The 2020 rediscovery of six mummies, previously thought lost, allowed scientists to re-evaluate the remains of five princesses — four sisters, Khenmet, Itaweret, Ita, and Sathathormeryt, and Princess Noub-Hotep — and King Hor. These royal women were buried with weapons like bows, arrows, and daggers, but without a modern bioarchaeological assessment scientists couldn’t be sure if these were ceremonial or if the princesses could use them. Researchers identified pronounced muscle attachments on the princesses’ bones, consistent with training and developing the muscles for archery, as well as signs of well-cared-for physical trauma. But they also found evidence of persistent infection and possible malnutrition, an indication that royal status couldn’t protect the princesses from everything.

For decades, scientists have disputed the meaning of the weapons found in the burial chambers of some ancient Egyptian princesses. Were they symbolic or practical tools? Now a reassessment of five royal women’s mummies from the Middle Kingdom has shown that some princesses buried with weapons could use them.

“Members of the royal family, especially the women, were active participants in skilled, physically demanding activities such as archery and hunting,” said Dr Zeinab Hashesh of Beni-Suef University, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology. “This conclusion is supported by the way their bones developed to sustain heavy muscle use, which corresponds directly to the weapons discovered in their tombs.”

A scientific study published in 2024 has outlined that Iranian plateau served as a central hub for Homo Sapiens after the dispersal of modern humans (Homo Sapiens) from Africa. The study is available in the below link:

Vallini, L., Zampieri, C., Shoaee, M.J. et al. (2024). The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal. Nature Communications, 15, 1882. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7;  File available in pdf 

As noted by Vallini and fellow researchers, it is well know that (based on genetic, fossil and archaeological studies) that anatomically modern humans dispersed out of Africa approximately 70–60 thousand years ago. However a new finding is that the Iranian Plateau served as a major ancestral “Hub” population of Homo sapiens likely persisted for roughly 20,000 years in or around the Persian/Iranian Plateau before later expansions that populated the Eurasian landmass.

Map-Info graphic obtained from the Quroa outlet based on the Vallini et al study (Source: Quora).

The authors make the following critical point: the Iranian Plateau may have been the long-term demographic and cultural incubator of the populations that later spread across Eurasian landmass: “the time elapsed as a single Hub population might have served as an incubator for the development of cultural innovations…” (Vallini et al., 2024, p.7).

Put simply, after leaving the African mother continent, anatomically modern humans populations may have settled  in the “Hub” of the Iranian Plateau. It was during this prolonged sojourn in the Iranian Plateau  (approximately 60–45 thousand years ago – approx. 25 thousand years during the late Pleistocene era) when modern human developments in technology and culture may have accumulated. These possible developments within the “incubator” of the Iranian Plateau were then to be spread across the Eurasian landmass from 45,000 years ago.

As reported by Afshin Majlesi of the Tehran Times (May 9, 2021): “A new study reinforces a hypothesis that the Iranian plateau was like a bridge between East and West during the Pleistocene epoch, which began about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until about 11,700 years ago” (Image and description: Tehran Times).

It was during these Upper Paleolithic expansions when cultural (symbolism, rock arts, etc.) and technological innovations were to spread across the Eurasian landmass. This may help in explaining the subsequent technological and cultural developments associated with behaviourally modern humans across the Eurasian landmass.

A reconstruction of Paleolithic-era humans at the Paleolithic site of the Khorramabad valley caves in Western Iran’s Lorestan region 60-45,000 years ago (Original Image Source: Tehran Times). Note that Iran’s Khorramabad Valley Paleolithic Cave sites have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

This critical Vallini study raises the level of importance of the ancient Iranian Plateau into having possibly (or potentially) enacted an important role in the later genesis of cultural and technological developments in the Eurasian landmass.

Related posts:

1. Bridge between East and West: Iranian plateau in the Pleistocene Era
2. Article on Persian Heritage journal publishes article on links between Germania and ancient Iranian Peoples
3. Kaldar cave in Iran estimated to date over 63,000 years
4. Archaeologists find New Evidence of Paleolithic Era in Iranian cave
5. Traces of early Humans discovered in Iran 
6. Two New courses for Fall 2018
7. New Book: The Sassanians: Origins of an Empire
8. Academic Article on Iranian Women at War
9. Spanish Military History Journal Interview with Kaveh Farrokh
10. Fall 2019 Iranian Studies Initiative Lectures at the University of British Columbia

By Dr. Kaveh Farrokh|May 14th, 2026|Ancient: Prehistory – 651 A.D., Anthropology, Archaeology, Culture, Heritage, Iran and Africa, Iran and Caucasia, Iran and Central Asia, Iran and China, Iran and Europe, Iran and India, Iran and Japan, Iran and Korea, Iran and the Persian Gulf, Iran and Turkey, News, Pleistocene, Technology|Comments Off

By: Dr Kaveh Farrokh

Below are creations of the dresses of the ancient women of Iran from the Median,

Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanian eras. The four reconstructions depicted here

were made during the early 1970s and are posted in the Iran Matlab website article

titled “مدل لباس زنان در ایران باستان

[Clothing of Women in Ancient Iran]”.

Mede era (c. 615-549 BCE) dress reconstruction based on the silver box discovered with the Oxus Treasure now housed at the British Museum (Source: Iran Matlab).

Reconstruction of  noblewoman based on the Achaemenid era (550-330 BCE) tapestry from Pazyryk housed at the Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg (Source: Iran Matlab).

Parthian era (c.247 BCE – 224 CE) dress from Hatra, based on the figurine housed at the Baghdad Museum (Source: Iran Matlab).

Iranian queen from the Sassanian era (224-651 CE) based on  the silver plate housed at the Walter Art Gallery in Baltimore (Source: Iran Matlab).

Related posts:

1. Fezana Journal article on Ancient Iranian Women
2. Farrokh Lecture on Ancient Iranian Women at Portland State University
3. Brief Notes on Spoons and Forks in Greco-Roman and Ancient Iranian Civilizations
4. UBC Lecture (November 29, 2019): Civilizational Contacts between Ancient Iran and Europe
5. Italian AGON Journal article: Ties of Greco-Roman civilization with ancient Iran
6. Article on Persian Heritage journal publishes article on links between Germania and ancient Iranian Peoples
7. Sassanian Inscription Unearthed in Ancient Iran Necropolis Being Deciphered
8. Presentation on Parthian-era Warrior Women in Eleventh Annual ASMEA Conference Nov 1-3, 2018
9. Books on Armies of Ancient Iran Translated into Persian
10. New Book (2020): The Ladies’ Secret Society – History of the Courageous Women of Iran

TULSA, OKLAHOMA—The bow and arrow were first used in western North America some 1,400 years ago, according to a statement released by PNAS Nexus. Briggs Buchanan of the University of Tulsa and his colleagues radiocarbon dated 136 weapons made of organic materials, which were recovered from glacial ice patches, dry caves, and rock shelters where they had been preserved. The researchers determined that the bow appeared in a single place, then spread rapidly across North America through cultural transmission networks. In northern British Columbia and Alberta, people adopted the bow and arrow, but continued to use the atlatl to throw darts for more than 1,000 years. In contrast, people to the south—in California, the Southwest, and northern Mexico—rapidly replaced the use of the atlatl with the bow and arrow. Buchanan and his team members think that people living to the north may have found some advantages to throwing darts with the atlatl during the colder months or while hunting certain prey. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PNAS Nexus. To read about a rock art panel in central Montana that depicts an archer, go to “A Very Close Encounter.”