By Megan Snyder<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can be challenging to study the\nancient nomads of Eurasia as many cultures did not leave their own written\nrecords. Instead, it was often outsiders who did not understand the nomadic way of life and had a limited view on the\nculture of nomadic groups that wrote about them. Women\u2019s roles within ancient Eurasian nomadic peoples are particularly\ndifficult to study because we are limited to the very brief accounts of writers\nsuch as Herodotus. Archeological evidence is therefore needed to fill in the holes\nand to bring to light more details of women’s societal and cultural roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Herodotus mentions nomadic women only briefly. These\nmentions are mostly to describe marriage customs or as living with slaves.[1]<\/sup><\/a> The Greek historian did not prioritize women\u2019s roles within\nsocial structures other than being wives or child-bearers. The exception to his\nbrief and limited descriptions are the Sauromatians. Herodotus may have\nincluded information on Sauromatian women because they are very different from\ntheir Greek counterparts. Herodotus describes the Sauromatians as a related or\nsub-culture of the Scythians and as descendants of the Amazon warriors and\nScythian men who ride horseback to go hunting and into battle. He marvels at\nhow the Sauromatian women are not allowed to marry until they have killed a\nmale enemy and that men and women wear the same kinds of clothes.[2]<\/sup><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nidea that the real Sauromatians descended from the\nmythical Amazons seems strange. However, archeological evidence reveals that\nwarrior women did exist on the Eurasian steppes. An episode of the PBS series Secrets\nof the Dead <\/em>discusses the findings of Jeannine Davis-Kimball and Leonid\nYablonsky at digs on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan. The show discusses\ntwo different archeological digs, one at the time of the episode\u2019s filming and a previous dig in 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ngrave, or kurgan<\/em>, Davis-Kimball and Yablonsky are filmed excavating is a\nsingle-person burial of a female buried with earrings, gold beads, a silver\nbowl, an Egyptian alabaster jar, and a mirror. The wealth and significance of\nthese artifacts place the woman as a religious or spiritual leader. The fact\nshe is buried alone shows she may have been an important figure. Her bowed legs\nprove she spent a lot of time riding. The inclusion of arrowheads as burial\nitems and her placement in an \u2018attack pose\u2019 indicating she was also a warrior.[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The\ndig at Pokrovka conducted by Davis-Kimball\nand Yablonsky in 1994 revealed several female burials with weapons, including\nswords. One woman was discovered with an arrowhead lodged in her body. The men\nat the site were buried without artifacts, and one man was buried with a child.\nNone of the female burials at the site had children buried with them. This may\nsuggest a culture where men were the primary child caretakers and women were\nthe warriors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pokrovka burial site dates to 2500 years ago. The\nkurgan discussed earlier in the film is 200 miles away from the Pokrovka site\nand 200 years younger. Herodotus, who lived from 484 BCE to 414 BCE,[4]<\/sup><\/a> approximately 2400 years ago, could feasibly have been\naware of the culture revealed in these sites. It is arguable that these are\nburial sites of the Sauromatians, whose migration is described by Herodotus.[5]<\/sup><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n One\nproblem of the Secrets of the Dead<\/em> episode is that it is designed for a broad general\naudience. It focuses on telling one specific story and does not offer much\nin-depth analysis. The discovery of the earrings are presented as clear\nevidence that the burial\u2019s occupant is a woman before the skull has been\nexamined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides\ndiscussing social structures, Herodotus also writes about cultural traditions,\nnamely religious beliefs. Herodotus\nnarrates the origin stories of the Scythians, including a version told to him\nby Greeks in Pontus. In this version, Heracles, looking for his lost horses,\nmet a half-woman, half-snake. As\ndescribed by the Greek historian, the woman snake monster would not release\nHeracles\u2019s\nhorses until he slept with her. The rest of the origin story deals with the\nthree sons of this snake woman and Heracles.[6]<\/sup><\/a> The scholar Anatoly Khazanov discusses this story’s\nconnections to Scythian religion in-depth, exploring how the Greek and Scythian\nversions of the origin story detailed by Herodotus have similarities. More\nstriking is the descriptions of the artwork with serpent-tailed women made by\nboth Scythian and Greek artists. This artwork could indicate a belief in a\nvariation of this origin myth or could, as Khazanov suggests, be a representation\nof a Scythian goddess.[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Eurasian nomadic women\u2019s place in religious and cultural beliefs is not limited to\nthe Scythians’ origin stories. Khazanov\ndetails Scythian artworks depicting a goddess holding a mirror. Khazanov is not\nsure what goddess is depicted, but her importance within Scythian religion is\nhigh enough to mark a member of the royal family. A signet ring owned by at\nleast two Scythian kings bearing their names depicts a goddess holding a\nmirror.[8]<\/sup><\/a> If mirrors are the symbol of a specific goddess or simply\nof divine power across Scythian cultures, Davis-Kimball and Yablonsky’s\ndiscoveries gain new meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nsignet ring discussed by Khazanov\nwas discovered in modern-day Romanian. The ring belonged to Scyles, a Scythian\nking whose downfall Herodotus details.[9]<\/sup><\/a> The connection between mirrors and women is not clear, but\nthe cultural significance and divine symbol of mirrors in Scythian culture are. The\nfact that Herodotus is able to relate this story and the mirror wielding\nwarrior priestess is dated to approximately 100 years after Herodotus\u2019s\nlifetime suggests that the cultural meaning and significance of mirrors\ncontinued over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are limitations to archeological evidence; it can be\nincomplete, misleading, or misinterpreted. Once removed from an archeological\ndig, artifacts lose almost all context. Many Scythian artifacts are known to\ncome from looted burials.[10]<\/sup><\/a> The signet ring Khazanov discusses was found at a now destroyed\nsite, and the original context is impossible to obtain. It is very possible\nmany important discoveries about the women of the Eurasian steppe have been\nlost to looters, misidentification of female remains as male, or simply have\nnot yet been discovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes\narcheological evidence cannot create a picture of a culture completely. Many archeological sites of Eurasian nomads are burials. Burials can tell us\nabout genetic patterns and demonstrate relationships and patterns but may not\nbe able to definitively determine the social structures of the living\ncommunity. The genetic work of a group of scholars very carefully defines that\nthe only patterns that can be determined are of a patrilineal and patrilocal\nnature. It cannot be determined if the Scytho-Siberians of the Iron Age were a\npatriarchal society only that male relatives were buried together and that\nthere is evidence of women moving to different groups after marriage.[11]<\/sup><\/a> Only conclusions based on the physical evidence can be\naccepted; however, combining archeological evidence with written records, even\nif limited, can create a more accurate picture of a culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In conclusion, the limitations of primary sources can make it difficult to understand the cultures of early Eurasian nomadic peoples, especially women’s social and cultural roles. Written records by outsiders such as Herodotus have limited details on women, often discussing the more extraordinary details, and often have limited knowledge of women in nomadic societies beyond marriage. Archeological evidence such as artworks and burial artifacts indicate the importance of women in religion in Scythian culture. There are restrictions to using only archeological evidence alone. Therefore, careful analysis of written records and archeological evidence can piece together the cultural significance of nomadic women and create a better understanding of Eurasian nomadic peoples’ social structures and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Megan Snyder is a junior majoring in History. This essay was written for Dr. Daniel Prior’s “Eurasian Nomads and History” class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1]<\/sup><\/a>\nHerodotus. The History,<\/em> trans. David Grene (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,\n1987), 4.1 and 4.104.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [2]<\/sup><\/a>\nHerodotus,<\/em> 4.110-4.117.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [3]<\/sup><\/a>\nSecrets of the Dead, <\/em>season 4, episode 6, \u201cAmazon Warrior Women.\u201d\ndirected by Jens Afflerbach and\nCarsten Oblaender, aired August 4, 2004, on PBS,\n6:40-13:26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [4]<\/sup><\/a>\nThomas R Martin, Herodotus and Sima Qian: The First Great Historians of\nGreece and China, <\/em>(Boston and New York: Bedford\/St.Martin\u2019s, 2010.) 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [5]<\/sup><\/a>\nHerodotus. The History<\/em>, 4.115-4.116<\/p>\n\n\n\n [6]<\/sup><\/a>\nHerodotus. The History<\/em>, 4.8-4.10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [7]<\/sup><\/a>\nAnatoly M Khazanov, \u201cNotes on the Scythian Political Culture,\u201d in Central\nEurasia in the Middle Ages: Studies in honor of Peter B. Golden,<\/em> ed. Istv\u00e1n\nZimonyi and Osman Karatay, (Wiesbaden:\nHarrassowitz, 2016.) 173-174. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [8]<\/sup><\/a>\nKhazanov,175-176. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [9]<\/sup><\/a>\nKhazanov, 175-176. Herodotus, The History,<\/em> 4.78-4.80.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [10]<\/sup><\/a> Dr. Daniel Prior, \u201cModule\n6.1\u201d (lecture, Miami University, Oxford, OH, March 2, 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n [11]<\/sup><\/a>\nLaura Mary, Vincent Zv\u00e9nigorosky\net al..<\/em> \u201cGenetic kinship and admixture in Iron Age Scytho-Siberians.\u201d Hum Genet<\/em> 138, <\/strong>(2019): 418-419.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Megan Snyder It can be challenging to study the ancient nomads of Eurasia as many cultures did not leave their own written records. Instead, it was often outsiders who did not understand the nomadic way of life and had … Continue reading
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