Pages: 203-222

Amazons’ burial complexes from Skelki cemetery are located on the bank of the Kakhovka dam lake. It is one of the largest Scythian grave grounds in the Lower Dnieper area. Among the fifty-three investigated Scythian graves, prevailing are those of children and women representing plain people of Scythia. Funeral rites correspond to the Scythian traditions. Almost half of the women were armed. Moreover, there was a little girl buried with weapons. There are twenty-two warriors’ graves in the cemetery. Every second soldier is a woman, and every second woman carries weapons. These women might have been forced to take arms because their men were away engaged in a military campaign or security operations on foreign territories. This situation reminds us of the myth of the Amazons. The Skelki cemetery is marked by the highest percentage of the Amazons’ graves of all investigated grave grounds in the Scythian Steppe.

Keywords: The Lower Dnieper area, Amazons, Scythians, grave ground, funeral rite

Information about author:

Elena Fialko (Kiev, Ukraine). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Geroev Stalingrada Pr., 12, 04210, Kiev, Ukraine
E-mail: [email protected]