18th December 2005, 09:02 PM
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I would be interested to know of any examples of women buried with swords, so if you can point me to any suitable reports that discuss it and put it into context, I would be grateful.
http://www.swordmaiden.com/history/overview.php
http://www.archaeology.org/9701/abstract...tians.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/0...1776.shtml
http://www.lothene.demon.co.uk/others/womenvik.html
These are just a few of the websites where you can find information about female skeletons found with weapons.
It has been a long held belief of mine that our understanding of ancient warfare is based on the Victorians desire to show that men were in charge of things. This was compounded by Religious teachings that women should be quiet and follow the orders of the senior male of her house. All to keep,as has been said, the status-quo.
Surely the evidence speaks for itself that women played just as much a part of defending her home as the men did. It may have been as a result of all eligible males in her family being dead, and therefore unable to fulfill the military obligations put on them by their fudal overlords for the levying of troops, that caused women to take up arms.