28 NATURAL HISTORY October 2014 A mazons, the women warriors who fought Hercu- les and other mythic Greek heroes, were long as- sumed to be imaginary. The surviving myth that they removed one breast for better archery aim was false, but Amazon-like women were real. Archae- ological discoveries in the 1980s of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with weapons helped to prove that warlike women really did exist among nomads of the Scyth- ian steppes of Eurasia. The Greeks understood this long be- fore modern archaeology, and more than a thousand warrior women are depicted on Greek vase paintings. Notably, most of the women are clad in tunics and trousers, or leggings, like those worn by male Scythians. Standard male Greek attire at the time was a rectangle of cloth draped and fastened with pins and a belt, a chiton, similar to that of many other ancient cultures—such as the Roman toga, Egyptian shenti or wrap- around skirt, and Asian sarong. Trousers were more complex. Gender equality may have been advanced centuries ago when both men and women of certain cultures wore pants. By Adrienne Mayor Who Invented Trousers? Greek alabastron, a pottery vessel circa 470 BC, depicts a female warrior wearing highly functional trousers. THE BRITISH MUSEUM