“The Truth Behind the Myths”: Ancient Amazon Warriors Really Existed

In ancient Greek legends, the Amazons were fearsome and formidable warrior women who lived on the edge of the known world. Hercules had to obtain the magic belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyta in one of his 12 labors, and Achilles killed another queen, Penthesilea, only to fall in love with her when her beautiful face appeared from under her helmet. Scientists believe that the Amazons could very well really exist.

These horse-riding, bow-wielding nomads who fought and hunted just like men have long been shrouded in myth, but archaeologists are discovering more and more evidence that they actually existed.

According to The Observer, excavations of graves in the Bronze Age necropolis of Nakhchivan in Azerbaijan have revealed that women were buried with weapons such as razor-sharp arrowheads, a bronze dagger and mace, and jewelry.

Archaeologists have concluded that these could be Amazon women who lived 4,000 years ago. These formidable women were renowned for their male-free society and their prowess on the battlefield, especially with the bow and arrow.

Historian Bettany Hughes told The Observer: “This shows that there is truth behind the myths and legends of ancient Greece.”

She said the evidence was all the more significant when it was linked to earlier findings. In 2019, the remains of four female warriors were found buried in Russia with arrowheads and spearheads, and in 2017, Armenian archaeologists unearthed the remains of a woman who apparently died from battle injuries because an arrowhead was embedded in her leg. In the early 1990s, the remains of a woman buried with a dagger were found near the border with Kazakhstan.

Hughes says: “Civilization does not consist of one grave. If we are talking about a culture that crosses the Caucasus and the Steppes, as all the ancients talked about, obviously we need other remains.”

Some of the skeletons indicate that women made extensive use of bows and arrows, noted Bettany Hughes: “Their fingers are crooked because they used arrows so often. Changes in the finger joints did not only occur during hunting. This is a long, long practice. What is very interesting is that many bone finds also indicate long periods of time in the saddle. Women’s pelvises are mostly open because they ride horses. Their bones are simply shaped by their lifestyle.”

She noted that the jewelry includes carnelian necklaces: “Carnelian is a semi-precious stone. You often see it when people are high priestesses or goddesses. So it’s a sign of women with status – just like maces.”

In her documentary, Bettany Hughes says of the Amazon discoveries: “Little by little you get this brilliant evidence that comes out of the ground. This often happens with the really best stories.”

She visits the mountain village of Khinalig in the Greater Caucasus, the highest inhabited place in Europe. It’s such a remote place that “it feels like it’s lost in time,” she says, noting that the local language is not spoken anywhere else.

A settlement there has existed since the Bronze Age, and some of its 2,000 inhabitants tell her that in ancient times, their women disguised themselves as men using scarves – stories passed down from generation to generation.

She told them ancient stories about the Amazons: “They said: “All our grandmothers fought. All the men were away with the herds. Women always covered their faces when they fought,” that’s what the ancient sources said, so people didn’t know women them or men.”