Amazon Warrior Woman on Horseback Discovered on 2,500-Year-Old Vase

The 2,500 year old figure of an ancient Amazon woman has been discovered on a small vase preserved in an American museum.

The figure was found painted on to a white pyxis, a cylindrical box often used in the classical world to keep items of jewellery, cosmetics or other small personal possessions.

It depicts a female warrior, an ‘Amazon’, mounted on horseback armed with a ‘lasso’ and engaged in battle with a Greek enemy soldier, who is trying to avoid the Amazon’s lariat by ducking behind his shield. He is also holding a spear while the Amazon also carries a battle axe.  

The lariat is painted purple, as is the woman’s shoes. The other end of it is tied around her waist and she is holding it near the knot, the correct technique when using a lariat to loop something directly ahead.