Women’s History Month: Scythia and Sarmatia
A fascinating blend of mythology and archaeological evidence, today we explore the legendary warrior women of ancient Scythia and Sarmatia, renowned for their equestrian prowess and fearsome reputations.
Plate depicting a Scythian woman archer, attributed to Epiktetos. c. 520-500 BCE, The British Museum, London; with Departure of the Amazons, Claude Déruet, c. 1620s, MET Museum, New York.
Scythia
The Scythians ruled over an astonishing 1.5 million square miles of territory, encompassing large parts of Central Asia and Eastern Europe between the 7th and 3rd centuries BCE.
Map of the Scythian core region and territories of their possible influences in 7 th –3 rd century BCE. ResearchGate
Scythian women were tough and, quite literally, the stuff of legends.
First written about by Herodotus, a Greek writer in the 5th century BCE, Scythian women were thought to be daughters of Ares, the god of war, and were portrayed as having fought against the heroes of Greek mythology such as Hercules, Theseus, and Bellerophon. He referred to them as “Amazons,” a term that directly influenced the creation of modern-day superheroes like Wonder Woman.
Archaeological evidence tells us Scythian women were queens as well as warriors. As Adrienne Mayor, author of The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World, explained t0 National Geographics in 2014, about one-third of Scythian women were buried with horses and weapons, particularly the Scythian bow.
In 1993, in the easternmost reaches of the Scythian territory in the Altai mountains, excavators found a remarkable burial site of a wealthy Scythian woman surrounded by six horses wearing elaborate tack.
By Sue Fleckney – https://www.flickr.com/photos/96594331@N03/44330759065/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=130433771
In 2019, another gravesite revealed three generations of warrior women. The youngest individual in the grave was 12 or 13 years old, two were in their twenties, and the last was between 45 and 50 years old. They were found with intricate daggers, arrowheads, and spears, “buried in the position of a horseman.”
Sarmatia
It is believed that the Sarmatians originated from an eastern branch of the Scythians, eventually evolving into a distinct people with their own unique culture and language. They migrated westward in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, ultimately dominating or intermarrying with the Scythians by 200 BCE
They were an egalitarian society, much like the Scythians, with both women and men fighting alongside each other — possibly even more so. The name ‘Sarmatians’ can be derived from the Indo-Aryan ‘sar’ which mean ‘rich in women’ or ‘ruled by women,” according to CULTURE.PL.
The Sarmatians, like the Scythians, embraced equestrian nomadism, but with distinct differences. While the Scythians were renowned for their speed and agility, wielding bows with precision, the Sarmatians favored heavy, scaled armor and relied on lances for combat. Some historians even credit the Sarmatians with the invention of stirrups, which provided the stability needed to effectively wield their heavy lances while riding.
By Conrad Cichorius (1863–1932) – This file has been extracted from another file, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=142153860
Fifty ancient burial mounds near the town of Pokrovka, Russia, near the Kazakhstan border, have yielded skeletons of Sarmatian women buried with weapons. Many contained iron swords or daggers, bronze arrowheads, and whetstones to sharpen the weapons. The bowed leg bones of one 13- or 14-year-old girl attest a life on horseback, and a bent arrowhead found in the body cavity of another woman suggested that she had been killed in battle.
A site known as Sokolova Mogila revealed another tomb containing a sword, knives, 100 iron arrowheads, and a horse’s harness. An analysis of the woman’s teeth revealed she lived to an old age and apparently survived many battles. She was also wearing pants.
Go riding.
Amanda Uechi Ronan is an equestrian, writer, and wannabe race car driver. Follow her on Instagram @amanda_uechi_ronan.
