Real Amazons. Devitsa V, Prokhorovka I

FEMALE portraits db, VESSELS

The graves of female warriors date back to the 5th – mid-4th century BCE. They are more common in the Black Sea region and Azov steppes. According to the finds from the burials, the Amazons were armed with bows, many had a spear and / or darts. Swords are not common. They almost did not use armor and battle belts, although the latter are often mentioned by ancient authors. The set of weapons suggests that the women fought as part of the light cavalry.
The age of the women varies from 16 to 60, but half of the burials belong to women 25-35 years old. 10% of the buried women with weapons are of advanced age.

In 2019, at the cemetery Devitsa V [Девица V, that translates as a Maiden] in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh region, a burial of four Scythian “Amazons” was found: two young women of 20-29 years old and 25-35 years old, a teenage girl of 12-13. Fourth, the eldest woman, 40-50 years old, was buried in a ceremonial headdress – kalathos. This is also the first burial in which a kalathos was put on the head of a female warrior.
Similar headdresses were found only in the richest “royal” burial mounds of Scythia: Chertomlyk mound, Tolstaya Mogila, mound near the village of Aksyutintsy, mound No. 8 of the Pesochinsky burial ground.

Photo: INSTITUTE OF ARCHEOLOGY RAS https://www.archaeolog.ru the burial mound Maiden V [Devitsa V, Девица V], tomb nr. 9, 4th century BCE

https://ru-sled.ru/na-srednem-donu-najdeno-zaxoronenie-tryox-amazonok/

Detail of a headdress / kalathos, the burial mound Maiden V [Devitsa V, Девица V], tomb nr. 9

The plate of the head dress (stlengis). The barrow №9 of the cemetery Devitsa V. Photo: IA RAS [source]

Burial of a young woman, an Amazon from Prokhorovka, burial mound B, burial 3.
The end of the 4th – beginning of the 3rd century BCE.
Among the grave goods were: the iron tips of a spear or dart, 110 arrowheads, bronze mirror with a handle, a wooden bowl with golden rims, 518 hemispherical ornaments (with and without holes) and 16 round plates, presumably from headdress embroidering; round gold medallion with agate, gold earring with pendants. [After M. Treister 2006]

A gold dish in the form of a shovel of elk horn is a tray for sacrificial food. It was found on a step under the slaughter niche, along with an iron knife and bones and a skull of a ram. Length 88.0 cm. W. 34.5 cm

Silver bowl with gilding, edge diameter 15.5 cm
Photo from https://sci.house

Gold pendant with a banded agate [an eye stone], diameter ca. 3 cm
Photo from https://sci.house

Decorations of a wooden bowl, an earring, medallion with agate and its back side, glass and stone beads, a quiver hook.
After **M. Treister** 2006

Gold lining on the rim of a wooden bowl
Photo from https://sci.house

gold earring
Photo from https://sci.house

Jewelry and grave goods from a burial from Prokhorovka. Photos from https://sci.house

“A great amount of gold appliqués sewn on the garments is a major characteristic of eastern Sarmatian costumes. Glass and semi-precious stone beads played the same role for the Sarmatians in the Carpathian Basin. In addition to being worn as necklaces and bracelets, the hundreds of beads often found around the ankles in women’s graves are the most typical and specific characteristic of the Sarmatian female costume. In the burials, they were found as multi-rowed beaded decoration on trousers, on the lower hem of skirts, or on the soft boot-legs.” [Judit Pásztókai-Szeőke]