The Amazons are the legendary women warriors lived in 1200s B.C. They lived in Themiskyra city that they established near Thermodon (Terme River).

It is said that the women used the cut their right breasts while young in order to pull the bow efficently and thus they were called "Amazons", which means the "breastless".

The Greek mythology mentions the Amazons as the children of Ares, the God of War, and Harmonia (Aphrodite), the benevolent Goddess.

After a nomadic life of hunting and collecting, the settled way of life was adopted and the resulting surplus products brought abundance and welfare.

The symbol of abundance was the woman and thus Cybele, the Goddess of Abundance, appeared.

Turning into a settled way of life affected the position of women in the society and increased their efficiency and selfesteem. This ascending status caused a matriarchal way of life in some societies in time.

The Amazons were the warriors of this matriarchy in Anatolia. They worshipped the Mother Goddess, Cybele, since she symbolized the significance attached to women.

The strange life attitude to life of the Amazons have been mentured in literature. It is said that they used males a workers and servants in daily life and had intercourse with the males they captured in wars for survival and killed them after wards. Their tradition required them to have killed at least three males in order to have intercourse with a man. It is said that they had disabled or killed the male children or given them to their fathers and brought up their daughters with horse milk and halva of power in order for them to become puissant. It is also said that they were related to the Artemis Temple, one of the 7 wonders of the world, that they had built the temple, acted as nuns there and they had embellished temple with their breasts that they sacrificed for the temple.

We see in the Greek fine arts that the Amazons had worn light shirts that they left down to their right shoulders and tied with tapes on the hips, worn Greek helmets on their heads and left their, arms, legs and feet bare. When they had dressed in the Asian style, they had covered their bodies tightly up to their necks, worn some sort of swimsuits on their legs and Friggian helmets on their heads.

The Amazons had used only a sort of cloth instead of packsaddles. They had shot arrows and thrown spears very well while riding their horses. The Amazons which were the most interesting and attractive warrior women of the history have been subject to fine arts throughout history.

A competition had been held in Ephesus in order to construct a statue for the Amazons in 5 B.C. the Amazon Woman Statues that had been built by the competitors have reached today. The most significant of these works are the "Wounded Amazon" statue in Berlin and Rome Capitol and the "Amasone Mattei" statue in Vatican. Besides, the famous "Amazon Warrior" statue by Rubens is one of the most renowned works abouth Amazons.

AMİSOS TREASURE SHORT HISTORY OF AMISOS (SAMSUN)

Amisos was founded as a coastal city at a gulf with the same name in Ponthus region in the north of Asia Minor. The city is situated between two rivers, Kızılırmak River and.....? (Halys). It is on a hill at the seaside. The city, which is an open harbour, had played an important role especially in ancient times as not only does it have a close relation with its hinterland, but it is also the only useful harbour between Sinop (Sinope) and Trabzon (Trapezeus). Amisos, which had been dominated by Athens until the end of IV th century B.C., was first occupied by Persians in 370 B.C., and then by Ponthus Kingdom (IIIrd century B.C.), after Anatolia was dominated by Alexander the Great. Ponthus King, Mithridades Europator, made not only Sinop but also Samsun a royal city. The name of Amisos was often heard during the wars between Mithridades and Romans in the first century B.C. it had been surrounded by the Roman General Lucullus, and after it had fallen, it was burned by the people of Amisos. Then, Amisos was included in Roman Empire and constructed again. After this, it achieved its previous fame. During Byzantium period, it became a bishopric centre and continued to develop.

Amisos Treasure

During the road enlargement studies in Ancient Amisos city, at Cedit Mahallesi (quarter) by İlkadım Municipality, Samsun, it was informed on Tuesday, 28 November 1995 that a hole was seen and some researchers from the museum went there to work.

There was a tomb which had been constructed by carving the conglomerate rock layer. Its floor and ceiling walls had been stuccoed by mortar made of brick dust and lime. The dimensions of the tomb was 5-5.5 m and its height was 2.30 m. Inside the tomb, there were five graves three of which were used and two of which were vacant. It was so understood that this was a family tomb. After the skeletons in the three graves were examined, it was seen that two of them belonged to flames and one of them belonged to a male. Besides, when we examine the archaelogical remnants like jewellery (death gifts), post and pans, we think that the male grave may belong to a highlevel, administrator (like a Prince, King or Commander) of the Ponthus Kingdom and one of the graves of the females may belong to the wife (queen) of the said person (king) and the other grave may belong to their doughter.

We see that the jewellery are located in appropriate places (that is, the crown is on the head, necklace is on the neck and the earrings are at the level of the ear) in this tomb that is in the form of an Insitu.