Editing Amazons (section)

== Historiography ==
[[File:Schedelsche Weltchronik d 029.jpg|thumb|Amazons in the [[Nuremberg Chronicle]] by [[Hartmann Schedel]], 1493]]
The ancient Greeks never had any doubts that the Amazons were, or had been, real. Not the only people enchanted by warlike women of nomadic cultures, such exciting tales also come from ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China. Greek heroes of old had encounters with the queens of their martial society and fought them. However, their original home was not exactly known, thought to be in the obscure lands beyond the [[Civilization|civilized world]].<ref>"The Amazons existed outside the range of normal human experience": {{cite journal |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/642368  |title= Greek Attitudes towards Women: The Mythological Evidence | publisher= jstor | author=P. Walcot   |journal= Greece & Rome |year= 1984 |volume= 31 |issue= 1 |pages= 37–47 |doi= 10.1017/S001738350002787X |jstor= 642368 |s2cid= 163008170 | access-date= February 2, 2021}}</ref> As a result, many classical scholars consider Amazons to be entirely fictional figures, invented by Greek men to serve as “anti-women” or to symbolize Persians.<ref>{{Citation |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |title=Amazons |date=2016-03-07 |work=Oxford Classical Dictionary |url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-342 |access-date=2024-12-04 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.342 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5}}</ref> Some authors preferred comparisons to cultures of Asia Minor or even [[Minoan Crete]]. The most obvious historical candidates are [[Lycia]] and [[Scythia]] and [[Sarmatia]] in line with the account by [[Herodotus]]. In his [[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]] (5th century BCE) Herodotus claims that the ''Sauromatae'' (predecessors of the [[Sarmatians]]), who ruled the lands between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, arose from a union of Scythians and Amazons.<ref name="CyrinoSafran2015">{{cite book|author1=M. Cyrino|author2=M. Safran|title=Classical Myth on Screen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ft2_BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT179|date=8 April 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-48603-5|pages=179–}}</ref>

Herodotus also observed rather unusual customs among the [[Lycia]]ns of southwest Asia Minor. The Lycians obviously followed [[Matrilineality|matrilineal rules]] of descent, virtue, and status. They named themselves along their maternal family line and a child's status was determined by the mother's reputation. This remarkably high esteem of women and legal regulations based on maternal lines, still in effect in the 5th century BCE in the Lycian regions that Herodotus had traveled to, suggested to him the idea that these people were descendants of the mythical Amazons.{{sfn|Herodotus, The Histories|p=1.173.1}}

Modern historiography no longer relies exclusively on textual and artistic material, but also on the vast archaeological evidence of over a thousand nomad graves from steppe territories from the Black Sea all the way to Mongolia. Discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons (bows and arrows, quivers, and spears) prove that women warriors were not merely figments of imagination, but the product of the [[Scythian]] and [[Sarmatian]] horse-centered lifestyle, however it is not known for certain if these people were the inspiration for the Amazons of Greek mythology.<ref name=jman>{{cite web |url= https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/the-real-amazons-how-the-legendary-warrior-women-inspired-fighters-and-feminists/  |title= The real Amazons: how the legendary warrior women inspired fighters and feminists   |date= October 23, 2017  | publisher= BBC History Magazine | author= John Man    | access-date= February 4, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141029-amazons-scythians-hunger-games-herodotus-ice-princess-tattoo-cannabis/  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20191019130554/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141029-amazons-scythians-hunger-games-herodotus-ice-princess-tattoo-cannabis/  |url-status= dead  |archive-date= October 19, 2019  |title= Amazon Warriors Did Indeed Fight and Die Like Men   |date= October 28, 2014  | publisher= National Geographic | author=Simon Worrall    | access-date= February 4, 2021}}</ref>