Posted on 12/13/2015 6:38:09 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
New DNA findings alter the sex of one of most famous recent Siberian archeological finds of human remains.
Archeologists and anthropologists believed she was not only female - and a pig-tailed teenager - but a member of an elite corps of warriors within the Pazyryk culture. Picture: Marcel Nyffenegger, Natalia Polosmak
A Swiss taxidermy expert brought 'her' to life, recreating the 'virgin' warrior's looks from facial bones, and some observers commented on her distinctly masculine appearance.
Yet archeologists and anthropologists believed she was not only female - and a pig-tailed teenager - but a member of an elite corps of warriors within the Pazyryk culture which suggested likenesses to the fabled Amazon warriors of known to the Greeks.
Entombed next to a much older man - perhaps father and daughter? - the remains lay beside shields, battle axes, bows and arrowheads, while the warrior's physique indicated a skilled horse rider and archer.
Some observers commented on her distinctly masculine appearance. Pictures: Marcel Nyffenegger, Natalia Polosmak and Elena Shumakova for Science First Hand
Cowrie shells, amulets for female fertility but exceptionally rare in Pazyryk burials, were a tell-tale sign that this was a young woman, but so were various adornments to the grave - for example, the 'coffin', the wooden pillow, the quiver, all smaller in comparison to usual male burials. In a singular honour, nine horses - four of them bridled - were buried with the skeleton, an escort to the afterlife.
But a major revamping is now underway. New DNA analysis indicates unequivocally that the remains were male and not female.
The pioneering research was conducted by the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Novosibirsk State University.
Entombed next to a much older man - perhaps father and daughter? - the remains lay beside shields, battle axes, bows and arrowheads, while the warrior's physique indicated a skilled horse rider and archer. Pictures: Natalia Polosmak
This obtained 'reliable molecular genetic data' indicating that the supposed female warrior 'was male', according to a report released by Science First Hand co-authored by Dr Alexander Pilipenko, of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, and Dr Natalia Polosmak, of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in Novosibirsk.
The research also found that the relationship between the two people buried in the tomb at the Ak-Alakha 1 Mound 1 was not father and son but perhaps uncle and nephew. The cause of death of the pig-tailed ancient youth was not established.
Swiss expert Marcel Nyffenegger was asked to recreate a likeness of the supposed female warrior for the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, Germany. Pictures: Marcel Nyffenegger
The discovery of the remains was described in a 1994 book by Dr Polosmak as 'unique' because of the way the female skeleton was dressed in male clothing and buried with weapons.
Swiss expert Marcel Nyffenegger was asked to recreate a likeness of the supposed female warrior for the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in Speyer, Germany.
Working with a 3D model of the skull, he spent a month painstakingly piecing together her facial muscles and tissue layers as well as reconstructing her skin structure, eyes and expression.
The resulting Plasticine model was then covered with silicone and a rubber-resin mixture before finer details such as eyebrows and eyelashes were added.
Please see our previous article about this remarkable burial.
Hilarious movie.
L
“How can they accurately recreate the nose, lips, ears, hairline, etc.”
_____________
This is not to disagree with your point, but to add a thought. The re-creator, given a predetermined task to create a young woman warrior, actually came up with a face of a man, eh? Maybe the recreation science is better than we might have guessed.
A closer read of the original article linked through the posted article reveal the skelton was not intact. So my suspicion that the doctor had previously been employed by a Soviet Women’s sport team proves unfounded.
Otherwise, a quick pelvic visual would have provided solid evidence as to sex.
That said, the recreation looks like half the Human Resource personnel I’ve, male or female. ( or so presumed )
LOL!
Was it a Red Skelton?
L
If it makes him happy...
LOL!
no, some other skell.
“This is not to disagree with your point, but to add a thought. The re-creator, given a predetermined task to create a young woman warrior, actually came up with a face of a man, eh? Maybe the recreation science is better than we might have guessed.”
On the other hand, it might heavily suggest that a lot of what passes for science in archeology is nothing more than wish-it-were-ism and personal fetish fulfillment by the practitioners just as we see in the current public version of climate science.
Seems to me we’re reborning the age of phrenology and the “science supported” ideologies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Do NOT force me to post a picture of Rosie O’Donnell in leather S&M gear.
Frost: Hey, I sure wouldn’t mind getting some more of that Arcturian poontang! Remember that time?
Spunkmeyer: Yeah, Frost, but the one that you had was a male!
Frost: It doesn’t matter when it’s Arcturian, baby!
Perhaps you are right. At least archaeology isn’t trying to impose punitive regulations like the alarmists. I was kinda impressed by the androgynous outcome in the reconstruction.
No one has made the obvious suggestion. Since this was the same period of the golden age of Greece, when older men had young proteges for companionship and sexual needs, including when going off to war, it is reasonable to conclude that this was the young lover of the older man. Now off to read SC’s link about the the executed female warrior.
I believe it is more likely that the young male lover/war companion, protege of an older warrior was buried with his mentor. This relationship was common among the Greeks of that era. It was particularly strong among the Spartans. See the section on Life in Ancient Sparta and Role of Women where the unusual aspects of sexual and marriage customs are quite different from other Greek cities and seem to me to resemble some of what has been suggested about the steppe cultures of that period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta
Other aspects that hint of possible connection to the steppe cultures of that age is the fact that Spartan girls were feed as well as the men, and permitted/encourage to engage in sports and physical activity. Also they were not forced into early marriage and childbearing as bearing healthy children was a major concern. There were a number of unusually rational aspects to the sexual habits and liaisons of Spartans.
Sparta's founding royal houses made a, uh, unlikely claim of being descended from Hercules, but regardless of the veracity of that, the Mycenaean Sparta of the Homeric cycle was destroyed by invaders (the excavation of the royal palace of that era has been going on for a few years now); other Mycenaean-era cities, as well as the giant levee at Gla, met a similar end. Interesting take on that, since the likely destroyers (under the revised chronology, rather than the conventional pseudochronology) would be the Scythians, or less possibly one of the other parties who destroyed Nineveh.
“(under the revised chronology, rather than the conventional pseudochronology)”
Does that mean everything I learned in school is wrong?
Since the Homeric period was at least 500 years before the Athens/Sparta competition, then perhaps those Spartans did indeed have Scythian or related influences.
Does Celtic art have links with Asia?
Posted on October 15, 2015
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/10/2015/does-celtic-art-have-links-with-asia
It wasn’t, the conventional pseudochronology has it wrong.
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