Altai warrior woman was in fact a bloke

[Duncan Head]

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/female-amazon-warrior-buried-2500-years-ago-altai-mountains-was-male-004761

Thought to be "unique' because of the way the female skeleton was dressed in male clothing and buried with weapons". Now possibly unique because the male skeleton was buried with female-associated cowrie-shells?

[Patrick Waterson]

Do we know of any shaman burials from the culture?

[Prufrock]

You'd be a brave person to make this claim in a Western university nowadays! A twitter campaign later...

[Jim Webster]

You'd be a brave person to make this claim in a Western university nowadays! A twitter campaign later...

perhaps if you titled it 'Transgender Altai Warrior' 




Jim

[Patrick Waterson]

Well ... we could have a Pazyryk equivalent of Herais/Diophantus,

There was dwelling at Abae in Arabia a certain man named Diophantus, a Macedonian by descent. He married an Arabian woman of that region and begot a son, named for himself, and a daughter called Heraïs. Now the son he saw dead before his prime, but when the daughter was of an age to be married he gave her a dowry and bestowed her upon a man named Samiades.

3 He, after living in wedlock with his wife for the space of a year, went off on a long journey. Heraïs, it is said, fell ill of a strange and altogether incredible infirmity. A severe tumour appeared at the base of her abdomen, and as the region became more and more swollen and high fevers supervened her physicians suspected that an ulceration had taken place at the mouth of the uterus. They applied such remedies as they thought would reduce the inflammation, but notwithstanding, on the seventh day, the surface of the tumour burst, and projecting from her groin there appeared a male genital organ with testicles attached. Now when the rupture occurred, with its sequel, neither her physician nor any other visitors were present, but only her mother and two maidservants. 4 Dumfounded at this extraordinary event they tended Heraïs as best they could, and said nothing of what had occurred. She, on recovering from her illness, wore feminine attire and continued to conduct herself as a homebody and as one subject to her husband. It was assumed, however, by those who were privy to the strange secret that she was an hermaphrodite, and as to her past life with her husband, since natural intercourse did not fit their theory, she was thought to have consorted with him homosexually.

5 Now while her condition was still undisclosed, Samiades returned and, as was fitting, for very shame, could not bear to appear in his presence, he, they say, grew angry. As he continually pressed the point and claimed his wife, her father meanwhile denying his plea but feeling too embarrassed to disclose the reason, their disagreement soon grew into a quarrel. As a result Samiades brought suit for his own wife against her father, for Fortune did in real life what she commonly does in plays and made the strange alteration lead to an accusation. After the judges took their seats and all the arguments had been presented, the person in dispute appeared before the tribunal, and the jurors debated whether the husband should have jurisdiction over his wife or the father over his daughter. 6 When, however, the court found that it was the wife's duty to attend upon her husband, she at last revealed the truth. Screwing up her courage she unloosed the dress that disguised her, displayed her masculinity to them all, and burst out in bitter protest that anyone should require a man to cohabit with a man.

7 All present were overcome with astonishment, and exclaimed with surprise at this marvel. Heraïs, now that her shame had been publicly disclosed, exchanged her woman's apparel for the garb of a young man; and the physicians, on being shown the evidence, concluded that her male organ had been concealed in an egg-shaped portion of the female organ, and that since a membrane had abnormally encased the organ, an aperture had formed through which excretions were discharged. In consequence they found it necessary to scarify the perforated area and induce cicatrization: having thus brought the male organ into decent shape, they gained credit for applying such treatment as the case allowed. 8 Heraïs, changing her name to Diophantus, was enrolled in the cavalry, and after fighting in the king's forces accompanied him in his withdrawal to Abae. - Diodorus XXXII.10.2-8

But I would consider it more likely that the shaman was an enaree.

[Andreas Johansson]

This article has more information about the "amazon" and the genetic study. It seems to me that the grounds for a female identification were always pretty weak; in fact, I can't resist the suspicion that it was seized on because a warrior woman makes for better press than yet another warrior guy rather than a sober evaluation of the ambiguous evidence.

Cowrie shells, the articles notes, are rare in Pazyryk graves, but it curiously fails to say if the others were they were found were those of men or women or both or unknown sex. While the female association is common and, let's say, morphologically unsurprising, it's hardly a given that the Pazyryk people would have shared it.

[Duncan Head]

The wooden shield in that article is interesting - I only recall seeing cane-and-leather ones from Pazyryk before.

The Golden man or woman of Issyk is another steppe warrior skeleton whose gender has been variously identified, on the basis of the slim build and associated finds.

[Andreas Johansson]

The Golden man or woman of Issyk is another steppe warrior skeleton whose gender has been variously identified, on the basis of the slim build and associated finds.

Funnily enough, one of the arguments for the Golden (Wo)man to be female listed in Duncan's second link is similarities in grave goods with those of the Ukok (Pazyryk) "amazon"; obviously that one works the other way now.

Another is that the Golden person was physically small. So was the "amazon", who turned out to be a teenage boy rather than a woman. Perhaps it's really a Golden Boy and there was some sort of tradition of giving teenage boys "girly" grave goods?

[aligern]

Or maybe its a keepsake from his betrothed?  It would be a bit like wedding rings in Western modern Society. Most men do not wear them, but quite a few do. If people went to their graves wearing rings but very few graves were found then a future archaeologist could well be in doubt as to why a male was wearing 'female' jewellery.
Roy

[Patrick Waterson]

Another is that the Golden person was physically small. So was the "amazon", who turned out to be a teenage boy rather than a woman. Perhaps it's really a Golden Boy and there was some sort of tradition of giving teenage boys "girly" grave goods?

I suspect only if they developed the habits of those the Sioux called winkte and perhaps also followed the shamanistic path.  And happened to die young.