Posted on 12/04/2004 10:57:12 AM PST by freedom44
Dec 4, 2004 — TEHRAN (Reuters) - These days Iranian women are not even allowed to watch men compete on the football field, but 2,000 years ago they could have been carving the boys to pieces on the battlefield.
DNA tests on the 2,000-year-old bones of a sword-wielding Iranian warrior have revealed the broad-framed skeleton belonged to woman, an archaeologist working in the northwestern city of Tabriz said on Saturday.
"Despite earlier comments that the warrior was a man because of the metal sword, DNA tests showed the skeleton inside the tomb belonged to a female warrior," Alireza Hojabri-Nobari told the Hambastegi newspaper.
He added that the tomb, which had all the trappings of a warrior's final resting place, was one of 109 and that DNA tests were being carried out on the other skeletons.
Hambastegi said other ancient tombs believed to belong to women warriors have been unearthed close to the Caspian Sea.
GGG
Well I'll be darned.
Ex-wife's relative ping
They found Eowyn? Say it ain't so ....
BTTT
Could it be Zena's final resting place?
BTTT
Dr McCoy also tell us they're dead, Jim.
Amazons. The word is now connected with the Amazon river, but women warriors appear in Homer, Virgil, and other epics with connections to Asia minor.
No wonder why the men abuse the women in Iran... they are still embarassed that the women warriors or yore kicked their asses... :)
This is significant only if the woman warrior was known to be a woman; there have always been women who 'passed' as men.
It needs to be added that Iranians were Zoroastrians during this period of time. Islam didn't come until 500 years or more after this.
Yes.
Zoarastrianism still exists, too.
it's a very decent religion, and Islam hates it.
Hey, look, the women on Survivor have been beating the men on physical challenges. Beating them real bad....
Actually, in Celtic society female warriors were common. Young unmarried women were sometimes even encouraged to train for war.
If nothing else, trained female fighters increased the defensive potential of home base when the war band was out on a raid somewhere.
I'm crying here I'm LOLing so much...
A woman's grave (circa 300BC) containing a chariot suitable for use in warfare was discovered in Yorkshire in March 2001 (source The Wetwang Chariot Burial)
In 21 AD there was some debate as to whether Roman governors' wives should accompany their husbands to the provinces.
Caecina Serverus argued against it on the grounds that women "paraded among the soldiers" and that "a woman [Plancina] had presided at the exercises of the cohorts and the manoevers of the legions"
(source "Women in Roman Britain" - Lindsay Allason-Jones - British Museum Publications - 0-7141-1392-1)
Tacitus in his Annals writes about Roman emperor Nero staging "a number of gladiatorial shows, equal in magnificence to their predecessors, though more women of rank and senators disgraced themselves in the arena". in 63 AD
Petronius' Satyricon mentions a Roman circus which featured a female chariot fighter competing against men.
(source "Women's Life in Greece and Rome" - M.R.Lefkowitz & M.B.Fant)
The Roman poet Statius wrote a poem about a gladiatorial contest staged by the Emperor Domitian which included, "Moors, women and pygmies". in 88 AD mosaic of woman armed with spear
According to Suetonius, the Emperor Domitian (reigned AD 81-96) made women gladiators fight by torchlight at night. (source British Museum Exhibit)
Women were members of the venatores, (gladiators who fought wild animals in the Roman arena), according to the writings of Martial and Cassius Dio. (source "Women's Life in Greece and Rome" - M.R.Lefkowitz & M.B.Fant)
"the sex untrained in weapons recklessly dares men's fights! You would think a band of Amazons was battling." - Statius AD 92
(source "Women's Life in Greece and Rome" - M.R.Lefkowitz & M.B.Fant)
An excavation by the Museum of London found the remains of a woman who is believed to have been a gladiator in a Roman cemetary South of the Thames.
(source ABC News - 12/9/00
see also Female Gladiators )
The British Museum has a second-century relief carving of two women fighting. Each has a short sword and a shield.
(source - Associated Press 12/9/00)
There is an inscription at Pompeii which refers to women in the Arena.
(source ABC News - 12/9/00) women gladiators
Emperor Alexander Severus (or Septimius Severus) issued an edict prohibiting women combatants in the arena in 200 AD
"At that time a gymnastic contest took place.... Also women competed in this contest" - Dio Cassius, early 3rd Century (source "Women's Life in Greece and Rome" - M.R.Lefkowitz & M.B.Fant)
See also The Gladiatrix in History
Among the ancient Celts women rulers and warriors were so common that when a group of Brigantian captives was brought to Rome in the reign of Claudius they automatically assumed his wife, Agrippina the Younger, was the ruler and ignored the Emperor while making their obeisance to her.
Cartimandua, Queen of the Brigantes was a Client Queen of Rome, that is an ally of the Romans occupying Britain, possibly from 43AD. When her consort Venutius rebelled against her the Romans sent troops to help her keep her throne.
Although Roman law was generally very much against the idea of women as rulers the Romans in Britain obviously took a more pragmatic approach and accepted established British Matriarchies.
Bouddicca (or Bodiecia, Bouddica, Voadica, Voada) was the widow of King Prasutagus of the Iceni (a Client King of Rome). She was regent for her two daughters who inherited half of the kingdom, while the other half was given to Rome. The Romans objected to being given only half of the kingdom and provoked a revolt in 61AD.
According to Tacitus, Suetonius, the general who finally defeated Bouddicca, told his troops that "in their ranks there are more women than fighting men."
Boudicca was eventually defeated and according to the Roman chronicler, Dio Cassius, the Britons gave her "a costly burial".
(see also Description by Tacitus of the Rebellion of Boudicca (AD 60-61))
The mythical Queen Scathach of Skye trained the hero CúChulainn.
Aoife (Aife of Alba or Aifa), the mother of CúChulainn's son was also a warrior
CúChulainn's adversary was Queen Medb (Maeve) of Cruachan. Medb's sisters were also warriors.
(sources: Táin Bó Cualgne, the "Cattle Raid of Cooley", and "Death of Aoife's only son" - information given by Katrin)
Diodorus Siculus wrote "Among the Gauls the women are nearly as tall as the men, whom they rival in courage."
(source Queen Boudicca And The Events Leading To The Iceni Rebellion of 60 A.D)
The Roman historian Plutarch described a battle in 102 B.C. between Romans and Celts: "the fight had been no less fierce with the women than with the men themselves... the women charged with swords and axes and fell upon their opponents uttering a hideous outcry."
(source Queen Boudicca And The Events Leading To The Iceni Rebellion of 60 A.D)
A Roman author, Ammianus Marcellinus, describes Gaullish wives as being even stronger than their husbands and fighting with their fists and kicks at the same time "like missiles from a catapult".
A Triumph (display of captured enemies and plunder) held by the Emperor Aurelian in the 3rd Century included a group of Gothic women who had been found fighting while dressed in men's clothing,
Queen Septima Zenobia of Palmyra governed Syria from about 250 to 275 AD. She led her armies against the Roman armies of Emperors Claudius and Aurelian.
(info given by Linda falconfyre@earthlink.net)
Mavia, was Queen of the Bedouin Saracens from 370 to 380 AD. She led her troops in defeating a Roman army then made a favorable peace and married her daughter to the Roman commander in chief of the eastern Emperor Valens.
(info given by Linda falconfyre@earthlink.net)
"The daughter of Gregory (the Roman praefect), a maid of incomparable beauty and spirit, is said to have fought by his side: from her earliest youth she was trained to mount on horseback, to draw the bow, and to wield the cimeter; and the richness of her arms and apparel were conspicuous in the foremost ranks of the battle" in Tripoli in 647 A.D
(info given by Moogie moogie@nondescript.net Source "The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbon)
Was it just the ugly ones?
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