It wouldn't exactly be surprising to find it happening, in and of itself. The surprise would lie in the fact that there are no known precedents for this in Greek vases. And, of course, it would be surprising to find it was under your nose all along. The real reason this is hitting the news, of course, is because Amazons are cool. But there would certainly be nothing intrinsically implausible about finding Scythian languages rendered in the Greek alphabet on a vase depicting a Scythian theme, or a vase made in the Hellenic Ukraine.

But that doesn't seem to be what they've found. It's hard to be sure, as the actual article hasn't been published yet, but Exhibit A in the National Geographic report is a south Italian depiction of a theatrical scene. Moreover, there is a well-known habit for illiterate Greek vase painters to make their vases more prestigious by adding marks that look like writing.

So I'm wary of this news. The main author of the study has a bit of a track record of cherry-picking factoids to suit predetermined theories. We'll know more once the journal is published, of course.

Edit. I should have said Exhibit B, of course. Exhibit A does show an Amazon in what looks like Scythian dress, so there's definitely a case to be made for that one.

Language was first adopted by the Greeks via the Phoenicians who had developed the very first alphabet. The becoming of literacy in Greece catapulted them out of the Dark Ages and brought them into the Archaic Period.

Exekias, one of the most famous potters of Athens, signed one of his works, "Exekias made me!" Other potters simply labelled the figures on the vase. You can see their excitement about communication and language. It gave their works personality.