The shield commonly associated with Amazons and Scythians was a pelta, the half-moon or oval shield like that carried by Thracian peltasts (light-armed skirmishers who hurled javelins) who were recruited into Greek armies from the western Black Sea region. Made of wicker, leather, wood, or bronze, the pelta was held by leather handgrips or slung on a diagonal strap (Plates 11 And 12, figs. 7.3, 11.3, 12.2, 15.1, 18.1, 18.3). This shield was so strongly identified with Amazons that the ancient memorial honoring a fallen Amazon queen in Megara (west of Athens) was shaped like her crescent shield.15
After shedding their Greek armor in early art, Amazons don soft Scythian-style caps instead of helmets and sometimes wear corselets of linen or chest armor with scale patterns. Padded linen armor was often used by hunters because it could break the fangs of lions and leopards, commented the travel writer Pausanias, but it was less effective against iron projectiles or spears. Pausanias admired a Sarmatian scaled breastplate displayed in Athens and described how the Sarmatians used horsehair to sew scales cut from horse’s hooves into overlapping rows on leather to create armor that was both attractive and strong. Archaeologists have discovered examples of magnificent golden scaled armor in Scythian male and female warrior burials. Thousands of small golden plaques that were once sewn onto leather tunics recall the Persian breastplates of golden scales described by Herodotus.16
World History
