September 23rd, 2010 – The historical museum of Speyer presents objects connected with the famous myth of the amazons. The exhibition plans to demonstrate that there was good reason for the ancient stories about the mysterious warrior maidens.
Reconstruction of the Achill-Penthesilea-Group. Photo: Foto: Peter Haag-Kirchner/Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer.
For the past three millennia, the exploits of the Amazon tribe have become the theme of legend. These implacable female warriors are supposed to have battled before Troy and laid siege to Athens. To this day, scholars have searched the world for evidence of their true nature.
Vase featuring an amazone, ca. 500 BC. Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek / Munich. Photo: Peter Haag-Kirchner/Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer.
In a unique international historical and cultural exhibition with the title, “The Amazons – Mysterious Warrior Maidens”, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate seeks to cast some light on the Amazons in all their facets from antiquity to the present day.
Reconstruction of Skythian clothes. Photo: Peter Haag-Kirchner/Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer.
You will see the spectacular graves of armed Scythian women along with sensational finds from the Altai mountains of Siberia. That is where the interment of a young female warrior was discovered under a burial mound – an archaeological sensation.
This scull shows traces of a stroke, which was effected by a war pickax. A weapon like this formed part of the burial ensemble of Ak-Alacha. There a double grave was found. The pickax belonged to a 16 year old woman. Photo: Peter Haag-Kirchner/Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer.
Was this woman of antiquity an Amazon? Never before has anyone seen such a find complex of weapons, jewellery and elaborate horse harness outside of Russia.
Kyme. Nero, 54-68. Rev. Amazone Kyme. Staatliches Münzkabinett Berlin.
Lenders to this splendid show include important museums of Europe and Asia such as the British Museum London, the National Museum of the History of the Ukraine in Kiev, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek in Copenhagen, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Basel Museum of Ancient Art.
For more details about the exhibition, click here.