Fialko O. The Scythian Amazons in archaeological realities.

This dissertation is the first complex study of the European Scythian Amazons. The burial monuments of the Scythian female warriors are through narrative sources and products of the visual arts. Types of burial structures, composition of material support, and, above all, the weapons are analyzed. Due to the nature of certain indicators, the social stratification in the Amazons environment can be proven. The chronological range of the burial complexes of female warriors is determined within the second half of the 7th – 2nd centuries BC. Through the review of combat wounds, the nature and location of weapons in women's graves, and the drawing of certain analogies with the burial complexes of men, it is argued that weapons in the grave are a personal attribute of the Scythian warrior regardless of the gender of the deceased. A survey of various archeological and historical sources of European Scythia and other territories revealed the presence of female warriors from the Mesolithic period to the modern times. Therefore, Amazons - female warriors - actually existed, and they are not local or narrow-chronological, but universal phenomenon.