NEURAL NET
The Delphi Discussions
History Topics -  Ancient Warrior Queens

 

 

From: Alpheta   
5/4/2003 10:15 pm 
To: ALL (1 of 14) 
 
101.1 

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa032703a.htm

Ancient Women Warriors

Ancient queens and other women who led their people into battle: Amazons, Queen Artemisia, Queen Boudicca, Queen Samsi, Queen Tomyris, Trung Sisters, Queen Zenobia.

Throughout history, women warriors have fought and led troops into battle. This partial list of warrior queens and other women warriors runs from the Amazons -- legendary fighters who may have been the real warriors whose remains were found in the Steppes -- to Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. Sadly, we know too little about most of these brave warrior women because history is written by the victors.
Amazons

The Amazons are credited with helping the Trojans against the Greeks in the Trojan War. They are also said to have been fierce women archers who cut off a breast to aid them in shooting, but recent archaeological evidence suggests the Amazons were real, powerful, two-breasted, important warrior women, possibly from the Steppes.

• Amazons

Queen Artemisia
Artemisia, queen of Herodotus' homeland of Halicarnassus, gained renown for her brave, manly (according to Herodotus) actions in the Battle of Salamis, in which she allied herself with the Persian Xerxes and against Greece.

• Artemisia of Halicarnassus

• Artemisia - Warrior Queen of Halicarnassus

Queen Boudicca
When her husband Prasutagus died, Boudicca became queen of the Iceni in Britain. For several months during A.D. 60-61 she led the Iceni in revolt against the Romans in response to their treatment of her and her daughters. She burned three major Roman towns, Londinium (London), Verulamium (St. Albans), and Camulodunum (Colchester). The Roman military governor Suetonius Paullinus suppressed the revolt.

• Boudicca

• Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni

Queen Samsi
A Midyanite, Queen Samsi rebelled against Assyrian King Tiglath Pileser III (745 - 727 B.C.) by refusing to pay tribute. After fleeing, she was defeated and forced to pay tribute to Tiglath Pileser.

• Tiglath Pileser

• A Short History of the Tribes of Ancient North Arabia

• Women as Warriors in Prehistory, the Ancient World and up to the 7th Century outside Europe

Queen Tomyris
Tomyris became queen of the Massegetai upon the death of her husband. Cyrus of Persia wanted her kingdom and offered to marry her for it, but she declined and they fought each other, instead. Cyrus tricked the third of Tomyris' army led by her son, who was taken prisoner and committed suicide. Then the army of Tomyris ranged itself against the Persians, defeated it and killed King Cyrus.

• Tomyris

• King Cyrus of Persia

Trung Sisters
After two centuries of Chinese rule, the Vietnamese rose up against them under the leadership of two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, who gathered an army of 80,000. They trained 36 women to be generals and drove the Chinese out of Viet Nam in A.D. 40. Trung Trac was then named ruler and renamed "Trung Vuong" or "She-king Trung." They continued to fight the Chinese for three years, but eventually, unsuccessful, they committed suicide.

• The Trung Sisters

Queen Zenobia
Third century queen of Palmyra (in modern Syria), Zenobia claimed Cleopatra as ancestor. Zenobia started as a regent for her son, but then claimed the throne, defying the Romans, and rode into battle against them. She was eventually defeated by Aurelian and probably taken prisoner.

• Zenobia of Palmyra
 
From: Alpheta   
8/18/2003 7:59 pm 
To: Isis (georgia18) (2 of 14) 
 
101.2 in reply to 101.1 

'Sis,
I think you will find this article of interest. It might show just how far back the MiV go! I don't know if the lady qualifies as a "queen", but perhaps she founded Rome:

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030512/rome.html

Rome Named After A Woman?

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

May 15, 2003 — A fragment of writing by Stesichorus, a Graeco-Sicilian poet who wrote not long after Rome's founding, suggests Rome was named after a Trojan woman called Roma. The fragment, rediscovered and embraced by growing numbers of Italians today, challenges the popular legend that Romulus was Rome's founder. Stesichorus (638-555 B.C.) described how Roma, with her Trojan fleet, fled the war-torn city of Troy. They arrived in a beautiful place where visitors were "enticed to dream while being caressed by the off-shore breeze." Roma and her entourage, captivated by the idyllic spot, did not desire to leave. She had all of her ships burned. The happily stranded group then named the place after Roma. Eleanor Leach, professor of classics at Indiana University, Bloomington, told Discovery News that the story is also recounted in a 5th century historical narrative entitled "Roman Antiquities" by the Greek writer Dionysius of Halicarnassus. He referred to the woman as Rhome, which means "power" in Greek.

According to a recent report in Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper, about 1,000 people marched in support of Roma on April 21. Based on writings by the scholar Varro who lived in the first century B.C., Rome was founded on that day in 753 B.C. between 8 and 9 a.m. A yearly celebration called Parilia is observed to commemorate the event. While Rome's early history is clouded in mythology, most people are taught the legend of Romulus and Remus. In Roman writings, these twin brothers were born in the ancient Italian city of Alba Longa. They left, hoping to establish their own city. They chose a site, built a wall around it, and Romulus named it after himself. Plutarch, a Greek biographer and essayist who lived from approximately 46-120 A.D., popularized the myth in his work entitled "Romulus." Stesichorus was born just over a century after 753 B.C., which supporters of the Roma theory say strengthens their claims.

Not everyone agrees. Guy Rogers, professor of history and classics at Wellesley College, told Discovery News, "Stesichorus' context, controversial in itself, suits the establishment of the Republic- circa 510 B.C.E. — much better than the traditional foundation date of Rome." However, he added, "We do know that as early as the sixth century B.C. a place called Aeneia in Macedonia was issuing coins showing Aeneas (a Trojan hero) carrying his father Anchises from the ruins of Troy, so the legend of someone getting away from the destruction of Troy goes back that far at least."

While the myth concerning the Trojan refugee Roma appears to be garnering attention in modern Italy, ancient Rome's male leaders favored the Romulus and Remus story."The notion of Roma/Rhome as a daughter of Aeneas did exist in ancient texts, although it wasn't the foundation legend that the Romans preferred, especially after Julius Caesar and Augustus had claimed to be descendants of Aeneas' son Iulus, known also as Ascanius," explained Leach. According to the Romulus and Remus legend, Iulus was related to Romulus, so the link would have given Julius Caesar and Augustus direct ties to Rome's supposed founder.

Classics scholars agree that further research, including archaeological work, is needed to determine, if possible, who was the actual namesake of Rome.
 
 
From: Alpheta   
9/21/2003 10:44 pm 
To: Isis (georgia18) (3 of 14) 
 
101.3 in reply to 101.2 

Body of six foot warrior queen found:

http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=57711&command=displayContent&sourceNode=57238&contentPK=7109460

Lincolnshire Echo

WARRIOR QUEEN IS UNEARTHED
10:30 - 20 September 2003

1,500-year-old Anglo-Saxon "warrior queen" has been found buried just two feet under the surface of a county field.
Lincolnshire's own 6ft tall "Boadicea" has been described as one of the best Anglo-Saxon finds of its kind in the county.
She was still holding her shield and had a dagger at her side when she was found. On either side of her at the site just outside Lincoln were the remains of a man and a woman who were possibly her attendants. The woman was wearing an amber necklace and had her feet bound together with rope. The male companion was buried with his hand over a pot.The exceptional discovery was originally made by a man with a metal detector.

Mystery surrounds the identity of the 6ft tall warrior queen. Her ancient Briton predecessor Boadicea led a rebellion against the Romans in 61AD. After the Romans left England in 410AD tribal conflict was rife and the mystery queen might have fallen victim to this.
All the bones and artefacts discovered at the scene are now being examined by independent conservator Wessex Archaeology and at a later date will be brought back to the City and County Museum in Friars Lane.

Lincolnshire County Council archaeologist Adam Daubney said that there was an enormous sense of excitement when the bodies were unearthed. "Any discovery from Anglo-Saxon times is important for Lincolnshire because this era of history is not as well documented as other periods," he said. "In other parts of Lincolnshire we have found two large Saxon burial sites at Loveden Hill and Ruskington."

But one of the interesting things about this is that a total of four shields have been found. "The shield would have been originally made from wood but the boss - which held the handle in place - was made of iron and this has survived."

The Channel Four television programme Time Team carried out the excavation and the programme is due to be broadcast next spring.
The owner of the land on which the burial site was discovered asked not to be named to avoid the venue's location becoming common knowledge. He said: "Two years ago a discovery of a brooch was made on the site which was unmistakably Anglo-Saxon. It was incredibly exciting to discover the burial site."

Councillor Marianne Overton, a member of Navenby Archaeology Group which assisted Time Team with the excavation, helped out at the three-day dig which took place between Tuesday and Thursday last week. "What struck me was that there are possibly a great many more sites like this across the county," she said. "When you actually see the venue and are able to imagine what life would have been like then you get a strong sense of the history of the county in which we live."

What could triple grave find mean?... See Page 2.

ACTION WOMAN: The county's answer to Boadicea?
Unfortunately, no link to page 2 of the article was provided. Drat!

From: Alpheta   
9/21/2003 11:03 pm 
To: Isis (georgia18) (4 of 14) 
 
101.4 in reply to 101.3 

Ah ha! The story about 3 in one grave was a separate follow-up - here is the link and story:
http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=57711&command=displayContent&sourceNode=57238&contentPK=7108787
WHAT COULD TRIPLE GRAVE FIND MEAN?

10:30 - 20 September 2003

Archaeological experts are describing the discovery of three skeletons in a shallow grave near Lincoln as 'one of the most significant Anglo-Saxon discoveries made in our county'. Here Ben Rooth finds out more about the importance of the find...

THE truth surrounding the death of the county's own warrior queen will possibly never be known.
When the six foot tall "Amazonian" died around 1,500 years ago, it could have been through natural causes or she could have perished by the sword. But one thing seems certain. By virtue of the fact that she was buried with a shield and dagger it seems probable that she was a high ranking member of society. And she was almost certainly involved in conflict.

It was one of the most bloody and lawless periods of England's history. The Romans had left the country in 410AD - approximately one century before the queen perished - and a long period of fighting among the tribes ensued. But the more questions that are asked surrounding the death of this woman, even more questions arise. Why are there two people buried on either side of her? How did they meet their fate?

When the skeletons of these three bodies were exhumed last Thursday, far from being the end of the story it was the beginning of a new one. Once all the necessary tests have been carried out by the independent conservators, Wessex Archaeology, the remains and artefacts will be brought back to the City and County Museum in Friar's Lane, Lincoln.

The museum's curator, Thomas Cadbury, said that it had been a very exciting discovery for the city. "It will be fascinating to see the full report on the skeletons and the analysis," he said. "Using carbon 14 dating, we will be able to find out how old each of the people were and how tall they were. The analysis may also shed some light into their genetics which would suggest which part of the country they came from.

"What is unusual about the female warrior is firstly how tall she was and secondly the fact that she was buried with weapons that are usually connected with men." Mr Cadbury added that every year there are more than 350 archaeological projects in Lincolnshire. And every year, all of them shed more light on the history and heritage of our county. "My personal view is that the site is a small burial ground and that the three people are not connected or related," he added.

"The results of the tests could show that they were buried over a long period of time - at the moment we just don't know. At the City and County Museum we possess in the region of two million exhibits. And with every new exhibit that is brought to us we glean new insight into our county."

These views were echoed by archaeologist for Lincolnshire County Council Adam Daubney. He is intrigued by the four shields which were found in the grave as well as the amber necklace which was around the second woman's neck. "The nearest source for amber is the Baltic region - the Scandinavian countries," said Mr Daubney. "This could suggest that there was some good trade routes around that time. But there have also been well documented instances of amber getting washed up along the eastern coastline - so possibly the necklace originated closer to home "Whatever the truth, it is a fascinating discovery and one which sheds insight into our Anglo-Saxon heritage."

Councillor Marianne Overton, a member of Navenby Archaeological Society which was invited to attend the three-day excavation run by Time Team, said: "It was a very exciting few days and fascinating to see how all the finds unravelled. "One of my abiding memories is the sight of the three bodies in situ. Because they weren't far beneath the surface, two of the remains had been damaged by ploughing.
"The bones of the female warrior suggested that she was six feet tall.

"The second woman had the amber beads around her neck and her feet were tied with a rope. The rope still looked perfectly normal and the archaeologists took the fibres away for analysis. "And the man had his hand over a pot which had deliberately been made with holes in it so that it would never be used again. "What struck me was that there are probably a lot more sites like this around the county which we simply don't know about. I felt that it was a tangible link with the past. Discoveries like this help people to appreciate their cultural place in this world."

From:  Isis (georgia18)   
9/27/2003 11:32 pm 
To: Alpheta (5 of 14) 
 
101.5 in reply to 101.1 

The Warrior women mentioned are just a few of the ones that have existed, and exist, throughout herstory.
I have come to believe that the one that exist today are hidden away, they may live in La Jolla California, or hidden behind a bamboo curtain, the latter is very supposed to be very "Shy".

From: Alpheta   
10/25/2003 12:17 pm 
To:  Isis (georgia18) (6 of 14) 
 
101.6 in reply to 101.5 

Who is in La Jolla, CA?
Your reference to hidden away behind a bamboo curtain brought to mind something that is, perhaps, totally inapposite. I always remember this scene from an Eddie Murphy move "The Golden Child". The movie was not a critical success but I like it very much because of the strong female lead who did the "crouching tigers" stuff on screen several years before THAT movie became a cult success! Anyway, the scene is where Eddie Murphy's character is questioning a mysterious "dragon lady" who appears only in sillouette (sp?) behind a curtain, langorously smoking a cigarette in one of those long 1930's style holders (one can see the cigarette smoke drifting above the curtain screen). At the end of the conversation Eddie makes some impertinent remark about her being a hot babe and wanting to see "more" of her, and the lady gets upset. One can perceive through the curtain that she then rises up on her TAIL, hisses toward him, and then rattles her tail dangerously, rather like a scorpion! It is only then that Eddie's character realizes that the lady is, in fact, an actual dragon lady!
The movie takes place during current times, but Eddie's character is embroiled with Tibetan and Chinese characers straight out of the middle ages! I would not be that surprised should it turn out that a "Nu Gua" (I think that's the Chinese term) female is actually born into the human race every century or so. Because of our modern prejudices she would, indeed, have to remain hidden away.
 
 
From: Isis (georgia18)   
11/2/2003 2:43 am 
To:  Alpheta (7 of 14) 
 
101.7 in reply to 101.6 

Alpheta,
You have a very good memory!  I saw the same movie and all I can remember is the Golden Child kept himself alive by eating leaves of a plant, I wonder which plant he was eating. 

The shy Dragon Lady hidding behind  the bamboo screen. I will be sure and check this movie out again.
Have you seen the movie "Kundum"? It is the story of the Dalhi Lama.

From: Alpheta   
11/2/2003 11:48 am 
To: Isis (georgia18) (8 of 14) 
 
101.8 in reply to 101.7 

Hi Sis,
I liked "The Golden Child", I thought it was a very good movie even if the critics didn't like it. I especially liked the strong female lead opposite Eddie Murphy. Yes, I remember the Child ate one leaf a day off of a plant while he was being held captive by the Evil One. Perhaps there is something in Tibetan sacred literature that would tell us what sort of plant it was.

I finished watching the Joseph Campbell tapes - what an excellent series! It's hard to believe they were made in 1987, just a few months before Campbell died. His work will live forever, though. The tape about the Goddess was most interesting. Campbell said that burial customs all around the world were about putting the deceased back into the mother's womb - into Mother Earth - so that the person could be reborn again. I never thought of it that way, but of course it makes perfect sense! That is what all of those legends are about, after all, such as Isis going in search of the dead Osiris and Astarte/Inanna going into the underworld to retrieve Damuzi/Tamuz. There are probably parallel legends in the Indian, Chinese, South American and Native North American cultures too.

From another perspective, the legends incorporate the essence of King Sacrifice. From the point of view of the ancients, the practice doesn't seem quite so horrific to me, because the King fully expected to be born again; he wasn't really "dying" in the sense we think of, and in the case of sacrificial death there was much benefit given to the King's subjects by way of renewal of the earth (spring), crops (summer), etc. In view of the old legends, the Queen's role was essential - she represented Gaia, Mother Earth. Without her, there would be no sense to the legends, for it is through her that the King would be restored to life!

I am certain this is reflected in the game of chess - that is why the King is not "killed", he is, at most, stymied or blockaded temporarily so that he cannot move. And that is also why the Queen rightfully became the most powerful piece on the board.

From: Isis (georgia18)   
11/10/2003 12:06 am 
To: Alpheta (9 of 14) 
 
101.9 in reply to 101.8 

Have you thought over the Idea of a switch between the King and Queen? 

In nature the female is the dominate one, and nature is closely woven into the ancient belief systems, so why wouldn't they have woven this into the game of chess? 

Thank U

From: Alpheta   
11/11/2003 1:06 pm 
To: Isis (georgia18) (10 of 14) 
 
101.10 in reply to 101.9 

Hi 'Sis,
Any historian with an open mind will acknowledge that there was an ancient usurpation of the goddess' role into the god's through invasion and acculturalization. According to prevailing theory, Goddess worship was centered around agricultural settlements which focused upon the good of the "whole", that is, the greater good of the tribe/group/family, as opposed to the individual wants/needs of the individual. It was not until incursions into the fertile crescent by goat and pig tending tribes who settled in ancient "Assyria" that we find the first clashes between the cultures of the goddess and the god; a thousand or so years later came the cow-herding Indo-Europeans from the plains of northeastern Russia, with their animal-centered sacrificial culture, who over-ran all and clashed greatly with the earlier "goddess of the grains" centered culture.

The goddess, however, never completely disappeared from the memories of our tribal ancestors. She went underground in some cultures, while in others, she was remained openly celebrated; in still others, her primary role was transformed into a more etheric (is that a word?) role that was, nonetheless, substantial in the overall culture of the peoples. Ultimately, in the 4th century CE, her ethic became legitimatized, so to speak, by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, in the form of the Mother of God, the Holy Virgin, Mother Mary. Interesting to note that the current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church is an avowed worshipper of the Holy Mother Mary.

So you see, 'Sis, ultimately, the old switcheroo has not done the powers that presently be a whole lot of good. What goes around, comes around; whatsoever ye speak and passes into the nether shall yet come back again. Justice is a Goddess, and her will WILL ultimately be done. She sees all, knows all. It is a never-ending cycle of tides that rise and fall with the ebb and flow of the Moon Goddess.

From: Alpheta   
12/14/2003 3:52 pm 
To: ALL (11 of 14) 
 
101.11 in reply to 101.10 

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/09/1070732221505.html

Perhaps she doesn't qualify as a warrior queen - but she is an impressive woman!

Our own Amazon princess
December 10, 2003

Back when Indonesia was part of Australia, a young woman left treasure in a cave. Deborah Smith reports.
SHE was tall and strong and in her late 20s when she died about 18,000 years ago. Her teeth were not worn down, so she had probably enjoyed a diet of wallaby and other animals rather than chewing on tough plants. And from the unusual holes in some of her bones, it is possible that cancerous growths contributed to her early demise. Named after the limestone cave where she was found, Lemdubu Woman and her burial site provide a unique insight into life in the north of the continent during the last glacial maximum, when Australia was much colder and drier. Her skeleton has now been studied in more detail than any other remains from this period.

Today, Lemdubu Cave sits amid the dense rainforest of the Aru islands in Indonesia. But at the time the young woman died, sea levels were at their lowest because the ice sheets were at their greatest extent, and the Aru islands were part of a bigger Australian land mass, called Sahulland, that included New Guinea and Tasmania. A Canberra archaeologist, Dr Susan O'Connor, says Lemdubu Cave is the most remote location in which she has undertaken excavations. A long canoe trip inland followed by three hours of trekking through thick vegetation was required to reach the site where she discovered the skeleton several years ago with colleagues Professor Matthew Spriggs, also of the Australian National University, and Associate Professor Peter Veth, of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

"In such a remote location, when you're excavating you have no idea how old the material is," O'Connor says. But the archaeologists were confident they had made a significant find when they also uncovered bones from agile wallabies and pollens from grasses which indicated that the climate, landscape and fauna had been very different when Lemdubu woman was alive.

Back in Australia the 394 fragments of skeleton were painstakingly pieced together by an ANU researcher, Dr David Bulbeck, who described his findings last week at the Australian Archaeological Association conference in Jindabyne. The use of the cave site has been dated as stretching from about 27,000 to 12,000 years ago, with the burial site dated at 18,000 to 16,000 years ago.
If her skull alone had been found, Lemdubu Woman would probably have been mistaken for a man, says Bulbeck. "The cranium is robust and of masculine appearance, with a large upper jaw containing large teeth."

She had long limbs and probably stood about 166 centimetres tall. But her limb bones were also thick. "She would seem to have been a very strong woman, notwithstanding her athletic linear build," he says. The last ice age began about 120,000 years ago with cycles of warming and cooling until the last glacial maximum was reached, which stretched from about 28,000 to 19,000 years ago. The ice sheets then retreated until the climate became stable about 10,000 years ago. Sea levels reached their present height about 6000 years ago.
An ANU earth scientist, Professor John Chappell, says studies of ice cores from the northern hemisphere have revealed that fluctuations during the ice age, occurring every 6000 years or so, were often large and rapid. "Our understanding of this period has changed enormously in the past decade," he says.

Some warming was incredibly fast, with climbs of 5 degrees in less than a century. The polar ice sheets would not have been able to advance and retreat as quickly, but research in New Guinea suggests the largest of the rapid warmings were associated with sea level rises of 10 to 20 metres, says Chappell. Not enough research has been done in the southern hemisphere to know whether the pattern in Australia during the ice age was a similar one. But in the past two years new evidence from the Snowy Mountains and other areas has revealed that during the last glacial maximum it was much colder in south-eastern Australia than had been thought. Rather than five degrees colder than now, it might have reached an extreme of 10 degrees colder, says Chappell. "It seems to me, putting the evidence together, the cold climate probably lasted for no more than a few thousand years, but it was eight or nine degrees colder than present."
As well, it became drier as the last glacial maximum progressed, with a peak period of aridity apparently lasting until 12,000 years ago, he says.

While this would have meant more extensive arid regions, Australia was also a land of even greater contrasts during the last glacial maximum than now with, for example, wetlands in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia close to the expansive sand dunes. It wasn't cold and dry everywhere at once, says Chappell. The harshest environment would have been chilly south-western Tasmania. "Yet we know it was occupied right through the last glacial maximum," says Chappell.

In the Willandra region of NSW, before the big cold hit, people flocked to the fish-filled, snow-fed lakes. This is where Mungo Man and Mungo Lady, Australia's oldest-known human remains, were ceremonially buried 40,000 years ago. But by 18,000 years ago Lake Mungo had become the dry dusty hole we know today. In the northern part of Sahulland, however, Lemdubu Woman was feasting on wallaby.

From: Alpheta  
10/24/2004 1:21 pm 
To: ALL (12 of 14) 
 
101.12 in reply to 101.11 

This burial of who appears to have been a very important woman, although unfortunately the article does not DATE the burial, argghhh! Sis sent me a copy of this article.

http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=14483

Mind-boggling find in Crimea - 10/22/2004 13:48

Archaeologists discover witch burial in Crimea

An astonishing find will keep Russian archaeologists occupied for quite some time. Archaeological expedition from the Russian Ust-Alminsk region has made yet another sensational discovery.

In 2003, the same team of researchers unearthed an unlooted burial of a Sarmat girl in a lavish funeral gown; the burial also contained rings, earrings, necklaces and a variety of various golden medals, which had once been attached to clothes.

This fall, Russian archaeologists reported another remarkable find. According to the head of the expedition Alexander Puzdrovsky, the recently discovered unlooted grave, which has been marked ¦853, contains a woman-s corpse. Based on preliminary analysis, the woman had died in her mid 40s. Wide variety of occult inventory that was found in the grave as well, is indicative of the woman's professional involvement in the world of witchcraft and magic.

9 bronze rings, the same number of bells (perhaps, this particular number had been considered sacred at the time), a whole array of different amulets, beads?all of the items have been unearthed by the archaeologists. The witch must have dug out those accessories from ancient burials in order to intensify her magic powers. The reason the scientists are inclined to believe this is so, has to do with the fact that all the relics date back to a much earlier period than the woman-s corpse.

Judging by the woman's lavish dress, massive golden earrings decorated with garnets, golden necklace and golden medals sewn to her dress, she must have belonged to the upper class. Experts claim such burial is very unusual for Crimea.Even Ukraine had only once had a similar kind of sensational discovery of a gave of a cult member with similarly elaborate ?magic inventory."

©1999-2003 "PRAVDA.Ru". When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, reference to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coinside with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors.

From: Alpheta  
4/9/2006 8:24 pm 
To: Isis (georgia18) (13 of 14) 
 
101.13 in reply to 101.12 

Hatsepshut is in the news a lot lately.  First, there is the big exhibition going on at the Met; then, there is the multi-page spread in the latest issue of KMT; and now, Newsweek has weighed in on this mysterious woman pharaoh:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12113284/site/newsweek/

The Feminine Kingdom

Hatshepsut promoted peace, prosperity and great art.

By Vibhuti Patel
Newsweek International

April 10-17, 2006 issue - A thousand years after the Pyramids were built, Queen Hatshepsut, widow and half sister of King Thutmose II, ascended Egypt's throne when the latter died prematurely in 1473 B.C. As regent for her infant nephew and stepson, Thutmose III, she was not the first woman to rule Egypt. But, for reasons that remain unknown, a few years into her regency, Hatshepsut discarded the title "queen" and became "king." She claimed double legitimacy—as King Thutmose I's eldest daughter and by virtue of her mythic self-propagated descent from the great god Amun. Because Egyptian kings were near-divine and crowned for life, Hatshepsut could not then abdicate in favor of her stepson. She became his senior co-ruler and controlled the Two Kingdoms, Upper and Lower Egypt, until her death 20 years later. Her remarkable and successful reign is now being commemorated at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art in the show "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh" (through July 9).

From: Alpheta  
7/8/2007 11:54 am 
To:  ALL (14 of 14) 
 
101.14 in reply to 101.13 

This story isn't about "warrior queens" but it is about a powerful group of women - Priestesses in ancient Greece.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/books/review/Coates-t.html?_r=1&oref=login

New York Times
Sunday Book Review

Keepers of the Faith
By STEVE COATES
Published: July 1, 2007

In the summer of 423 B.C., Chrysis, the priestess of Hera at Argos, fell asleep inside the goddess’s great temple, and a torch she had left ablaze set fire to the sacred garlands there, burning the building to the ground. This spectacular case of custodial negligence drew the attention of the historian Thucydides, a man with scant interest in religion or women. But he had mentioned Chrysis once before: the official lists of Hera’s priestesses at Argos provided a way of dating historical events in the Greek world, and Thucydides formally marked the beginning of the Peloponnesian War with Chrysis’ name and year of tenure, together with the names of consequential male officeholders from Athens and Sparta.

During the same upheaval, in 411, Thucydides’ fellow Athenian Aristophanes staged his comedy “Lysistrata,” with a heroine who tries to bring the war to an end by leading a sex strike. There is reason to believe that Lysistrata herself is drawn in part from a contemporary historical figure, Lysimache, the priestess of Athena Polias on the Acropolis. If so, she joins such pre-eminent Athenians as Pericles, Euripides and Socrates as an object of Aristophanes’ lampoons. On a much bigger stage in 480 B.C., before the battle of Salamis, one of Lysimache’s predecessors helped persuade the Athenians to take to their ships and evacuate the city ahead of the Persian invaders — a policy that very likely saved Greece — announcing that Athena’s sacred snake had failed to eat its honey cake, a sign that the goddess had already departed.

These are just some of the influential women visible through the cracks of conventional history in Joan Breton Connelly’s eye-opening “Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece.” Her portrait is not in fact that of an individual priestess, but of a formidable class of women scattered over the Greek world and across a thousand years of history, down to the day in A.D. 393 when the Christian emperor Theodosius banned the polytheistic cults. It is remarkable, in this age of gender studies, that this is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, especially since, as Connelly persuasively argues, religious office was, exceptionally, an “arena in which Greek women assumed roles equal ... to those of men.” Roman society could make no such boast, nor can ours.

Despite powerful but ambiguous depictions in Greek tragedy, no single ancient source extensively documents priestesses, and Connelly, a professor at New York University, builds her canvas from material gleaned from scattered literary references, ancient artifacts and inscriptions, and representations in sculpture and vase painting. Her book shows generations of women enjoying all the influence, prestige, honor and respect that ancient priesthoods entailed. Few were as exalted as the Pythia, who sat entranced on a tripod at Delphi and revealed the oracular will of Apollo, in hexameter verse, to individuals and to states. But Connelly finds priestesses who were paid for cult services, awarded public portrait statues, given elaborate state funerals, consulted on political matters and acknowledged as sources of cultural wisdom and authority by open-minded men like the historian Herodotus. With separation of church and state an inconceivable notion in the world’s first democracy, all priesthoods, including those held by women, were essentially political offices, Connelly maintains. Nor did sacred service mean self-abnegation. “Virgin” priestesses like Rome’s Vestals were alien to the Greek conception. Few cults called for permanent sexual abstinence, and those that did tended to appoint women already beyond childbearing age; some of the most powerful priesthoods were held by married women with children, leading “normal” lives.

The Greeks don’t deserve their reputation as rationalists. Religion and ritual permeated the world of the city-states, where, Connelly notes, “there was no area of life that lacked a religious aspect.” She cites one estimate that 2,000 cults operated during the classical period in the territory of Athens alone; the city’s roughly 170 festival days would have brought women out in public in great numbers and in conspicuous roles. “Ritual fueled the visibility of Greek women within this system,” Connelly writes, sending them across their cities to sanctuaries, shrines and cemeteries, so that the picture that emerges “is one of far-ranging mobility for women across the polis landscape.”
These aspects of Connelly’s well-documented, meticulously assembled portrait may not seem that remarkable on the surface, but they largely contradict what has long been the most broadly accepted vision of the women of ancient Greece, particularly Athens, as dependent, cloistered, invisible and mute, relegated almost exclusively to housekeeping and child rearing — a view that at its most extreme maintains that the names of respectable Athenian women were not spoken aloud in public or that women were essentially housebound.

Connelly traces the tenacity of this idea to several sources, including the paradoxically convergent ideologies of Victorian gentlemen scholars and 20th-century feminists and a modern tendency to discount the real-world force of religion, a notion now under powerful empirical adjustment. But another cause is a professional divide between classicists and archaeologists. In their consideration of a woman’s place, classicists emphasize certain well-known texts, the most notorious being Thucydides’ rendition of Pericles’ great oration over the first Athenian dead of the Peloponnesian War, which had this terse advice for their widows: “If I must say anything on the subject of female excellence, ... greatest will be her glory who is least talked of among men, whether in praise or in criticism.” Connelly, though, is an archaeologist, and she insists that her evidence be allowed to speak for itself, something it does with forceful eloquence. Far from the names of respectable women being suppressed, it seems clear that great effort was made to ensure that the names of many of these women would never be forgotten: Connelly can cite more than 150 historical Greek priestesses by name. Archaeology also speaks through beauty: “Portrait of a Priestess” is an excellent thematic case study in vase painting and sculpture, with striking images of spirited women, at altars or leading men in procession, many marked as priestesses by the great metal temple key they carry, signifying not admission to heaven but the pragmatic responsibility that Chrysis so notoriously betrayed in Argos.

Greek religion is a vast and complex subject, and “Portrait of a Priestess,” by concentrating on one of its most concretely human aspects, offers an engrossing point of entry. It’s not clear how far this lavishly produced book was intended for general audiences; a map, a glossary and expanded captions would surely have been welcome. But Connelly’s style is clear, often elegant and occasionally stirring. And while she shows a fertile disregard for received wisdom — her astonishingly radical reinterpretation of the Parthenon’s sculptural frieze, conceived in the early 1990s while she was researching this book, helped her win a MacArthur fellowship — she is no polemicist, a fact that has the effect of strengthening her more provocative points. Polytheism’s presumed spiritual failures may eventually have led to the Christian ascendancy, but Connelly shows that the system long sustained and nourished Greek women and their communities. In turn, women habituated to religious privilege and influence in the pre-Christian era eagerly lent their expertise and energy to the early church. But with one male god in sole reign in heaven, women’s direct connection with deity became suspect, and they were methodically edged out of formal religious power.

“There may be no finer tribute to the potency of the Greek priestess than the discomfort that her position caused the church fathers,” Connelly writes in her understated way. Her priestesses may be ancient history, but the consequences of the discomfort they caused endure to this day.