Archaeologists discovered an Etruscan warrior prince's remains found in Tuscany, Italy are actually of a warrior princess, a bone analysis confirmed.
Judith Weingarten, an alumna of the British School at Athens, confirmed in her research blog that the 2,600-year-old remains found next to a spear were of a female, and the belongings found in the grave were likely to be of a warrior princess as well.
However, experts in the Etruscan culture offer varying opinions as to whether the remains are of a warrior princess. Alessandro Mandolesi, professor of Etruscan civilization and Italic Antiquities at Turin University and director of the excavations, told Viterbo News 24 on Sept. 26 the grave belonged to a married couple, and the spear symbolized their union.
''It is unusual to find a body of a woman with a spear, for this reason, at the beginning, it was thought the discovery of a warrior," Mandolesi said. "After getting the results of anthropological analysis on the skeleton and after finding the burial of man, we had a clearer picture of what we had found. The spear, most likely, was placed as a symbol of union between the two deceased.''
Weingarten disagrees with Mandolesi because the spear was found lying next to the female's remains, not the male's. Weingarten theorizes the female could have also been a high-ranking official in the ancient society.
"So the newly-identified lady still doesn't get credited with her own lance. The thought doesn't even arise that it might be a symbol of her power and authority rather than the weapon of a warrior," Weingarten wrote in her research blog. "Downplayed like this, this major revision of the original story dropped like a stone into the media pool without leaving so much as a bubble behind."
Weingarten also claims the belief that the jewelry only belonged to the female found in the grave site may not have been accurate, as Etruscan men would have also worn jewelry.
"Until very recently, and sadly still in some countries, sex determination is based on grave goods. And that, in turn, is based almost entirely on our preconceptions. A clear illustration is jewelry: We associate jewelry with women, but that is nonsense in much of the ancient world," Weingarten told LiveScience. "Guys liked bling, too."
For Weingarten's full analysis of the grave site, click here. For photos of the tomb, click here.
