June 18, 2001

Ancient Warrior Women


Ancient Warrior Women

Back in the ancient times, in a part of the world that is now part of Russia, there is believed to have lived a powerful race of women warriors. Popularly known as Amazons, these women have long been a part of Greek mythology. Xena, the popular television show, is a representation of these mythological women; this is not to say that the show is necessarily historically accurate.

The region along the east coast of the Black Sea (Pontus Euxidus), near the Sea of Azov and south of the Causasus, was known to the ancients as Colchis. This is the place where the mythological Jason and the Argonauts conquered the Golden Fleece. It is, also, the alleged birthplace of Medea, warrior and daughter of the king, Aeetes. Medea became Jason's wife. The Greek historian, Herodotus, believed that the region of Colchis had been inhabited by Egyptians in roughly the 19th century BC. Many of the people of Colchis were, thus, descendants of these Egyptians. While history does not support this notion, the fact remains that many African communities did exist in this region.

Dr. Jeannine Davis-Kimball, Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads, in Berkeley, California, is certain that the warrior women, or Amazons, did exist. In 1995, she led excavations which unearthed fifty kurgans (burial mounds) near Pokrovka, Russia; in the Eurasian Steppe, near the border of Kazakstan. The dig exposed the remains of women who had been buried with weapons and other artifacts and dated to ca. 600 BC. Furthermore, the skeleton of a teenaged female featured dramatic bowed legs bones which indicated that this individual had spend a good bit of time, and from an early age, astride a horse. There was evidence that this young woman had been killed by an arrow to the chest. It is believed that these skeletons belong to the Scythians.

No one really knows the origin of the, so called, Amazons. Legend has it that a group of them escaped from their Greek captors aboard a ship in the Black Sea. They came ashore by the Sea of Azov, warred with and eventually mated with the local Scythians from Colchis (south of the Caucasus). Their children are known as Sauromations; the earliest ancestors of the Sarmatian tribes. Their history is dramatic and involves most of the major events of ancient Greek mythology. The region of Scythia spanned along the forest steppes, bordered by the Carpathian Mountains and the Don River. It was believed that the Scythians died out in the early 300's BC. New evidence suggests that then evolved from a warring tribe to an agricultural one.

Herodotus claimed that the Sarmatian women carried forth the ancient Amazon traditions: hunting and fighting on horseback along side their men and dressing like the men. In fact, legend states that a Sarmatian girl could not marry until she had her first kill in battle. Excavations have revealed that these women were buried with the implements of war. A wealth of artifacts, from the Middle Sarmatian period (ca. 100 BC to AD 150) have been found in the burial sites at Kobyakovo, Kosika, Rostov-on-Don and Krasnogorovka.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
Woe From Wit (bilingual)

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
How Russia Got That Way

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955