Sauromatian Warrior Women?
Hi all. I was just curious as to whether the team was possibly thinking about somehow implementing the inclusion of women into the ranks of the Sauromatians as a lot of up-to-date archaeological research (see Davis-Kimball; Linduff and Rubinson; Joyce; Hanks) has gone into showing that some women likely took part in warfare. I'm not expecting a "head-hunters"-esque unit like we saw in R:TW but perhaps simply adding skins of women's faces onto some of the Sauromatian horse archers would be a nice way to include them in-game.
Any thoughts on the matter?
Re: Sauromatian Warrior Women?
The burials Davis-Kimball refers to, between the Volga and Ural, contained only few arrowheads and light weapons like a knife. Their skeletons show "battle-wounds" in isolated cases and it is difficult to determine whether these occurred while fighting or hunting. Also the majority of them were girls between 13 and 14 years of age, the far more likely explaination for this is that these were unmarried women, who took an active part in the daily subsistence alongside all youths. Then of course like Herodotos mentions, it is possible that they entered "womanhood" by taking part in a raid, proving themselves ready to take care of a new family nucleus...
Afterall most of their grave goods were related to attending the hearth and performing religious roles...
They were definitely able and capable of fighting, but it must've occurred during emergencies, or briefly as a rite of passage...
By contrast Skythian burials show older women, carrying heavy equipment like spears, lances, axes, and in a few graves also iron swords, iron scale belts, javelins, helmets, lamellar shields and scale armour. Together with horse sacrifices and even few cases with complete heavy cavalry equipment...
Moreover in these cases there are frequent signs of injuries, such as serious blows or stabs to the skull and arrowheads stuck in bones...
Iirc these amount to over one hundred female graves from around the 4th century BCE, and have been thought as a sign of the Skythian dire situation, having to fight on multiple fronts, while also losing pastures, Makedones, Sauromatae and Thrako-Keltic tribes. Thus requiring even women to fight...
We've used this evidence to add also a female model in the already previewed Skythian noble cavalry unit :)