5./4. c BC

The most facts we know about the nomads who lived in the Eurasian Steppes at the middle of the 1st Millennium BC come from finds in barrows (mostly burial mounds, the so called “Kurgans”). Additional descriptions come from ancient, often greek, authors. They refer about the „Amazons“, a myth that’s still known nowadays. So, martial women, who were wearing men’s cloths and were skillful riders and warriors, should have lived at the coast of the pontus euxeinos (Black Sea).

By grave findings one knows today, that this myth depends presumably on true facts. Weapons as burial objects and combat injuries of women’s skeletons give evidence that in early nomadic societies women were involved in combats and did active fighting. A greek author of the 4th c BC passed on the name of such a woman: Tirgatao. She was a sarmatian queen who ruled state affairs and went to war.

The depicted presentation dates at the late 5th and beginning 4th c BC. This „Amazon“ wears diffrent weapons which were widespread at this time and were found in women’s graves: a bow, the main weapon of mounted nomads, which is stored together with arrows in a goryt, a combination of bow- and arrow- bag. Besides that a female warrior of that time wore a close-combat-weapon like a short sword or a axe. The defense-arms like other equipments identify her as member of the early Sarmatians in the southern Urals.

Garment and material culture of the ancient nomads were similiar in the whole area of the Eurasien Steppebelt irrespective of tribes and ethnos. But todays science tries to categories the ancient nomads in different tribes (e.g. Scythians, Sauromats, Sarmatians) by single attributes. In spite of careful investigations this must be considered when looking at the whole presentation.

Here’s the way to the equipment-details.