Secrets of the Dead: Amazon Warrior Women

The legend of the Amazons, beautiful, bloodthirsty warrior women thundering across arid battlefields, has been speculated over for thousands of years. Greek myths are filled with mention of their exploits, from Homer, who writes that the Amazons fought in the Trojan War, to Herodotus, the father of history, who gives their last known location as the steppes of Southern Russia. Each account speaks of the women's wild-eyed ferocity and uncompromised savagery in battle. But the question remains: are they mythical or real?

For centuries, researchers found no archaeological evidence of their existence. But recently, in burial mounds located near the Russian town of Pokrovka, archaeologists unearthed the 2,500-year-old remains of nomadic women buried with an array of weapons and other articles of war. One young woman's bowed leg bones indicated a life spent on horseback; another had a bent arrowhead lodged in its body cavity, inferring she might have died in battle. Archaeologist Jeannine Davis-Kimball has led a 10-year investigation into whether any of these long-dead nomads could in fact be the Amazons of legend. Following a trail of artifacts to the remotest regions of Russia and Mongolia, Davis-Kimball will use DNA analysis to track down the descendants of these infamous warrior women.