There really were amazons. A recent PBS Nova program described archeology and DNA analysis that concluded that the warrior women from Homer’s Iliad and Greek history really did exist. Female burials in warrior garb similar to that on ancient Greek art were excavated in Southern Russia. Mitochondrial DNA analysis was conduced on a number of samples from the graves. These were compared to a rare blond girl from a nomadic tribe close to the Chinese border. A least one sample was identical to the mitochondrial DNA of the young girl. One gets one’s mitochondrial DNA only from one’s mother. So the maternal line has continued for 2,500 years. This is amazing as there are so few blond Mongolians. One might have expected this female line to have become extinct as every time a women has no children or only boys her mitochondrial DNA becomes extinct. Because of infant mortality even one daughter may not be enough to continue the line as that daughter may die before having children. Perhaps the nomadic Mongolians have large families increasing the probability of at least one female living to child bearing age. It is interesting that the amazons existed but amazing that such a close relative is alive today.