Diodorus Siculus wrote in the 1st century about a race of “fearful warrior women” who once lived “in the western parts of Libya, on the edge of the inhabited world”. It was a society, he wrote, different from any known society until then. The Amazons are even today one of the most famous and enduring Greek myths.

In the Ninth Labor of Hercules, the demigod’s battle with the Amazons is described, to obtain the belt of their queen. There are many philological references to this particular myth, already from the 6th – 5th century. e.g. (Ibykos, Epimarchos, Euripides) until the 4th c. A.D. (Kointos Smyrnaeos in Meth’ Homer Logos).

Ares, god of war, gave the belt to his daughter as a symbol of “the primacy of the apas”, that is, as a symbol of her sovereignty and reign over all existence. In this way the belt is a symbol of power, and if we want to take it further, a symbol of female power.

The term Amazon comes from “a” steretic and “mazos” from the myth that the Amazons cut off their right breast so that it would not prevent them from using weapons. According to the dictionary of Dimitrakos, Amazon is the skilled horsewoman. The original origin of the term Amazon is uncertain and cannot be ascertained through the philological sources. The notion that Amazon means a woman without a breast was invented by the Greek historian Hellanicus, in the 5th century BC.

So these warrior women who rode and held bows, who fought and hunted like humans, have long been shrouded in myth, but archaeologists are discovering more and more evidence that they actually existed.

Excavations of graves inside a Bronze Age necropolis in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, revealed that women were buried with weapons including razor-sharp bowheads, a bronze dagger and club, as well as jewelry.

Archaeologists concluded that they could have been female Amazons who lived 4,000 years ago. These fearsome women were renowned for their male-free societies and their bravery on the battlefield, particularly in archery.

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

He said this evidence is even more important when linked to previous findings. In 2019, the remains of four female warriors buried with arrows and spears were found in Russia, and in 2017, Armenian archaeologists unearthed the remains of a woman who appeared to have died of battle wounds, as an arrow 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.

Some of the skeletons reveal that the women used bows and arrows extensively, according to history.

“Their fingers are deformed because they used the arrows so much. The changes in the finger joints would not have occurred only from hunting. What is also fascinating is that many of the bone finds show clear indications of prolonged time in the saddle. Women’s pelvises are basically open because they ride horses”.

Finally, the historian noted that the jewelry includes cornelian necklaces: “Carnelian (or corneol) is a reddish brown mineral commonly used as a semi-precious stone. You often meet her when it comes to priestesses or goddesses. So it’s a sign of prestigious women.”

The findings will be revealed in a new Channel 4 series in April, called Bettany Hughes’ Treasures of the World.