--- In cybalist@..., x99lynx@... wrote:
>
> This is not much of a "counter-argument." The Ice Man Oetzi
> now appears to have died of an arrow wound. That doesn't make
> him a warrior. These days, when a female body is found with
> bullets in her, the police don't conclude she was killed in
> battle. Riding horses does not make a woman a warrior either.
> I'm not saying that Sarmatian women didn't fight or hunt. But
> this isn't proof. It's just some evidence. And the Herodotus
> misquote just adds to feeling that some of these reports are
> "overenthusiastic."
But the occupants of a number of female burials with
weapons showed evidence of battle-related injuries.
In "The World of the Scythians" Renate Rolle descibes a
female burial containing weapons and armor and comments
"This grave reinforced for archaeologists the vital
importance of detailed anthropological classification.
In the past, graves containing weapons, and especially
armour, had with few exceptions been assumed to be those
of men.
One might perhaps at first presume that these weapons
were placed in women's graves for some ritual reason
unknown to us without having been used by these women
for hunting or in battle. But clear evidence of wounds
severe head injuries from blows and stabs, and a bent
bronze arrowhead still embedded in the knee contradicts
this idea."
So while I understand and agree with your caution, it
seems to me that the archaeological evidence along with
Herodotus' reports that Sauromatian women were not allowed
to marry until they had killed a man in battle, makes a
convincing argument.
David