowheads, daggers and swords.
Many have small handles, indicating they were used by the women whose remains were also in
the graves.
``They were probably made specifically for these women,'' Davis-Kimball told the magazine,
saying she doubted the weapons were used for hunting.
Other archeological evidence indicated the Sauromatian and Sarmatian nomadic tribes herded
animals and did not hunt much.
The mounds, found near the Russian town of Pokrovka, fit the Greek legend neatly,
Davis-Kimball said.
The historian Herodotus said he saw a tribe of fierce female warriors in his travels north of the
Black Sea around 450 BC.
Philip Kohl, an archeologist specializing in central Asian cultures at Wellesley College in
Massachusetts, agreed.
When weapons turned up in men's graves it was assumed the men were warriors. He said the
Russian find should be interpreted in the same light.
``It does mean that women were fighting back then,'' he said. ``I guess we've come full circle
now, with women in our armed services.'' |
