Searching for the Amazons Read online

  Antigone 25

  Antiope (Amazon)

  and Theseus 9–10

  du Boccage Les Amazones 176–7

  possibly in Bassae Frieze 21

  Rubens/Brueghel version 164–5

  Antwerp, Catholic renaissance 163–4

  Apassionata, horseback archery show 118

  Aphrodite, Amazons and, Wonder Woman version 256–7

  Apollo

  Apollo Epikourios statue, Bassai 17–18

  in Bassae Frieze 20, 22–3

  Arcadia, Bassae 17–20

  Archaeology magazine 73

  archery, flight 106

  archery, horseback, Kassai revives as sport 106–21

  Areopagus 1–2

  Amazons at 9–10

  Ares (god of war) 1, 4

  Argippaei, bald Scythians 35, 54

  Argos 3

  Ariapeithes, Scythian king, and Olbia 32

  Arimaspians 53

  Aristotle, on polis xvii, xviii

  Aronova, Raisa 227

  Arrian (Greek general), and Alans 102

  Artemis (Diana), in Bassae Frieze 20, 22

  Aryans see Alans

  Arzhan kurgans 56

  kurgan 1, artefacts 56, 58–9

  kurgan 2, artefacts 59–61

  Arzu 264

  Assam silk 86

  Assyrians

  and Cimmerians 31, 37

  and Scythians 88

  Atakpamé people, Togo 193

  Athena, Parthenon statue 16–17

  Athenian men

  and gods 2

  women as threat 25

  xenophobia 25–6

  Athens, early 1–2

  429 BC plague 17

  Amazons attack 2, 9–10

  council 1–2

  athletes, modern 49

  Aurelian, Amazon captives, Gibbon on 171

  aviation, women and, USSR 216–40

  Aviation Group 122 219–40

  Aymyrlyg cemetery, remains 61–7

  Azov Sea 7–8, 237

  Baga Turgen Gol (BTG) burial area 88–91

  Basques 265

  Bassae (Bassai) temple 17–20

  Bassae Frieze 19–26

  Bassi, Laura, professorship in anatomy 179

  Batman (Detective Comics) 252

  Batman v. Superman, Wonder Woman in 262

  Bayan-Ölgii 88

  Bayol, Jean, on Dahomey 207–8

  Beecroft, John 206

  Begikhani, Nazand 272

  Béhanzin, King of Dahomey, fights French 209–11

  Bella (Kassai’s horse) 110

  Benedict XIV, Pope, support to women in science 178–80

  Benin

  Dahomey, ahosi ‘Amazons’ 191–212

  slave trade 193, 196, 197, 198, 206

  Bershanskaya, Yevdokiya, Night Bombers 223, 230

  Bezos, Jeff, and amazon.com 156–7

  bioarchaeology 62

  black Sparta (Dahomey) 191–212

  Black Sea Scythians 5, 7–8, 26, 31, 32, 35–7, 59

  kurgans 52–4

  Boccaccio, Giovanni, Teseida delle nozze di Emilia 124–5

  Bocher, Joachim 18–19

  Bochkareva, Maria, Women’s Battalion of Death (WWI) 216

  Bologna Academy 179

  Brazilian river lands, ‘Amazon’ communities 138–49

  Britain, Sarmatians as Roman troops 102

  British Museum, and Bassae Frieze 20–2

  Brok-Beltsova, Galina, on USSR women fliers 224–5

  Bronze Age peoples, inner Asia 30–1

  Bruegel, Pieter the Elder 163

  Brueghel, Jan, and Rubens, The Battle of the Amazons 163–5

  Brueghel, Pieter the Younger 163

  BTG (Little Turgen River) massacre/ burial area 88–91

  Bug River, Herodotus on 31–2

  Burton, Richard

  with East India Company 194–6

  in East Africa 195–6

  in West Africa 196–206

  on Dahomey women’s army 200–6

  takes British gifts to Glele 197–206

  Byrne, Ethel 244

  Byrne, Olive

  and Family Circle magazine 250, 252, 253, 258–9

  and Marston 246–53, 258

  Cabrillo, Juan Rodriguez, ‘finds’ Amazon California 133–4

  Califia, Montalvo’s Amazon queen 128–9

  California, Montalvo’s fictional Amazon island 128–34

  ‘found’ by Cabrillo 133–4

  Carpathian Mountains 32

  Carter, Lynda 261

  Carvajal, Gaspar de, on Amazon river communities 137–49

  account lost until 19th century 147–8

  Caspian Sea 38

  Sarmatians east of 94

  centauromachies art theme 16, 21–2

  Center for the Study of Eurasian Nomads 69

  Centre of Horseback Combat 118–20

  Cervantes, Don Quixote 129

  Chateaubriand, Paradise Lost translation 173

  Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Knight’s Tale’ 125

  Chekhov, Anton, ‘The Steppe’ 33

  China, and Tuva 56

  bride carriage 77

  beads, Pokrovka 98

  Chisholm, Shirley 260–1

  Chugunov, Konstantin 60

  Churchill, Winston, on Dum-Dum bullets 208

  Cimmerians 31, 37

  clay-shoveller’s fracture 65

  Cockerell, Charles 20

  Columbus, Christopher, and Americas 131–2

  Columbus, Diego, and Esplandian 131

  Comédie Française 177

  comic books 251–8

  early, accused of fascism 252

  Condamine, Charles Marie de la

  on Amazons 154–5, 171, 173–4

  on New World 178

  Cortés, Francisco 133

  Cortés, Hernán, seeks fictional Amazon California 133–4

  Cotonou, French at 207, 208

  repel Dahomean attack 208

  Cousins-Greenwood, Karl 119–20

  Cousins-Greenwood, Zana, and horseback archery 118–20

  Crimea Scythian dynasties 37

  cultural evolution, tracing 214

  Curtius, on Alexander and Amazons 39–41

  Cyrus the Great, and Scythians 37–8, 42, 127

  d’Alembert, Jean 170

  Dahomey

  France and 207–12

  human sacrifices, Burton on 202–3

  women’s army, ahosi ‘Amazons’ 191–212

  Burton on 200–6

  women ‘reborn’ as men 204–5

  women’s shadow administration 192, 198–9

  Dalzel, Archibald, on Dahomey women bodyguards 193

  ‘Dan Dare Pilot of the Future’ xvi

  Danube and Don kurgans 55

  Danube, grassland culture limit 31

  Darius the Great 71

  failed invasion of Scythian lands 94–6

  Darwin, Charles, Origin of Species 196, 214

  Davis-Kimball, Jeannine

  on Golden Man (woman) 68–74

  on Pokrovka kurgans 96–101

  Warrior Women 70, 97

  Dayika Gulé 271

  DC Comics, formerly Detective Comics, Marston and 253

  defenestrations, Prague 160

  Delle, Todd, and horseback archery 115

  Democratic Union Party, Syria 272

  Detective Comics, Batman 252

  Diana the Wonder Woman 241, 255–8, 259, 260

  Diderot, Denis 170

  Diodorus, on Hippolyte 6, 7

  Dionysus (Bacchus) ritual 184

  Dnieper River 54

  Herodotus on 31–2

  Scythian dynasties 37

  Don River 7–8, 55, 94–5

  Germans cross 228

  Scythian dynasties 37

  du Boccage, Anne-Marie le Page

  La Colombiade: Faith Transported to the New World 178, 180

  Les Amazones 173–8

  Paradise Los
t verse translation 173

  salon 172–3, 178

  du Châtelet, Émilie, on Newton’s Principia 179–80

  Duncan, John, on Dahomey women’s army 193

  Dzhatkambaev, Auelkhan, on Altai and Ice Maiden 83–4

  Dzhigitovka Federation, horseback archery 120

  Eagle comic xvi

  egalitarian societies 215

  Egypt, and Cimmerians 37

  El Dorado (Golden Man) land, search for 134–49

  Elgin Marbles 20

  Elizabeth I, Queen of England 149–51

  Eller, Cynthia, Gentlemen and Amazons 215n48

  embalming

  Ice Maiden 81–2

  Pazyryk 76–7, 87

  Scythians, Herodotus on 35–6, 76–7

  Encyclopedia Britannica 248, 249

  Engeländer, Pettra, and horseback archery 117–18

  Engels, Aviation Group 122 at 220–5

  Enlightenment

  feminist, du Boccage, Les

  Amazones 173–7

  rationalism 169–80

  Eriboea 7

  Erkinova, Rimma 83

  Esplandian (Montalvo), influence 128–34

  etymology, folk 44–5

  Eumenides (Furies) 2

  Eurystheus, King of Argos/ Mycenae/Tiryns 3–4

  Everett, Dan, and Piraha people 145–6

  experimental psychology 245–60

  and movies 249–50

  Family Circle magazine 250, 252, 253, 258–9

  fashionable mythology 24–5

  female genital mutilation 48

  feminist Enlightenment, du

  Boccage, Les Amazones 173–7

  feminist writings, United States 241–4, 260–1

  Fernando Po, Burton at 196

  Fighter 586th Regiment (USSR) fliers 221–2, 228–9

  1st Squadron underused at Stalingrad 228

  2nd Squadron takes down Ju-88 229

  now in 296th Regiment 234–7

  Yak-1s 222, 228

  fighting, injuries from 64–7

  Firestone, Shulamith 260–1

  Flesh and the Devil (Garbo movie) 249

  flight archery 106

  folk etymology 44–5

  Fon people, Dahomey 192–212

  Fontenelle, and du Boccage 173

  on Les Amazones 177

  foot-binding 48

  Forbes, Frederick, on Dahomey women’s army 193, 204–5, 206

  France, Encyclopédistes 170–3

  Franco-Dahomean war 207–12

  Dahomey women’s army and 208–11

  French invade Dahomey 209–11

  French repeating rifles and Dum-Dum bullets 208–11

  Franklin, Benjamin, and du Boccage 180

  Friedan, Betty 260–1

  Furies (Eumenides) 2

  Gárdonyi, Géza, The Invisible Man 108–9

  Gaddafi, Muammar, ‘Amazonian Guard’ 264

  Gaines, Maxwell Charles

  and Marston 253

  comic books 251–60

  Game of Thrones 129

  gay community, du Boccage’s Colombiade and 180

  Gelman, Polina, combat flights 226

  Genghis Khan 53, 68

  and archery 106, 120

  Georgia

  Alans as Ossetians 102

  Amazon frontiers 39

  German Archaeological Institute 60

  German enemies, Wonder Woman and 257

  Germany, Thirty Years’ War 160–2, 165–6, 168

  Germany, Operation Barbarossa (WWII) 219–33

  Gezo, King of Dahomey

  begins women’s army 193

  killed by Yoruba 197, 206

  Gibbon, Edmund, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 171

  doubts Amazons 171

  Gilman, Charlotte Perkins

  Forerunner (magazine) 243

  Herland 243–4, 256

  Women and Economics 242

  ginseng, ‘evidence’ for Amazons in America 153–4

  Glele, King of Dahomey

  resists British treaty 197, 206

  attacks Abeokuta, defeated 207

  Burton’s official visit to 197–206

  Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von

  and Kleist’s Penthesilea 183, 185, 188–9

  Iphigenia on Tauris 183

  Werther, influence 181–2

  Golden Man (woman) 69–74

  Gorno Altaisk Museum, Ice Maiden at 83–4

  Goths

  and Alans 103

  and Olbia 32n5

  Grandin, Major Léonce, on Dahomey women’s army 211

  grassland culture 29–37

  grave robbers, Pazyryk valley 75–6

  Great Salbyk Kurgan 55–5

  Great Ulagan River 75

  Great Wall, grassland culture limit 31

  Greece, Amazons invade 9–10

  Greek/Scythian commercial contact 37

  Greeka.com, repeating breast myth 47

  Greeks (Achaeans)

  Amazons, Sarmatian women as 97

  and Scythians 31

  defeat Persians 16

  gods, attributes 258

  Siege of Troy 10–16

  griffins 53

  Grimmelshausen, Hans von, Simplicissimus 161–2

  Gubina, Lyuba 231

  gunpowder, ends mounted archery 106

  Guyon, Claude, on Amazons 171

  Haecht, Willem van, The Gallery of Cornelis van der Geest 168

  Hallerstein, Carl Haller von 20

  Harris, Marvin 214–15

  Harrison, John 179

  Heavy Bomber 587th Regiment 221–21

  Hector 3, 11

  Hecuba 3, 11

  Helen of Troy 3, 11

  Hera and Heracles 6

  Heracles (Hercules) 42

  and Hippolyte’s girdle 4–7

  Wonder Woman version 256–7

  Hera and 6

  in Bassae Frieze 20

  Rubens/Brueghel version 164–5

  Herberay, Nicolas de, Esplandian rewrite 129–30

  Hérissé, Auguste le, on Dahomey women’s army survivors 212

  Herodotus

  on Amazons and Scythians 7–8

  on bald/shaved/scalped Scythians 35, 54n10, 63, 76

  on Persians 24

  on royal burials 58–9

  on Sauromatians 51, 93–6

  on Scythians 31–7, 46, 51–2, 63

  on strange races 64

  Hippocrates, On Airs, Waters, Places 45–6

  Hippolyte (daughter of Ares) 4–7

  and Penthesilea 12

  and Theseus

  Boccaccio on 124–5

  Chaucer on 125

  girdle 4–7

  possibly in Bassae Frieze 22

  Rubens/Brueghel version 164–5

  Rubens realist version 166–7

  Wonder Woman version 256–7

  Hippolytus (son of Theseus and Antiope) 9

  Hisarlik see Troy 3

  Hitler, Adolf, Operation Barbarossa 219–33

  Hittites 3, 5

  Holland, war of independence from Spain 162–3, 165–6, 168

  Holloway, Elizabeth

  and Marston 245–60

  and Wonder Woman 253, 258, 259

  Homer

  Amazones antianeirai 44

  and written records 10

  Iliad 3

  on Siege of Troy 10–11

  Horse & Hound 119

  horse-based cultures, injuries 62–3, 64–7

  horseback archery, Kassai revives as sport 106–21

  as business 114–21

  hitting target 112–14

  reloading 110, 111–12

  skill not strength 106

  horsewomen, inner Asia 29–37

  Howard, Alethea, Countess of Arundel, Rubens and 168

  Howard, Thomas, Earl Marshal of England 168

  Hunno-Sarmatians, remains 61–7

  Huns, mounted archery 109

  Huntley, Marjorie, and Marston 246–8, 25
0, 256

  Hurons, Amazon descent, Lafitau on 152–3, 214

  Huss, Jan 160

  Hyperboreans 53

  Ice Maiden (Ukok Princess)

  2003 earthquakes and 83–4

  and Altaian nationalism 82–3

  grave, Ukok Plateau 79–84

  artefacts 81–2

  horses 81

  imported clothing 82, 86–7

  not warrior 85

  shaved head 87

  status/identity 83–7

  tattoos 81, 85–6

  Ictinos (sculptor) 17

  Idanthyrsus, Scythian king, and Persian invasion 94–6

  Independent European Horse Archery School 117

  Indo-European languages 54

  International Horseback Archery Alliance 120

  Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon 35

  Iraq, Kurdish women, fighting Daesh/IS 263–4, 268–73

  Iroquois women, identified with classical Amazons 152–4

  Ismagulov, Orazak, on Golden Man (woman) 71–2, 73

  Issedonians 53

  Issyk (Esik) kurgans 67–74

  Ivakina, Nina (Komsomol) 225

  Japan, horseback archery 106n22, 121

  Japanese diaphragms, Sanger and 251

  Jeremiah (prophet), on Scythians 88

  Jerusalem artichoke 44

  Joan of Arc 213

  Jordana, Xavier, and BTG burial area 88–91

  Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 248

  Journal of Archaeological Science, BTG team paper 89–90

  Justinus, on Amazons 46

  Kalinin, Mikhail 229

  ‘Kara’ Fatma, WWI Turkish army commander 266

  Kassai, Lajos

  Horseback Archery 108

  revives horseback archery 106–21

  Kazakh Institute 68

  Kazakhs, Mongolia 89

  headdresses 72

  Kazakhstan

  Golden Man (woman) 69–74

  bones lost 73–4

  Issyk kurgans 67–74

  Saka (Sacae) 53

  kurgans 67–74

  Keatley, Carolyn 247

  Khanem, Adela, WWI Halabja region ruler 266

  Khingan Mountains 32

  Khomyakova, Valeriya, takes down Ju-88 229

  Kleist, General Paul von, Night Witches attack on 228

  Kleist, Heinrich von 182–90

  and Pfuel 187–8

  Der zerbrochene Krug 185

  Penthesilea 183–9

  psychoanalysis 185–90

  Phöbus 183

  suicide with Vogel 189–90

  Kleist, Ulrike von 187

  Kleist island 187

  Kociok, Oberfeldwebel Josef, downs 4 Night Bombers 238–9

  Korea, horseback archery 121

  Kotilon, Mount 17

  Kuban River Scythian dynasties 37

  kumiss 34, 38, 65, 71, 72, 89, 101

  Kunstkammer Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography 62

  Kurdish women fighters 263–73

  Kurdistan no Sharia law 270

  pleas for 265

  Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) 267

  mixed-sex military wing 269–73

  kurgans (Scythian grave mounds)

  Akkerman kurgan 54–5

  artefacts 52–3, 54–101

  Arzhan kurgans 56, 58–61