Thanks VĂ©ro, what a wonderful resource!
Cunliffe very briefly mentioned the Amazons during his lecture on the Scythians, but didn’t really expand on this association. However, as far as I can remember, the archaeologist Timothy Taylor, argued in The pre-History of Sex that the Scythians may have been the origin of the Amazon myth because, like the Amazons, their principal weapon was the bow, but also their main drink was mare’s milk which is very high in oestrogen that may have encouraged the growth of breasts;i< n addition, living in the saddle may have contributed to the shrinking of male genitals! So, the perhaps the Amazons may not have been female warriors, but ur-trannies.
Isn’t it marvellous !
One of my current books is Norman Davies’ 1300 page Europe: a history, which is unbelievably wide-ranging and erudite. Davies considers the role of the Scythians in shaping Europe, but the Cuniliffe lecture filled in lots of detail that wasn’t possible to include in Davies’ broad brush survey.
Interesting to see what the Greeks and the Persians thought of them, relations between them all were lively. I find Asia Minor & central Asia completely fascinating.