Searching for the Amazons

Searching for the Amazons
Author: John Man
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 168177707X

Since the time of the ancient Greeks we have been fascinated by accounts of the Amazons, an elusive tribe of hard-fighting, horse-riding female warriors. Equal to men in battle, legends claimed they cut off their right breasts to improve their archery skills and routinely killed their male children to purify their ranks.For centuries people believed in their existence and attempted to trace their origins. Artists and poets celebrated their battles and wrote of Amazonia. Spanish explorers, carrying these tales to South America, thought they lived in the forests of the world’s greatest river, and named it after them. In the absence of evidence, we eventually reasoned away their existence, concluding that these powerful, sexually liberated female soldiers must have been the fantastical invention of Greek myth and storytelling. Until now.Following decades of new research and a series of groundbreaking archeological discoveries, we now know these powerful warrior queens did indeed exist. In Searching for the Amazons, John Man travels to the grasslands of Central Asia—from the edge of the ancient Greek world to the borderlands of China—to discover the truth about the truth about these women whose legend has resonated over the centuries.

Searching for the Amazons

Searching for the Amazons
Author: John Man
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 168177707X

Since the time of the ancient Greeks we have been fascinated by accounts of the Amazons, an elusive tribe of hard-fighting, horse-riding female warriors. Equal to men in battle, legends claimed they cut off their right breasts to improve their archery skills and routinely killed their male children to purify their ranks.For centuries people believed in their existence and attempted to trace their origins. Artists and poets celebrated their battles and wrote of Amazonia. Spanish explorers, carrying these tales to South America, thought they lived in the forests of the world’s greatest river, and named it after them. In the absence of evidence, we eventually reasoned away their existence, concluding that these powerful, sexually liberated female soldiers must have been the fantastical invention of Greek myth and storytelling. Until now.Following decades of new research and a series of groundbreaking archeological discoveries, we now know these powerful warrior queens did indeed exist. In Searching for the Amazons, John Man travels to the grasslands of Central Asia—from the edge of the ancient Greek world to the borderlands of China—to discover the truth about the truth about these women whose legend has resonated over the centuries.

The Amazons

The Amazons
Author: Adrienne Mayor
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2016-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691170274

The real history of the Amazons in war and love Amazons—fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world—were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons. But just who were these bold barbarian archers on horseback who gloried in fighting, hunting, and sexual freedom? Were Amazons real? In this deeply researched, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated book, National Book Award finalist Adrienne Mayor presents the Amazons as they have never been seen before. This is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history across the ancient world, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China. Mayor tells how amazing new archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons prove that women warriors were not merely figments of the Greek imagination. Combining classical myth and art, nomad traditions, and scientific archaeology, she reveals intimate, surprising details and original insights about the lives and legends of the women known as Amazons. Provocatively arguing that a timeless search for a balance between the sexes explains the allure of the Amazons, Mayor reminds us that there were as many Amazon love stories as there were war stories. The Greeks were not the only people enchanted by Amazons—Mayor shows that warlike women of nomadic cultures inspired exciting tales in ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia, and China. Driven by a detective's curiosity, Mayor unearths long-buried evidence and sifts fact from fiction to show how flesh-and-blood women of the Eurasian steppes were mythologized as Amazons, the equals of men. The result is likely to become a classic.

A Brief History of the Amazons

A Brief History of the Amazons
Author: Lyn Webster Wilde
Publisher: Robinson
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472136780

'Golden-shielded, silver-sworded, man-loving, male-child slaughtering Amazons,' is how the fifth-century Greek historian Hellanicus described the Amazons, and they have fascinated humanity ever since. Did they really exist? For centuries, scholars consigned them to the world of myth, but Lyn Webster Wilde journeyed into the homeland of the Amazons and uncovered astonishing evidence of their historic reality. North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords and armour. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Thermiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults, and an armed, bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious women. Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has produced a coherent and absorbing book that challenges preconceived notions, still disturbingly widespread, of what men and women can do.

In Search of the Amazon

In Search of the Amazon
Author: Seth Garfield
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2014-02-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0822377179

Chronicling the dramatic history of the Brazilian Amazon during the Second World War, Seth Garfield provides fresh perspectives on contemporary environmental debates. His multifaceted analysis explains how the Amazon became the object of geopolitical rivalries, state planning, media coverage, popular fascination, and social conflict. In need of rubber, a vital war material, the United States spent millions of dollars to revive the Amazon's rubber trade. In the name of development and national security, Brazilian officials implemented public programs to engineer the hinterland's transformation. Migrants from Brazil's drought-stricken Northeast flocked to the Amazon in search of work. In defense of traditional ways of life, longtime Amazon residents sought to temper outside intervention. Garfield's environmental history offers an integrated analysis of the struggles among distinct social groups over resources and power in the Amazon, as well as the repercussions of those wartime conflicts in the decades to come.

The Amazons

The Amazons
Author: Ellen Labrecque
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2019-12-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1502651556

The Amazons were some of the most mysterious and lauded women in Greek mythology. An all-female nation of brave fighters, they rode horseback and were expert archers. Although the stories about the Amazons were first told more than two thousand years ago, these powerful women still strike a chord with readers today. Indeed, they are the same Amazons that DC Comics' Wonder Woman calls her family. Using engaging images, facts, sidebars, and pop culture references, this exciting book tells the Amazon origin myth while weaving in true stories of ancient Greek life and highlighting the relevance of the Amazons in modern-day society.

The Lost History of the Amazons

The Lost History of the Amazons
Author: Gerhard Pollauer
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2010-10-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 1446193055

In SEARCH of the HISTORY of the AMAZONS. This book attempts to look at the phenomenon of Amazons from all sides, in order to shed more light on it and bring us close to its explanation. To fathom this legend, it is necessary first of all to refer to its earliest tradition that forms the foundation, without which the solution itself would be inconceivable. In the following, we look beyond the narrow confines of classic antiquity, to find where else in the world such Amazon-like myths exist. Our next step will be to moot different approaches to the question of Amazons. A central theme is the archeological research and our on-site investigation in those regions which are considered to have been the homelands of the Amazons, namely the land of the river Thermodon and Lemnos Island. According to this latest investigation, the lost history of the Amazons can be reconstructed.

In Search of the Amazon

In Search of the Amazon
Author: Seth Garfield
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2014-02-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0822377179

Chronicling the dramatic history of the Brazilian Amazon during the Second World War, Seth Garfield provides fresh perspectives on contemporary environmental debates. His multifaceted analysis explains how the Amazon became the object of geopolitical rivalries, state planning, media coverage, popular fascination, and social conflict. In need of rubber, a vital war material, the United States spent millions of dollars to revive the Amazon's rubber trade. In the name of development and national security, Brazilian officials implemented public programs to engineer the hinterland's transformation. Migrants from Brazil's drought-stricken Northeast flocked to the Amazon in search of work. In defense of traditional ways of life, longtime Amazon residents sought to temper outside intervention. Garfield's environmental history offers an integrated analysis of the struggles among distinct social groups over resources and power in the Amazon, as well as the repercussions of those wartime conflicts in the decades to come.

On the Trail of the Women Warriors

On the Trail of the Women Warriors
Author: Lyn Webster Wilde
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2014-07-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1466875550

"Golden-shielded, silver-sworded, man-loving, male-child slaughtering Amazons." That is how the fifth-century Greek historian Hellanicus described the Amazons, and they have fascinated society ever since. Did they really exist? Until recently scholars consigned them to the world of myth, but Lyn Webster Wilde journeyed into the homeland of the Amazons, and uncovered astonishing evidence of their historic reality. North of the Black Sea she found archaeological excavations of graves of Iron Age women buried with arrows, swords, and armor. In the hidden world of the Hittites, near the Amazons' ancient capital of Themiscyra in Anatolia, she unearthed traces of powerful priestesses, women-only religious cults and an armed bisexual goddess - all possible sources for the ferocious warrior women. Combining scholarly penetration with a sense of adventure, Webster Wilde has explored a largely unknown field and produced a coherent and absorbing book in On the Trail of the Women Warriors: The Amazons in Myth and History, which challenges our preconceived notions of what men and women can do.