© Vladimir Semyonov, M.O. Mashezerskaya‘It was so stunning when we just opened the lid and I saw the face there, with that wart, looking so impressive.’
The 'stunning' discovery appears further confirmation of ancient Greek claims about female fighters known as Amazons among the Scythians of central Asia.
In 1988 Dr Marina Kilunovskaya and Dr Vladimir Semyonov came across the partially mummified young warrior's grave Saryg-Bulun in Siberia's modern-day Tuva republic during an emergency excavation.
The archeologists found the prepubescent warrior's remains so well preserved that a 'wart' was visible on the face, and yet at the time there were no indications that this was a female.
© Vladimir SemyonovThis Scythian child was buried with a complete set of weapons - an axe, a one-metre bow made of birch and a quiver with ten arrows some 70 centimetres in length.
There was a rough seam on the skin in the abdomen area, implying an attempt at artificial mummification - but no traces were found of trepanation, which was usual among such burials.
The age was estimated at 12-to-13 years yet - at the time - all the clues suggested this was a male.
© Vladimir Semyonov, V.S. BusovaShe journeyed to the afterlife in a leather cap - the shape of which was thoroughly restored by prominent leather and fabric restorer Natalya Sinitsyna.
The adolescent Amazon had a choice of arrows - two were wooden, one had a bone tip, and the arrowheads of the rest were bronze.
There were no beads, or mirrors, or other indications that this was the grave of a girl, and three decades ago the ancient remains were classified as a young male warrior.
Yet modern scientific advancements mean more detailed genetic tests are now available.
© A.Yu. MakeevaAmazon girl even had her battle axe.
'We agreed with pleasure and got such a stunning result.'
The revealing palaeogenetic analysis was undertaken at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology at the Laboratory of Historical Genetics, Radiocarbon Analysis, and Applied Physics by Dr Kharis Mustafin, Dr Irina Alborova and postgraduate Alina Matsvai.
© Vladimir SemyonovThere were no beads, or mirrors, or other indications that this was the grave of a girl.
'This discrepancy in the norms of the funeral rite received an unexpected explanation: firstly, the young man turned out to be a girl, and this young 'Amazon' had not yet reached the age of 14 years.
'The results of genome-wide sequencing, which showed that a girl was buried in a wooden coffin, were unexpected.
'This opens up a new aspect in the study of the social history of Scythian society and involuntarily returns us to the myth of the Amazons that survived thanks to Herodotus.'
© A.Yu. Makeeva, V.S. BusovaAmazon had quiver, made of leather and horse skin, attached to the belt.
It was sewn in a patchwork.
She wore a shirt under the coat but it has not survived, and light brown and beige trousers or perhaps a skirt.
She journeyed to the afterlife in a leather cap - the shape of which was thoroughly restored by prominent leather and fabric restorer Natalya Sinitsyna.
A spiral ornament spanned the entire surface with red pigment, unevenly descending to one of the edges of the cap.
The depth of her coffin - hollowed from a single piece of wood - was little over half a metre under the ground, oriented to the southwest.
Aside from Herodotus, Greek physician Hippocrates - who lived approximately from 460 BC to 370 BC - noted female warriors among the Sarmatians, a Scythian grouping famed for their mastery of mounted warfare.
© A.Yu. MakeevaThe adolescent Amazon had a choice of arrows - two were wooden, one had a bone tip, and the arrowheads of the rest were bronze.
'They do not lay aside their virginity until they have killed three of their enemies, and they do not marry before they have performed the traditional sacred rites.
'A woman who takes to herself a husband no longer rides, unless she is compelled to do so by a general expedition.'
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