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The Amazons, the warrior women of Greek legends may have really existed

2024-03-31 16:52:06Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
The Amazons, the warrior women of Greek legends may have really existed
Amazonian Queen, Penthesilea – Artistic Photo

By Dalya Albergep*

In Greek legends, the Amazons were very strong and fearsome warrior women who lived at the edges of the known world at the time. So legend has it that Hercules had to take the magic girdle of the Amazonian queen, Hippolyte, in one of his 12 feats.

Achilles, meanwhile, killed another Amazonian queen, Penthesilea, only to fall in love with her when removing his helmet revealed her very beautiful face. These nomadic horsewomen, equipped with bows, who fought and hunted wild animals just like men, have long been shrouded in myth.

But archaeologists are discovering more and more evidence that they really did exist. One example is the excavation of tombs within a Bronze Age necropolis at Nakhchivan in present-day Azerbaijan.

They have discovered that the women were buried together with weapons such as razor-sharp arrowheads, a bronze dagger, a mace, as well as various ornaments. Archaeologists have concluded that they may have been warrior women who lived about 4,000 years ago.

The Amazons, the warrior women of Greek legends may have really existed
Historian Bettany Hughes

These fearsome women were famous for their company without the presence of men, but also for their skills on the battlefield, especially with the bow and lance. Historian Bettany Hughes tells The Guardian Observer: "This shows that there is a lot of truth behind the myths and legends of ancient Greece."

She said this evidence was even more important when linked to previous archaeological findings. In 2019, the remains of 4 female warriors were found buried together with arrowheads and spears in Russia.

Meanwhile, in 2017, Armenian archaeologists discovered the remains of a woman who appeared to have died from battle wounds, as an arrowhead was found near her leg. In the early 1990s, the remains of a buried woman were found near the border with Kazakhstan.

Hughes points out that a civilization does not consist of a single tomb.

"If we are talking about a culture that crossed the Caucasus and the Great Steppe, as all the ancients called it, we will obviously need to find and examine other remains."

Some of the skeletons reveal that women used bows and arrows extensively, archeology notes.

“Their fingers are crooked, as they use many arrows. However, the changes in the knuckles would not have been caused by hunting alone. This has been a consistent and very frequent practice. It is very exciting that much of the bone evidence is also showing clear signs of continuous time spent on horseback. The women's pelvis is open as they have repeatedly saddled the horses. Their bones are only formed by their lifestyle," Hughes points out.

She noted that ornaments include carnelian necklaces: “Carnelian is a semi-precious stone. It used to be often seen on people of high status, such as priestesses or goddesses. So they were a sign of women with status, like sceptres".

The findings of the latest excavations will be revealed in a new series of documentaries that will be broadcast on British television "Channel 4" in April entitled "Treasures of the World" by author Bettany Hughes.

 

The Amazons, the warrior women of Greek legends may have really existed
Penthesilea, an Amazon queen, and Achilles fight to the death

One of the episodes of this series, "Silk Roads and the Caucasus", will focus on a part of the world that witnessed the ebb and flow of cultures and civilizations for centuries, and where trade routes joined the continents of Asia and Europe.

In the documentary, she says, among other things, about the findings on the Amazon: "Slowly we are discovering and collecting amazing evidence that is coming out of the excavations. This is often the way to prove these claims, and they are really the best artifacts."

Hughes visited the mountain village of Khinalig in the Greater Caucasus, the most inhabited country in Europe. It's so far away that "it feels like it's lost in time," she says, noting that her local language is not spoken anywhere else. There has been a settlement there since the Bronze Age.

Meanwhile, some of its 2,000 residents told her that in ancient times, their women disguised themselves as men by wearing a headscarf. Such stories are passed down from generation to generation. Based on this evidence, she reconstructed many ancient stories.

"They told me: That all our grandmothers once fought. The men were all away from their homes tending the herds of cattle. Women always covered their faces to fight. And this is exactly what the ancient sources said, so people did not know whether the warriors were women or men", concludes the researcher.

* The Guardian

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