18th December 2005, 11:01 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by john1504 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.
Not quite sure that the evidence speaks for itself. It isn't the deceased after all that would have placed the weapons in a grave, but a third party (or parties). Archaeology doesn't yet have the technology to determine their motives, ritual or otherwise.
Mistakes have probably been made in the past in jumping too quickly to conclusions regarding grave goods. Suggesting that a fragment of pottery depicting a gladiator indicates a gladiator (or gladiatrix) burial, being the one case that immediately springs to mind.