The Phenomenon of Burying Women with Weapons in Iron Age Poland: Tactical, social and funerary considerations

Aim. This article focuses on the phenomenon of military items buried with individuals anthropologically identified as female. While the body of sources informing the analysis of this archaeological phenomenon have already been presented in a separate article [Bochnak 2010], this publication will discuss the possible lines of interpretation for such finds and attempt to explain them. Is the presence of military items in the graves of women enough to posit that warrior-women did exist in the Iron Age? Or perhaps, should it perhaps be viewed as an expression of other customs, not necessarily indicative of women actually wielding arms, barring exceptional cases? Methods. The article discusses both ancient and early mediaeval written sources mentioning women taking part in combat in the context of Central Europe [Cassius Dio, Vita Aureliani, Jordanes, Getica , Isidore of Seville, Etymologiæ, Paul the Deacon, Historia Langobardorum and Liutprandi Leges]. It is possible that at least some of these mentions pertain to extraordinary situations requiring all members of a local community capable of bearing arms to fight. For the Germanic peoples, the idea of armed women would not have been improper or offensive. The figure of the Valkyries – the fierce mythical daughters of Odin – should be testament enough. Nevertheless, all the above sources speak of territories which were either close to the borders of the Roman Empire or the location of which are not strictly defined. Sadly, we do not possess any similar sources confirming the existence of female fighters north of the Carpathians in the younger pre-Roman and Roman period. To demonstrate warrior women did exist, we first need to consider the social implications of the phenomenon, as well as the tactical advantages this may have entailed. Accounts of female warriors mainly describe communities which preferred ranged weapons over hand-to-hand combat, as was often the case among nomadic peoples. Cavalry formations were especially common in the steppes of Eurasia or America but both Central and Western Europe lacked the swathes of open space for such tactics to take hold. While the Germanic social order did allow women to assume prestigious functions, for example as envoys, it does not necessarily follow that these women would have enjoyed the privilege of carrying arms. Results & Conclusions. It seems more likely that the weapons discovered in graves did not belong to the deceased as such but were a form of funerary offerings or gifts. They may have served a magical purpose of some sort or were perhaps an expression of respect for the buried women. And even though women of the Przeworsk culture may have occasionally participated in armed combat, there is little evidence that they may be called warrior-women in the proper sense. © Idōkan Poland Association “IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology”, Vol. 20, no. 1 (2020), pp. 1–13 DOI: 10.14589/ido.20.1.1 The presence of weaponry is used in archaeology to establish the gender of cremated individuals and is commonly considered an indicator of male burials. However, past anthropological research has also shown occasional examples of military equipment being found amongst grave goods recovered from female burials. During the Iron Age, from the turn of the 2nd century BC, up until the beginning of 5th century AD, the central and southern territories of present Poland saw the development of a culture known as Przeworsk. This new culture belonged to a broader system of cultures which emerged locally from the Central-European Barbaricum under La Tène influence. To date, about 62-63 graves of women containing weaponry have been found within known Przeworsk culture complexes (including 7 burials of women with infants). However, in ten of the above cases, spurs were the only piece of military equipment recovered from the graves [Bochnak 2010]. It has subsequently been shown 2 “IDO MOVEMENT FOR CULTURE. Journal of Martial Arts Anthropology”, Vol. 20, no. 1 (2020) that the phenomenon was most widespread in Mazovia, mainly during the early Roman period (phase B) and during the intermediate phases between early and later Roman period – i.e. approximately during the first two centuries AD. This may be because the early Roman period Przeworsk burials are particularly rich in grave goods with weapons being a fairly common element of the funerary ritual at the time. It is also worth noting that the apparent differences in the distribution of female burials containing weapons dated to the younger pre-Roman and Roman period observed in the territories of present Poland allow us to rule out the possibility of error in determining the sex of buried individuals through anthropological analysis. In other words, we can assume that had the method been wrong, the error would apply to the entire Przeworsk culture material, producing a uniform percentage of female graves containing weapons [Bochnak 2010]. The subject matter of this discussion will not be the weaponry discovered in the Iron Age female graves known from the territories of Poland. Instead, it will examine those cases of burials with weapons where the deceased have been anthropologically determined as female in order to discuss the phenomenon itself. The body of sources informing the analysis of this archaeological phenomenon had been presented in a separate article [Bochnak 2010]. Here, our focus will fall on explaining and understanding such practices. Could these burials confirm the existence of warrior women in the Przeworsk culture? Or perhaps, should it rather be viewed as an expression of other customs, not necessarily indicative of women actually wielding wielding arms, barring exceptional cases? The scope of our discussion will intentionally be limited to materials of the Przeworsk culture. This is because the aspects of such practices may have varied within different models of settlement or social structures. Let us first examine the accounts of female warriors from Central Europe found in Antique sources. The Germania by Publius Cornelius Tacitus remains our primary written source on the Germanic tribes in the early Roman period, with his other works providing some additional details. While Tacitus does not explicitly mention warrior women, his writings do contain occasional passages discussing the position of women in the Germanic society and describing the role weapons played in marriage rituals. Germania is certainly an extraordinary source, but with all of its obvious qualities, it does lean towards the interpreaetatio romana, that is the Roman perspective on things. As such, it frequently alludes to the Roman world. Scholars have also pointed out many inaccuracies, oversimplifications and anachronisms in Tacitus’ work. While Tacitus does not state that Germanic women did wield weapons, some of the fragments we find in his work seem noteworthy. For one, in his description of the Germanic wedding ceremony, we read that the bride ‘brings her husband some arms’ (atque in vicem ipsa armorum aliquid viro affert) [Tacitus, Germania, 18]. Unfortunately, the provenance of these ‘arms’ is not stated. We are not told whether they originally belonged to a male relative of the bride. Similarly we do not know if the gift subsequently became property of the husband or was included in the woman’s dowry. Could a widowed woman reclaim it? Or maybe this was in fact the weapon which would later be deposited in the widow’s grave? We also learn that during the same ceremony, the future husband too presented gifts1 such as a sword, a framea (a polearm), a shield, a horse in harness and oxen. According to Tacitus: ‘The arms which she then receives she must preserve inviolate, and to her sons restore the same, as presents worthy of them, such as their wives may again receive, and still resign to her grandchildren’ [Tacitus, Germania, 18]. It seems that the weapons were to be passed to women from the younger generations!2 However, we do not know what happened if the woman died childless. Perhaps in such cases the arms were buried with her? The passage is far from unambiguous. Jerzy Kolendo believes that Tacitus’ account of the husband bringing the dowry instead of the bride can be read as a Roman interpretation of a bride purchase. Alternatively, it may have been a simple exchange of gifts, as was common in Germanic communities [Kolendo 2008b: 139, 130]. When reading Tacitus, we need also remember that his writings contain a great many references to the Roman world and the passages concerning women are no different. As such, they need to be read as didactic instructions addressed to readers well acquainted with the nuances of the Roman society and politics. Some of the observations found in “Germania” are in fact a commentary on the reality of Rome rather than an informative description of the Barbaricum interior. This interpretation of Tacitus’ text applies also to the comments he makes about the virtuous Germanic women who abstain from writing love letters. According to J. Kolendo, the passage about the Sitones people being ruled by women is also in fact a reference to the status of women in Rome and a reminder that autocracy inadvertently leads to the loss of liberty for citizens [Kolendo 2008a: 184-186]. Again, Tacitus is often far from being unambiguous. As an example, he mentions that some of the Germanic priests wear women’s robes [Tacitus, Germania, 43]. However, he does not specify whether these were indeed robes actually worn by Ger1 The text is not clear – at times the gift is intended for the bride’s family, at other times for herself. 2 The typo-chronological analysis of the archaeological material reveals a fast change pattern of sword forms and thus contradicts Tacitus’ statement – the forms changed so quickly that the same item could have been used by two gen-