Women warriors.

The role of women as warriors within ancient societies has generally been overlooked.  This is due to a number of reasons including the fact that men are normally the main authors of history.  Thus records are predominantly from that single perspective.

Historians of this era managed to overlook the role women played on the warships at the battle of Trafalgar, for example, even though many lost their lives or were seriously wounded.

There is firm archaeological evidence to support the fighting role of Scythian and Sarmatian women within their societies.

In the early part of the 20th century when many of the Scythian kurgans (grave mounds) were excavated, society believed that the role of ancient women was staying at home cooking and bringing up babies.  This mindset resulted in all the remains that were found with weapons being categorized as male.  Luckily, in the 21st century, archaeologists are re-evaluating these finds.  To their surprise many of the heavily weaponed bodies previously categorized as male have since turned out to be female, including the Golden warrior of Issyk.

Over the last few years, archaeologists working on over 44 Kurgans near the town of Pokrovka in Kazakhstan at the Russian border have uncovered the remains of Sarmatian women buried with swords and daggers, along with quivers containing arrows with bronze heads.  Boney changes on the women�s skeletons show that they spent many years in the saddle and most had met violent death in battle.

Some classical female Greek warriors:

Amastris, wife of Dionysius of Heracluria who established her own city state by conquering and uniting 4 settlements.

Artemisia I, ruler of the Greek city-state of Halicarnassus and Cos and advisor to Xerxes the ruler of the Persian empire, who assisted him in his attacks on the Greeks by commanding a force of warships in the naval battle of Salamis around 480 BC.

Telessilla, a 5th century BC warrior poet who rallied the women of the besieged city of Argos with war hymns and chants and led them in defending the city against the invading forces.

Arachidamia, who was one of a number of Spartan princesses who led female troops.  She fought against Pyrrhus during the siege of Lacedemon in the 3rd century BC.

The Princess Chelidonis, who captained women warriors atop the city wall during a siege of Sparta in 280 BC.

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