ALMATY -- Amazons - strong warlike
women (of Iranian stock) - were mentioned by many
ancient historians, including Herodotus, who
traveled through Asia.
The Scythians of Iranian Stock,
were tribes that inhabited the vast areas around
the Caspian Sea and modern Kazakhstan. The most
populous and strongest were the Scythian tribes
that lived in Northern Kazakhstan. Herodotus wrote
about Scythian nomads and Scythian farmers who
lived in the northern Caucasus - it was a
well-developed civilization for that time.
Herodotus also wrote about the
Scythian men who married warlike women from Amazon
tribes. In his opinion, this explains the Scythian
custom according to which a young woman may not
marry until she kills an enemy. The Amazons were
very cruel to tribes they conquered, particularly
to captive men, whom they killed with great
cruelty. According to Herodotus, Amazons cut their
right breast off and then burned the wound with
hot iron in order to prevent them from hunting and
drawing a bow in battle.
However, despite evidence from
Herodotus and other trustworthy historians, many
scholars believe that the tale of the Amazons is
just a beautiful myth. But the recent excavations
conducted by Russian and American archaeologists
have shed new light on this amazing legend. Kazakh
archaeologists assisted greatly the
Russian-American expedition because Kazakh
scholars were greatly interested in finding
evidence to prove that the Kazakhs are direct
descendants from the Scythians, and Salmats, who
later replaced them. After a thorough examination
all finds will be displayed at the Astana
Historical Museum in Kazakhstan.
The excavations were conducted
at an area that can be called the Gate of Peoples.
Here, between the Caspian Sea and the Stone Belt
mountains, many ancient tribes moved from the east
to the west, driven by an unknown force. In the
6th-4th centuries BC an area of the Tobol River in
Western Siberia and the entire range of northern
Kazakhstan was inhabited by Salmats, a warlike
nomadic tribe. In the 3rd century BC they ousted
the Scythians from the area around the Black Sea
and the Caucasus. Here they found a common
language with the Amazons and married them.
The expedition found 40 women's
graves, seven of which contained items not typical
of the gentler sex - armors, weapons, and horse
harness. All these things - bronze arrowheads,
daggers, and swords - were of normal size and
showed signs that they had been used frequently
for military purposes. This rules out the
suggestion that all these articles were just
symbolic and used for only ritual purposes.
The only difference was that the
handles of the swords and daggers found in the
women's graves were shorter than those found in
the men's graves. Probably these weapons were made
especially for women, with their comparatively
small hands. One can also suggest that these were
hunting weapons. However, the Amazons' graves
contained many sheep, horse, and camel skins and
bones but no bones of wild animals. This proves
that these tribes were not hunters but nomadic
cattle-breeders.
Another fact, proving the Amazon
theory is that military tattoos on the remnants of
the skin of both the men and women. According to
many ancient sources, including Herodotus, a
warrior made a special tattoo after killing each
enemy soldier. Such tattoo emblems varied from
totem animals (like the heads of a wolf or bear)
to the skull crossed with bones.
The archaeologists also found 68
bronze articles, including spearheads, axes,
daggers with beautifully decorated handles, and
decorations shaped as armors. But the most
interesting finding was that these articles
originated from four regions - the Caucasus, Volga
basin, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia. So this
ancient treasure testifies to direct contacts
between the Caucasus, Central Asia, and other
Eurasian regions.
Chemical analysis of these finds
revealed a wide diversity of different kinds of
bronze. So, daggers and axes were cast from the
arsenic bronze and some arrow-heads and armors -
from tin-arsenic bronze. These kinds of bronze
originated from different and very distant areas
of the Caucasus, Ural, and Kazakhstan.
On this territory archaeologists
have already found weapons in Scythian women's
graves in the 1950s, but these were just
occasional finds that could not make up the full
picture. Today, after the discovery of such a
large Amazon grave, the international
archaeological community will probably be
convinced that women played a role in ancient
nomadic tribes.
"If we find in a grave
weapons beside a men's skeleton, we are sure that
he was a warrior. So a similar conclusion is
logical when we deal with women's remnants,"
agreed an outstanding American archaeologist,
Philip Cowell. The results of the Russian-American
expedition have been recognized by the Royal
Geographic Society, which was a co-sponsor of the
excavations. It has been also decided to finance
further excavations in this region.
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