The North Pontic Sarmatians’ female burials with weapons

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The North Pontic Sarmatians’ female burials with weapons

Journal Title: Eminak - Year 2017, Vol 2, Issue 3

Abstract

Only a few researchers have paid attention to the issue of finding weapons in the Sarmatian female burials from the North Pontic area. This strongly differs from the eastern parts of the Sarmatian cultural and historical community’s area, where this issue was often the subject of lively discussion. This peculiarity is due to a small number of Sarmatian burials with the sex of buried determined by anthropological method from this area. And in those complexes identified by anthropologists as female, the weapons were recorded very rarely. The article deals with a brief summary of female burials containing weapons from the Sarmatian sites discovered in the North Pontic area. The complexes are examined in chronological order. The sex of buried in these complexes was mainly determined by the anthropological method, which seems the most reliable. However, because of this criterion, the number of sites in the sampling is insignificant. As a result of the analysis it was determined that in the most cases the weapons have been already placed in the female burial to perform a secondary function, as the amulets or symbols. The Sarmatians used the archaic arrowheads and axes for similar purposes. However, in the late Sarmatian period, one female burial was recorded among the military male burials from the Novye Bedrazhi cemetery. This burial contained the similar set of weapons. It is most likely that this complex is an evidence of participation of woman in military operations on a par with men.

Authors and Affiliations

Elena Shevchenko

Keywords

EP ID EP280975
DOI -
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