Iranian Warrior Woman

From Science on NBC News:

DNA tests on the 2,000-year-old bones of a sword-wielding Iranian warrior have revealed the broad-framed skeleton belonged to a woman, an archaeologist working in the northwestern city of Tabriz said Saturday.

“Despite earlier comments that the warrior was a man because of the metal sword, DNA tests showed the skeleton inside the tomb belonged to a female warrior,” Alireza Hojabri-Nobari told the Hambastegi newspaper.

He added that the tomb, which had all the trappings of a warrior’s final resting place, was one of 109 and that DNA tests were being carried out on the other skeletons.

Hambastegi said other ancient tombs believed to belong to women warriors have been unearthed close to the Caspian Sea.

Web Links:

Women of Persia

CAIS: The Women Warriors

Persianesque Magazine: Artemis

The Persian Lioness: Iranian Women In History

Iran Politics Club: Famous Historical Persian Women

Ancient Prosthetics

From Past Horizons: Replicas of 3000 year old artificial big toes have been tested on volunteers and are shown to be the world’s earliest functional prosthetics.

The toes date from before 600 BCE, pre-dating what was hitherto thought to be the earliest known practical prosthesis, the Roman Capua leg which dated to c. 300 BCE. Unfortunately, the Capua leg was burned when the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons was bombed in World War II.

From Payvand News (Iran): reports that an ancient artificial eye has been discovered in Iran. This "eye" dates back to at least "4800 years ago" and was "discovered in prehistoric site of Burnt City (Shahr-e Soukhteh)".

Two holes were also created on the sides of this eyeball to hold it in the eye socket and according to head of the excavation team in burnt City, is seems that the leather bag which has been found inside a straw basket in the grave must have been a kind of eye glass holder which was used for holding the artificial eyeball in some cases for example sleeping times.

Reconstructed: Burnt City Woman

From Press TV:

The reconstructed version of the 5,000-year-old skeleton was unveiled during a ceremony attended by head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization Hamid Baqaei and Iran's ambassador to Italy Seyyed Mohammad-Ali Hosseini.

The woman, whose face has been reconstructed by a group of Iranian and Italian researchers, is famous for carrying the first prosthesis to have been used by man, ISNA reported.

This is a great scientific achievement which shows that Persians used innovative medical equipment 5,000 years ago, Baqaei said during the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

The unique discovery was the result of excavations in the Burnt City in 2006, when archaeologists found an artificial eyeball on a 1.82-meter- tall female skeleton, much taller than ordinary women of her time, and dated back to between 2900 and 2800 BCE.

Ancient Women

Two interesting articles on ancient women.

Frank Chadwick @ Great History - Ancient Persia's Remarkable Women

But it is worth remembering that over two thousand years ago Persian women enjoyed rights that American women fought to gain as recently as the last century.

And following on from the discovery in China of an ancient man with "celtic" features, comes the Loulan Beauty. Malcolm J @ Heritage Key writes:

An even older Tarim mummy than Cherchen Man is the 4,000-year-old Loulan Beauty – discovered near the town of Loulan – who too has long, flowing fair hair, and features that look to be of Nordic origin. All of these European migrants seem to have been peaceful folk, since very few weapons have been found in their graves, or valuable goods that suggest evidence of a caste system.