Christine Lehnen’s illuminating investigation of a past where women enjoyed a more egalitarian life is explored through bioarchaeological methods in Remembering Women: Lessons from the Ancient World (19th June 2025).
Publisher: Icon Books
Publication date: 19 Jun 2025
Language: English
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 1837732175
ISBN-13: 9781837732173
Women have a rich and complex history—we just need to remember it. In Remembering Women author and scholar Christine Lehnen explores our collective memory revealing the many ways women in the past lived more equal lives than we often recognize today.
New discoveries in bioarchaeology have shown surprising findings. In Ancient Scythia, one in three women were warriors buried with their weapons. These women didn’t stay at home—they hunted, traveled, and fought with men. This wasn’t unusual—Scythian women enjoyed far greater equality than Greek women at the same time.
Lehnen argues that history shows more equitable societies have existed before. From Stone Age bone calendars to new studies of human remains, archaeology is building a growing case for societies where women thrived.
Lehnen explores how people have forgotten or misremembered women’s stories over time. Remembering Women follows the artifacts, art, and legacies women left behind to reimagine how our collective memory can evolve to help build a more egalitarian future.
About the Author
Christine Lehnen is a lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Exeter. She is a regular contributor on feminism, culture, history, archaeology and public memory for outlets such as Aeon, Psyche, The Wire, Antigone, New Lines Magazine, and Deutsche Welle.
