13. Armed and Dangerous: Weapons and Warfare

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This chapter is in the book The Amazons

13ARMED AND DANGEROUS: WEAPONS AND WARFAREWho were the fIrst people to make Iron weapons? According to the ancient Greeks, it was the Amazons—and this advantage gave them great power over their enemies. Ironworking originated in Anatolia and/or the Caucasus around 1600–1300 BC. Hittite inscriptions record a de-mand for their iron objects in the fourteenth century BC. An ancient oral tradition of the Caucasus explains how a wise and practical mythic heroine invented the anvil, hammer, and tongs for ironworking. Her name was Satanaya, Iranian-Circassian for “Mother of a War Band of a Hundred Brothers.” Perhaps this tale and other oral traditions about iron from the Black Sea–Anatolian region were transmitted to the Greeks. The Greeks were probably aware of the extensive fortified ironworking site for making weapons on the Dnieper River (fifth century BC), in the heart of Amazon territory. Iron knives, lances, swords, battle-axes, andbelt armor belonged to the real warrior women of their day; hundreds of examples have been recovered from Scythian kurgans (chapter 4).1A battle-axe, a bow, a quiver full of arrows, a pair of light spears, a crescent shield, and a sword. These were the essential Amazon weapons portrayed in Greek art by the end of the sixth century BC. Casting off their inappropriate Greek hoplite gear (helmet, cuirass, and large shield), the warrior women were beginning to be perceived and presented more accurately as Scythian archers and horsewomen. The Amazonian arsenal

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13ARMED AND DANGEROUS: WEAPONS AND WARFAREWho were the fIrst people to make Iron weapons? According to the ancient Greeks, it was the Amazons—and this advantage gave them great power over their enemies. Ironworking originated in Anatolia and/or the Caucasus around 1600–1300 BC. Hittite inscriptions record a de-mand for their iron objects in the fourteenth century BC. An ancient oral tradition of the Caucasus explains how a wise and practical mythic heroine invented the anvil, hammer, and tongs for ironworking. Her name was Satanaya, Iranian-Circassian for “Mother of a War Band of a Hundred Brothers.” Perhaps this tale and other oral traditions about iron from the Black Sea–Anatolian region were transmitted to the Greeks. The Greeks were probably aware of the extensive fortified ironworking site for making weapons on the Dnieper River (fifth century BC), in the heart of Amazon territory. Iron knives, lances, swords, battle-axes, andbelt armor belonged to the real warrior women of their day; hundreds of examples have been recovered from Scythian kurgans (chapter 4).1A battle-axe, a bow, a quiver full of arrows, a pair of light spears, a crescent shield, and a sword. These were the essential Amazon weapons portrayed in Greek art by the end of the sixth century BC. Casting off their inappropriate Greek hoplite gear (helmet, cuirass, and large shield), the warrior women were beginning to be perceived and presented more accurately as Scythian archers and horsewomen. The Amazonian arsenal

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