article

Amazons, priestesses and other women of status: females in Eurasian nomadic society

Silk road art and archaeology : journal of the Institute of Silk Road Studies, Kamakura5Published In 1997 • Pages: 1-50

By: Davis-Kimball, Jeannine.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Davis-Kimball examines women's status among the nomads of the Eurasian steppe from about 2800 B.P. through the Middle Sarmatian Period (first century B.C. to the first century A.D.) by describing their burials. (Only the time period of 2800 B.P. to 2200 B.P. was marked for Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM) codes.) As Davis-Kimball states, 'The purpose of the paper is to evaluate archaeological evidence to determine if nomadic women played a strong and prominent role in their respective societies and if a complex female status system existed during the Early Iron Age,' (page 5). The archaeological evidence indicates women were both warriors and priestesses during this time period and that their burials held a larger quantity and wider variety of grave goods than male burials.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Identification
Cultural participation
Visual arts
Gender status
Burial practices and funerals
Priesthood
Chronologies and culture sequences
traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Early Nomad
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
2002
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Asia
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Central Asia
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Archaeologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Sarah Berry ; 2000
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
1991-1997
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
2800 BP-2200 BP (800 B.C. - 200 B.C.)
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Saka, Sauromatian, and Sarmatian; Afghanistan, China, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan
NotesAdditional notes
Jeannine Davis-Kimball
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
91642819
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Asia, Central--Antiquities