EVENTFUL THE INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY DISTINGUISHED MONOGRAPH SERIES Peter F. Biehl, Sarunas Milisauskas, and Stephen L. Dyson, editors ARCHAEOLOGIES: The Magdalenian Household' Unraveling Domesticity Ezra Zubrow, Franc;:oise Audouze, and James Enloe, editors Eventfol Archaeologies: New Approaches to Social Transformation in the Archaeological Record Douglas J. Bolender, editor Wew Approaches to Social Transformation in the Archaeological Record ｾ＠ lEMA PROCEEDINGS, VOLUME 1 EDITED BY Douglas J. Bolender STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS Logo and cover/interior art credit: A vessel with wagon motifs from Bronocice Poland, 3400 BC. Courtesy of Sarunas Milisauskas and Janusz Kruk, 1982, Die Wagendarstell ung auf einem Trichterbecher aus Bronocice, Polen, Archiiologisches Korrespondenzblatt 12: 141-144. Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2010 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production, Eileen Meehan Marketing, Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eventful archaeologies : new approaches to social transformation in the archaeological record I Douglas J. Bolender, [editor] . p. cm.-(The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology Distinguished Monograph Series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-3423-0 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1 -4384-3422-3 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Social archaeology. 2. Ethnoarchaeology. I. Bolender, Douglas J. CC72.4E86 2010 930.1-dc22 2010005362 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 This volume is dedicated to the memory ofSamuel B. Paley, fine scholar and colleague, whose vision ofintersecting and interacting worlds ofarchaeology helped lay the foundations for the Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology. Contents PREFACE IX INTRODUCTION Toward an Eventful Archaeology PART Douglas f. Bolender 3 I EVENTFUL PREHISTORIES CHAPTER ONE Cascading Prehistoric Events: Fractalizing Prehistoric Research Ezra B. W. Zubrow 17 Prant;:oise Audouze and Boris Valentin 29 A Paleohistorical Approach to Upper Paleolithic Structural Changes CHAPTER Two CHAPTER THREE Becoming, Phenomenal Change, Event: Past and Archaeological Re-presentations Dusan Boric 48 Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss, and Prances Healy Event and Short-Term Process: Times for the Early Neolithic of Southern Britain CHAPTER FOUR VIII , CONTENTS Pedro Diaz-del-Rio CHAPTER FIVE The Neolithic Argonauts of the Western Mediterranean and Other Underdetermined Hypotheses of Colonial Encounters 88 Bettina Arnold CHAPTER SIX Preface Eventful Archaeology, the Heuneburg Mudbrick Wall, and the Early Iron Age of Southwest Germany PART 100 11 EVENTFUL HISTORIES AND BEYOND John Bintliff CHAPTER SEVEN The Annales, Events, and the Fate of Cities 117 Timothy Taylor CHAPTER EIGHT Modeling the ''Amazon'' Phenomenon: Colonization Events and Gender Performances 132 The Allure of the Event in Roman Provincial Archaeology 151 Penelope M. Allison CHAPTER TEN The AD 79 Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius: A Significant or Insignificant Event? Testing Eventful Archaeologies: Eventful Archaeology and Volcanic "Disasters" 179 Oscar Aldred and Gavin Lucas Events, Temporalities, and Landscapes in Iceland CHAPTER THIRTEEN 166 John P. Grattan CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE 189 Christopher N. Matthews Freedom as a Negotiated History, or an Alternative Sort of Event: The Transformation of Home, Work, and Self in Early New York 199 EPILOGUE CHAPTER FOURTEEN TOWARD AN EVENTFUL ARCHAEOLOGY Louise Revell CHAPTER NINE Graeme Barker Archaeology and the Human Career: Revolutions, Transformations, Events 219 INDEX 237 A t first glance Pompeii and Iceland would seem to be worlds apart. On the one ,side are the sunny shores of the Bay of Naples. On the other, one encounters settlements in the cold, rainy north. One lies at the cente,r of what is regarded as 'Western Civilization', the other at its outer margins. However, the archaeological worlds of the two widely separated cultures have important points in common. They represent two of the epochal peoples in the Western narrative, the Vikings and the Romans. Both are places, where volcanoes have made decisive interventions in historical times. Finally, they are part of exploring cultures, where written texts are abundant and cannot help to shape the narrative, no matter how much the archaeologist may uy to escape that reality. It can be argued that historians of the written word create 'events' in history out of a confusing mass of inscribed textual material. Readers accept those 'events' or else create different 'events' as they peruse the written page. The initial archaeological investigator creates a material text and material events through field research and through the presentation of the results of field research. Both historians and archaeologists are 'authors' dealing with material produced by human beings. Both create 'events' that are often more significant to them than to the people who experienced them. As the first lEMA conference and its proceedings clearly show, a key dilemma arises immediately because the contemporary archaeologist and especially those of anthropological orientation want to see themselves more as social scientists than as humanists. Patterns and processes, if not laws, are what they seek, and events become secondary, even distracting. The more abstract, the more scientific the discourse sounds. IX ｍｏｾｅｌｉｎｇ＠ THE "AMAZ ON" PHENO MENON 133 INTRO DUCTI ON CHAPT ER EIGHT Modeling the "Amazon" Phen omen on Colonization Events and Gender Performances Timothy Taylor c h nd you go from B 1 [Pleople don't like change. ut ma {e the change happen rast enoug a one type of normal ro another. -Terry Pratchett, Making Money I will argue that culture lled Amazons as an exam'hle r ' b t I reiflected in the gender subsystems d may e acu e y . d contact an rapt'd econo mic change .. . kl . h fifth century BC on the Russtan an ofarchaeological cultures. Armng qutC Y ｾｮ＠ t .e III '1lthicallll and archaeologically d htstortca Y mJ J . l"\ Ukrainian steppes, an traceable bot.hh" l" a'honry (.aka '/1mazon burta s J, 'd k l t ns Wtt ma e we T through putative gynot see 0 ). d theorized. I will try to show that the Amazon p henomenon (.0 rpheno. menad tShun ert elite-level status dynamtc. h s t at d. e c anges 0 it may best be mo dele m terms ol-'mforr 'J h Ills with ethnographically docu· 't therel-'ore may ave para e warped gender re lattons; t j< .. hi ' dol-'the North American fu r d t s shifts m t e eary perto 'J mented cases ofgen der- an sta u h . b the wideshread underestimation ofthe d trade. In order to un ers tand how t tS can e, l . l r conom has to be overcom 11 e. Mo ' anlAegean c asstca e J scale and reach ofthe edtterrane . h B lsk in eastern Ukraine (plausibly By reforring to recent fi eldwork at .sttes suc . as ' e k on the slave trade, I present "G l "\ wtth quantttattve wor r Herodotus's e onus J' cou'hIed . . l b 'ngprogressively cut out oJ,/-' new the htgher soaa strata et l a picture offiema es fr om . Th mall have chosen to gen der I h' the Black Sea regton. ey J d' slavery-generated wea t m ,.{:{; . I t compete Wtt. h predomt'nantlJll male martial noma tCh cross in order more eJJecttvey 0 b ' 'ncreasinglll marked throug l h differences were ecommg t J elites among whom wea t t ,I-' b . . the historic al accounts and in the archaeoGreek colonial contact. Issues OJ tas m . logical funerary record will also be exammed. . h Abstra ct Usmg .t e so-ca T his chapter examines ancient, ethnographic, and modern contexts where changes in the expression of gender may be unders tood to have coincided with changes in the socioeconomic circumstances ｾｦＬ＠ and thus opportu nities presented to, the biological sexes in societies undergoing externally driven change. It is argued that the balance of pathways to power that gender typically mediates is easily upset in contact situatio ns, or during periods of otherwise rapid economic change, and that this may be visible in the archaeological record. Rather than interpr et evidence for "gender diversity" in past societies as some essentially timeless "way of the Other," the momen t at which outside observers record such phenom ena is often in the momen t at which players within the observe d society are moving fastest to realign themselves with an altered balance of opportunities for success. In particular, this chapter examines the "Amazon" or warrior woman phenom enon, recorded for the fifth century BC in the south Russian steppes by ancient authors associated with the Greek Black Sea colonization, and correlated by several scholar s with the identification of biological females given warrior-style burial at around the same time, especially in the Don River basin. Although there is a series of problems with both the textual and archaeological data, it nevertheless seems worthwhile to attemp t to model the potential congruence of alterations in gender performance with historical events. The conventions that govern the performance of gender, which in public spaces typically focus on what is considered sex-appropriate dress, are both fixed and volatile , having at once to follow the dictates of fashion, which by its nature shifts, and to maintain coherence in terms of a cultural grammar generating a consistent meaning through the differen tiation of signifiers. For a variety of reasons, including the way in which the socioeconomic roles of women have developed in the past century or so, it seems that the gendered gramm ar of clothing allows a subversion more in one direction that another. On November 27, 2009, the news site Japan Today reported under the headline "Nagoya policemen dress in drag to nab purse snatchers": An all-male police squad dressed as women has been deployed in Nagoya with the goal of catching attempted purse snatchers. The policemen, dressed in short skirts, stockings , high heels, wigs and carrying designer bags, have been walking the streets of Nagoya since last month in a bid to lure bag snatchers. One 26-year-o ld officer said: ｾ＼ ｉｴＧ ｳ＠ cowardly to target women who are wealc." Another 25-year-old policeman admitted that he "panicked" when a male driver propositioned him from his car. The unit consists of four male officers who are at least 160 cm tall. They all have a black belt in judo, karate or some other martial art. The squad works out of Nalca police station which is in the center of Nagoyas entertainment district. A spokesman for the police said that the squad has so far failed to nab any would-be thieves. The policy described here (whether or not it is judged effective in either arraigning or deterring criminality) is predicated on a series of shared cultura l assumptions operative at a time of increased display of gender-coded wealth and power through, essentially, the conspicuous consum ption of internationally brande d fashion accesso ries (luxury handbags). The police response might have been to train more policew omen in martial arts and send them undercover but, due to the immediately preexisting perception of gender . 134 EVENTFUL HISTORIES AND B E YOND roles in modern Nagoya society, such women appear unavailable for deployment, while the alternative strategy of altering the outward gender coding of biologically male police officers is almost immediately operationalizable. Fifth-century BC Athens operated one of the first known police forces, comprising readily identifiable, fox fur-wearing Scythian bowmen-essentially an ethnically distinct mercenary guard force who were deemed to have the freedom to operate outside the complex social interface of the citizen demes, and thus hopefully bring a level of impartiality to the deployment of potentially lethal sanction/summary justice on the city's streets after dark. This was po,"ibk boca",' of the dovdoping ,dation' betWoo n the G",k "ato ""d the Scythian wodd of the southern Black Sea steppe (Taylor 1994, 2005, 2006). Both Herodotus (the father of ethnography, if not of history) and Hippocrates (his near contemporary and the originator of a scientific, evidence-based approach to disease) described aspects of the Scythian tribes, notably the horse-riding elite groupS, in some detail. Both of them record instances that struck them of gendered performance that appeared "unusual," essentially twO instances of what might be termed gender-crossing in which behaviors, vocalizations, and dress of the opposite sex had been adopted and were connected with a recognized social status or ethnic identity: the Amazons are described as a race of warrior women whom some young Scythians met in battle on equal terms as men, believing them men, only to be shocked by the revelation of their true biological identity when they stripped armour from the dead; the Enarees were males, in some way biologically compromised, cross-dressers, with a specialist role as clairvoyant shamans -or soothsayers (although not the sole class of religious specialist among the Scythians). The twO named identities have something in common and may demand a degree of symmetrical or reciprocal analysis, but there is space in this chapter only for focus on one of these, the former, whose differences both authors present at the level of ethnic difference, and whose descriptions carry such clear mythic overtones that later authors used them as the basis for the creation of an archetype so powerful that it is still with us. Ironically, that very potency has tended to overshadow the fact that there may have been a happeningand event-based historical reality underlying the primary descriptions of these authors. SAHLlNS, SEWELL, AND COLLlNGWOOD Before turning to the issue in detail, we must examine how it is that happenings become events. As in the case of the Japanese policemen in drag we have reports of happenings that may, or may not, have become (or be about to become) part of events. As Marshall Sahlins indicated, happenings may, or may not, be events (independent of whether any attempt to cause social change occurred): "The event is the happening interpreted-and interpretatiOll3 vary" (Sahlins 1984: 153). When happenings do attain to event statuS then they do so, according to William Sewell (whose concept of "eventual sociology" was inspired by Sahlins's ethnographic analyses), insofar as they are seen to create meaningful social change. But such classification leaves many questions unanswered: the estimation of meaningful social n change being highly context sensitive (Sewell1992, 2005; Nathanso 2009). If we begin by asking the question where an event theory of Amazons is to be found, at a disciplinary level, then a series of answers are possible: history, classics, ancient history, MO J? ELING THE "AMAZO N " P H EN OMENON 135 ｰｾ･ｨｬｳｴｯｲｹＬ＠ archaeology, economics, sociocultural an . . . blOanthropology, medical anthropology I d E thropology, socIOlogy, gender studies d ' h d ' n 0- uropean st d· 1 . u les an comparative mythograp y, an so on. Beginning with th r1tt1e to say on gender beyond (1) ·t·e event-re evant so 1 J S CIO ogy, we may note that Sewe11 has Cl Illg oan cott on " d d .. h. w ICh he accepts her ､ｩ｡ｧｮｯｳｾ＠ of bl . gen er an the polItlcs of history" in · pro ems concernlllg "f al" ' 1St agendas-specifically the lack of . . ace v ue assumptions in positiv. . questions concerlllng " . . an uSlllg (Ill some detail) Sahl. , categones and Illterpretations"· · d (2) illS S account of h . ' III response to Cook's voyage espeCiall h b 1.. c anglllg gender structures on Hawaii b 1. , y tea 0 mon of th b . een app led to restrict women's action) fi 11. .d eta u system (whICh had largely women with English sailors (wh fi d h 0 ｯｷｾｮｧ＠ ｷｾ＠ espread fraternization by Hawaiian d k .d 0 e t em on Illterd I ea here of one event disrupting an oth . . Icte por and plantain) . There is an tllmeless stable structure, something that Sahlins himself has been criticized for ａｳ･ｲｎｾｬｨ＠ . IC 0 as Thorn . as wrote, contrastlllg sociology an ant ropology on the one hand . h h. wit Istory on the other (1989·118f)· h d Codes f . . . · al ru Ies are n t . d· I " . . o meaning or arrays of beh aVlOur ill a CIrcular way, or functional and mutually d t . .0 Imme late y caused". They are expressive . Iar ch aracter of the historical d d . e.dermillIng. If events are d·Iscussed at all, they lack the SIngu ee or accl ent I th . f I al cu tur enactment we find the event much d d·. n e notion 0 a speech act or in some other I h . re uce In relatio h . d n to t e generative scheme. What takes p ace as no lIfe as an intrusion with I r b . f a oose an partly lInfix d e Ity, ut IS rather the expression o a structure, the manifestation of a cultur I -d a o[ er or a set of notions about behaviour ｣ ｾ ｵ ｳ ｡＠ " .." . · " Thomas outlines Sahl·illS,S rough contrast b tlve cultural structures The p . . . etween prescnptlve and "performa. . rescnptlve are on d With established traditions with . entate toward conformity with type or d ' circumstances and . ·1 ' perhaps divergent nature suppressed. asslml ated a order an s, by contrast, III Istands of History (1985:xu), writes, "Performative ord . .1 . ers asslml ate themsel . exten Illg themselves, renegotiating fio- r d . . ves to contlllgent circumstances" d · "Th ms, an Inventing l". al fi ' ey accommodate the d. . . b po mc orms. As Thomas puts It, ISJunctlOn etw forms resist"; however, he goes on to co 1. eenhstruSctu:e and event which prescriptive mp alll t at ahlllls's th . 1 . " dl categones en essly resisting revaluati d . . eory IllVO ves prescriptive sch h on an events contlllulllg t b . d· erne, even t e same prior sch " (Th 0 e receive Illto a prior . erne omas 1989:105) .. Thus, a discrepancy is set up between a very ngo· · h f tlon on the one hand and the ar h I . al rous sc erne 0 cultural reproducb . c aeo oglc record p k d . h . su slstence and settlement pattern (I·f 1. . al' oc e Wit major transformations of I h not po mc 0 . . ). n sort, Thomas in 1989 saw pr . 1 . h rgalllZatlOn III Australasian societies. eClse y arc aeology ·d· o events that could subvert Sahl" ' h (. as proVI Illg the kind of knowledge IllSS sc ema which J·ud· fj . , . . f synt eSlS, It has impressively ach· d) Th. . '. ?Illg rom Hlscocks major 2008 · h leve. IS IS rather lrolllC· h C·d ' tlOn was, at that very time that Sahl. . .. gIVen t at I dens s structura· Ins was wntlng .. h Importance of such knowledge ( C.dd ' Illspmng arc aeologists to eschew the .. e.g., I ens 1979) It is h examllle a historical perspective in h .. per aps useful at this point to . rat er greater detaIl dI h . ' an want particularly to turn to o III Co11ingwood, who (as oc. ) . R b. 11t en IS wort quo tin h . ered III the late 1920s and mad 1.1 g ere zn extenso, from his lectures deliv. e recent y aVal able (1993:213): ｴｨ･ｾＺ＠ ｓ｡ｨｾＺｮｴｳ＠ ｾｯ＠ ｾｲ･ｶ｡ｩｬｮｧ＠ The ｨｬｳｾｯｲｩ｡ｮＬ＠ investigating any event in the ast . .. the outSIde and the inside of the event B th P , .mal(es a dIstInctIOn between what may be called which can be described in terms of bodie: ｾ＠ ｯｾｴｬＮ､･＠ of the event I mean everything belonging to it an t ell movements: the passage of Caesar, accompanied EVENT FUL HISTOR IES A ND BEYON D , Rubico n at one date, or the spilling of ｨｩｾ＠ blood on the b certain men, across a river called the , ' of the event I mean that in it which can, only be loor of the senate-house at another, By ｴｾ･ｮｳｬ､＠ f Republican law, or the clash of constitutional described in terms of thought: ｃ｡･ｳｾｲＧ＠ ;h ｡ｾＺｴｲｩｮ＠ is never concerned with either of these ｴｯｨｾ＠ 'ICY between himself and the assassms , e ( here by a mere event I mean one w IC po l " t mere events w , of the other. He is investiga d ' 'd ting no , ' excIUSlOn ' and an action IS t he unity of the outside an mSII e has only an outside and no inside) but ｡ｃｾｬｯｮｳＧｦ＠ the Rubicon only in its relation to Rep,ublican aw, e event, He is interested m the ctossmg 0 I ' a constitutional conflict. HIS work may o f th , re atlon to b and in the spilling of Caesar s bl00 d on Iy m ItS b ' n never end there; he must always ｲ･ｭｾ＠ er begin by discovering the outside of an ･ｾｮｴＬ＠ , ut ｉｴｫｃｾ＠ to think himself into this action, to discern , that the event was an aCtion, an d that hiS mam tas IS the thought of its agent, ,,' ' h t would be made , h ' cidentally antLClpatLng a pomt t a We should note in passmg t at-m 'd'l " (Wylie 1989)- Collin gwood b Alison Wylie in her analysis of the "interpretLve 1 emma y . j) 11 expanded on thIS as 0 ows (l999: 140 f): , d h 'nfer that it had been made , a human footpnnt an t en I , C usoe did not first ascertain that thiS was " died remains (La Graufesenque Samlan, r , ' , d I fi ' t discover certam sua I ' by a human viSitor. Neither ｾ＠ 15 , d then infer a Flavian occupation, To d'Isc,over w,hat Flavian coarse pottery, mint coms ofVespaslan) an b careful then not to assert an inferenttal ｲ･ｬ｡ｾｏｮ＠ ' ret It One must e the evidence is, is already to mterp ., , : h' h 't leads" The relation between th e tw 0 th111gs, een the "evidence" and the "conclUSIOn to w IC I, body To see the surface intelligently IS b e tw ' surface and see111g a , ' h b d is more like the relation between seemg a I f doesn't provide data from whlc a 0 Y can ' and if not seen intelligently t 1e sur ace to see t heO, b dy be inferred, HEROD OTUS, HIPPO CRATE S, AND ARCHA EOLOG Y , , . e noW turn to the data bearing on the phenom eno n / ditione d by these conslde ratLons , w . n by Herodo tus (Book 4 of C on , , " d firstly to the account gIve . 'b henom ena labelled Amazon, an b hy it is that the SauromatLan tn es, P f"J So" story a out w , h The History) who tells a sort 0 ust . . h 'd-fifth century BC, speal<. a dIalect t at , 1) f h Don River m t e ml located to the east (mam d' f' C Y0 t e . 1 ge) but with significant 1 lerences. h' antan ang ua , is clearly connected to Scyt lan (an Indo-Ir . h' d' ted etymology (an Indo-Ir antan root 1 "Am "wlt Its ISpU . Herodo tus uses the Gree <. ". awn, bl thou h the classical traditio n related its ｭ･Ｎ｡ｮｴｾｧ＠ word meaning "war makers IS proba e, but te ives it along with the apparently ｭ､ｬｾＭ g "man-slayers" in Scythian. In thIS to lacking a breast or breasts: see below), 11 enous word Oior-p ata-a d enotatL' on he te s. us means tal<.e three boatloads of Amazons b ac1<. . . hare attemptLng to . h ale a Greek raldmg party w o . t , h 1 markets) underestLmate t e women • • 'C dd ' tLon t e save home as captives (theIr Imerre estma Am 1 cking seamanship, are brough t as h ore b rd The awns, a and are wholly massacre d on oa '. . .' the Sea of Azov, travel .m1an d ,appro DRiv er emptLes mto . 'In the marshlands where t h e on (h ' . . h local free Scythia n tnbes t at IS, . mpalgn agamst t e d priate horses, and start. an aggressIVe ca al Sc hian polity centered on the Dniepe r ben to those not paying allegIance to. the Roy yt the west). As Herodo tus puts It: h d the language, the nation f h k u on them-t e ress, The Scyths could not tell what ro make 0 t e ｡ｴｾ｣＠ d !me even, was a marvel. Imagining, however, 'l itself, were alI ce un kn ow n_when ce the enemyh awent out against them, d ｾ＠ ht a battle, Some an oug f bout the same age, t ey that they were all men 0 a , ' h d whereby they discovered the trut h ' of the bodies of the slam fellmto their an s, MOPEL ING THE "AMAZ ON" PHENO MENON 137 This truth- the evidence of female warrio rdom-c aused the Scythia ns to pause, and to attemp t to mainta in conditions of accomm odation and noncon frontat ion, "on account of their strong desire to obtain children from so notable a race." In a touchin g passage, Herodo tus describes the ｴｯｩｬ･ｾ＠ routines of the women, and how the young Scythian men, by shadowing them, were eventually successful in gaining a more intimat e acquai'ntance with the Amazons in living form, and this culminates in an offer of commu nal marriage, then accepted: The two camps were then joined in one, the Scythians living with the Amazons as their wives; and the men were unable to learn the tongue of the women, but the women soon caught up the tongue of the men. When they could thus understa nd one another, the Scyths addressed the Amazons in these words-" We have parents, and properties, let us therefore give up this mode of life, and return to our nation, and live with them. You shall be our wives there no less than here, and we promise you to have no others." But the Amazons said-"W e could not live with your women -our customs are quite different from theirs, To draw the bow, to hurl the javelin, to bestride the horse, these are our arts-of womanly employments we know nothing. Your women, on the contrary, do none of these things; but stay at home in their wagons, engaged in womanish tasks, and never go out to hunt, or to do anything. We should never agree together. But if you truly wish to keep us as your wives, and would conduct yourselves with strict justice towards us, go you home to your parents, bid them give you your inheritance, and then come back to us, and let us and you live together by ourselves ." This agreement being made, the intereth nic group moved three days ride to the east of the Don River, where they became the nation of the Sauromatae. Thus it is, Herodo tus tells us, that the women of the Sauromatae have continue d from that day to the present to observe their ancient customs, frequently hunting on horseback with their husbands, sometim es even unaccompanied; in war taking the field; and wearing the very same dress as the men, The Sauromatae spealc the language of Scythia, but have never talked it ｣ｯｲ･ｾｴｬｹＬ＠ because the Amazons learnt it imperfectlY" at the first. Their marriage-law lays it down that no girl shall wed till she has killed a man in battle. Sometimes it happens that a woman dies unmarried at an advanced age, having never been able in her whole lifetime to fulfil the condition. Hippocrates also describes Amazons, in Airs, 1-%ters, Places, in similar though not identical terms: In Europe there is a Scyrhian race, called Sauromatae, which inhabits the confines of the Pal us Maeotis [Sea of Azov region], and is different from all other races, Their women mount on horseback, use the bow, and throw the javelin from their horses, and fight with their enemies as long as they are virgins; and they do not lay aside their virginity until they kill three of their enemies, nor have any connection with men until they perform the sacrifices according to law, Whoever talces to herself a husband, gives up riding on horseback unless the necessity of a general expedition obliges her. They have no right breast; for while still of a tender age their mothers heat strongly a copper instrume nt constructed for this very purpose, and apply it to the right breast which is burnt up, and its development being arrested, all the strength and fullness are determin ed to the right shoulder and arm. It has been a frequent response to doubt Herodo tus almost in his entirety (seeing him as, for example, a mythologist of "The Other": Hartog 1988), and to view the various recipes and descriptions that are collated in the corpus of the Hippoc ratic writings as of varying provenance and reliability (as indeed they are) . However, in the case of the two accounts above, we have to pause and ask ourselves what I call the Mark Twain question. 138 EVENT FUL HISTOR IES AND BEYON D his previous, and less In the beginning of Huck Finn, the author distances himself from about me withou t you deadly serious book, deploying an engaging device: "You don't know that ain't no matter. have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but There was things That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. is made in an overtly which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth." Thus a truth claim as a type, he is real. fictional context: Huck did not exist as a particular person in reality. But escape from an (the The real historical context is of happenings like the one in the book by a family caught up unemployed, alcoholic, brutally abusive father; temporary adoptio n events unfolding in a violent neighb orhood feud), connec ted more broadly to actual social morality of the labor (connected especially to the dynamic of the changing economics and market and issue of black slavery). a spirit; conHerodo tus and the Hippoc ratic corpus have also to be read in such only, his myth cted trary to Hartog's (1988) analysis, if Herodo tus were trading in constru have included many audience would have evaporated, because Herodotus's audience must ted the writing of knowledgeable players in the game he describes. The travel that facilita Black Sea, where his the history took him to wealthy commercial family homes around the critically engaged lectures on travel were put to the ferocious redaction that only those with ation, alongside interest could have provided. If the Amazons were one big lie-a present sed-the n his expres the Enarees, of some sexual/genderal alienness, more or less arbitrarily s may have been listeners would have found him out. The origin myth for the female warrior a sort that Herodo tus wholly confected (albeit in terms of being a folk foundation myth of e of contingents found fit to record, as he did in many places in The History), but the presenc the Sauromatae, of women warriors among the tribal groups of the steppe, especially among y inferable that his seems to have been accepted as fact with little demur. It is also logicall Not only had a police listeners would have had some corroborative knowledge of their own. (or, at least, slaves out force of Scythian archers been installed in Athens, but Scythian slaves goods and exportable of Scythia, which is not exactly the same thing) were both household commodities (Taylor 2001). , happenings In SahlinslSewell terms, Herodo tus describes individual, almost random a captives' shipboard becoming events, and events then creating meaningful social change: and the attenda nt revmassacre leads to geographical displacement, consequent skirmishes, then pursue a conelation of female identity in enemy combatants to a male group who fact that is explained scious strategy of political, social, and reproductive alliance. The social on campaign with is the predilection of Sauromatian women to go out huntin g and also and statuses involved, their menfolk, and the existence of structu red traditions about the age these known circumand the plausibility of the account: is strengthened by the reference to serves as a pivot stances having come into existence at a particular point in the past, which appeared almost for conceptualizing linguistic differentiation between what to the Greeks ut on the grassidentical types of martial nomad ic groups -Scyth ians and Saurom atae-o concept of the female land steppe. What is not explained is the original emergence of the Greek slave raiders. warrior group known as "the Amazons" originally taken captive by the unfair to underAlong with other foundational myths that 'Herod otus gives, it is perhaps . stand these early phases of his social histories as to be taken entirely literally MOpE LING THE "AMAZ ON" ｔｾ･＠ P HENOM ENON 139 ' . origin of the change in gender roles is ' . before the time, in back lIe to ImplIed ( " f' century In which Herodo tus himsel th·· hall as and IS WrItIng hI' see, IS IS congru ent with we s d b .h arc aeo ogIcal evidence). It would WIt . ' d out ou t h 1 . occurre to hIS audience that an . d fi 1 ｡ｶｾ＠ exc uSIVely female race could not have eXlste or ong WIth h " al h out means to reproduce. That is: . t oug warrior women" co'uld be a m hical l' y tImeless trope, the structure of the story;' h yt C In which husbands are provided lOr . t ese women ' or, more preCIsely, for their maternal ancestresses, far away in space and t' . r d Ime, may well h b 1 . ave Imp le a backstory behind the ac (Story to Herodotus's audience al ongsI'd e a taCIt agr ' al b eement not to unpick a satisfying l' t e y unsuccessfully going after it Th e eSSentI' aPOInt d h h st . h t e story is about social c ange, and even if it presents what would 1ater become a fian ds t at h . h xe arc etype- the Amaz on-it f at t e same tIme educates us about the p OSSI'b'l" . d 1 ltIes 0 soci t" . . e Ies, an especIally their men and women, constit uted as distinct interest groups, negOtIatIng gend er ro1es between themselves . . an d conscIO usly directing social ch ange as actIve agents A f4' 1. . ac tive descrip a in rates, Hlppoc or s fHcountdP aUSlbly attribut ed to Hippocrates of Cos himsel f and thus written indepe nd ero otus b tal' h e fi fth century BC we ent 0 . d h ave a escnpti on of a traditional stat us and atten d ant p u . soAlInht ' f h . zation cauteri the tough . ractIces al' all d' m seems ed describ as o t e nght breast h . d e IC y spe un " · t e purpose given (of ch anne1Ing strength to the r'Igh t arm an d sh oulder) h g, unSUlte to ,t ere are nevertheless congruencies with archaeological data of a surprising ki n d th at sh ould cause us to pause before rejecting the 'h aCCOUnt out of hand. True Hippotess al t f accoun er ot ,cra b . s 0 sexu anatomy, such as sperm '. eIng produc ed in the head and thereb Yh eatIng . bald It cau' . al ness In reproductively func.SIng ' tIon males but not in eunuchs , or th ewom b d h wanden . f t e female body in search o mOIsture, appear equally bizarre . N everth e1ess moderng aroun " 1 b s can be seen to fit the o served phenom ena, though con ceptual"Ized'In 'a way thn exp anatIon " ". al kn beyond meditIcally aXIOma was at h "" t: systema of point its at edge owl c IC ongIn" t us mal ( d C h b e an lemale) cranial baldness is , roug t about through action of th e an d rogen "testoste h"l rone, w 1 e an estimated 70 million ' women worldwide suffer from en d ometno"" "" sIS wh painfully migrates to oth er parts of the body, such as the n k h ' here utenne tIssue tion of this disease has not significantly advanced since Hi ec (t oUfig named, theit)explana ppocrates rst described " 1 Th " ere IS a ong history of scholarly approach to th" ISsue of the Amazon phenom enon/ e " d (1918) tzeff Rostov ena. phenom connecte It to a moth er go dd ess cult and an essentiall . ' '"1 b ut not Identica y matnar chal society,and h h l a a SImI ar . as been taken recently bY pproac .i.mball (D . K.i. m ball et al. 1995 D JeannIne Davis-K . ' aVlS. ' aVls-K.i.mbalI2002) who, in the light of her excavatIons at the fifth- century BC cemetery ofP la k " "0 Ova, reconstructs central roles for d women as priestesses, "hearth wom "an ". A I warnors In st en, "h Al . eppe ron ge SOCIetIes in general. WIt Rolle (1989) and Guliaev (2003) D" ｾｮｧ＠ .mball has attemp ted a fairly straight ratIOnalization of text and archaeology. b h h' aveaVls-K.i A t th used ot . " d . e erm mazon burials as a factual . al escnptor; neither really theorizes b'101ogIC " sex as a h t "all . fi larized crystallizatIon rom a gender system rooted in mental categon.es IS( onc" y partIcu a POInt to return to in relation to d' some comme nts made by John B"Intl"ff 1 an earlIer b R G C 11" d' h 0 Ingwood). Both ignore the ＬｾＮ＠ lac ronic aspect. Despite pointin g out d.ffi ts, especially that of Herodotus, which appears to localiz ｾｨ＠ er::es WIth the textual accoun azons east of the Don when the archaeoe e logical evidence, even for the fifth into the western steppe toward the extends century BC, i 14 0 EVENT FUL HISTOR IES AND BEYON D on d ating)' these authors essentially project Danub e (i.e., .mto Scyt h'la pro per'. but .see bI eIO W . -with real existence. This approach sort of time ess categor y Amazons as an arch etype- a . ch to Herodo tus rejects firm Iy as · h h' 1 . al hermen approa is one that Hartog , Wit IS S(eptlc '''0 h eutlC " masquerading as an accoun t of reality to · f Greek t erness merely a consttuctlOn 0 non.. f h t audience. In this, Amazons are ander to the normative gender ｰｲ･ｳｵｯｬＮｴｉｾｮｓ＠ o. t de targe P · I t Imagme . . again projected as a time ess ca egory' albeit .all Ta lor 1994) was consilient, noting the potenMy own past approach (see especI y :al' c al d rchaeologlc Imerences, but undertheorized and lack. tial area of intersect 0 f textu an a. C H d s a descriptive commentator, this . h thuslas m wr ero otuS a ing test data; couple d Wit an en .all ngruen t phenom ena perhaps lacked h . g yet potentl y co al view of Amazons as sever c angm f' h underlying data problems, has h . d but acmg same , critical plausibility. Better t eonze : . al al' tal eapproac h, skeptical of Davis-Kimball s 08) whose crltlC an ytlc (20 been Bryan Han ks ' . ' " "priestesses," and "warnor . . f "hearth women , " ,,warnor women , proposed SOClal structure 0 . . d d h that get in the way. Here we see "al b . adequaCles m ata an t eory . al d priestesses, so emoans m . . ) f f- m resolution: a pendin g theoretic an Amazons as a question (or senes of questions ar IQ methodological problem. .' f h Amazon phenom enon/p henom ena in . f ' the tlmmg 0 t e From a literary pomt 0 View, al C t the Dniepe r River (the Borys. . D ite Greek textu relerence 0 uestion are mterest mg. esp . " f q " . Scythlans rom the secon d half of the eighth century BC thenes) and the mare-ml'n(lng . are mentio ned in the Iliad, most . d' .d al women . (Homer; Hesiod), on IYm IVI u Amazon warnor h b iven by Homer's pupil, Arctmus · h h untry may ave een g .h notably Penthestlea, w ose ome co h' h ' kn wn directly). That is, Homer , Wit . h A th ' pus w IC IS not 0 ( of Miletus, as Thrace m t e e 10 .' d t even though his poem is set S h' , an opport unity to connect cyt la wlth Amazons, oes no being rekindled (Taylor 1994). It . h G Sea contacts are down at the very tlme ·t at ree1( Black . f Herodo tus and Hippocrates (d'IS'd C.fth BC with the accounts 0 .. is only in the ml -n century ' . h h' description of Amazon ongms, h ything hke an et nograp lC cussed above) that we ave a n . al' d Th re also the only accounts t h at • C . t IS not person Ize. ese a or any locational mlOrmatlOn t ha d d practice. Later writers become · . al" ct can boast any ongm Ity m respe of broa custom an . al tradition, right throug h to und depend ent on the emergent canomc ever more trope- bo , Ammianus Marcellinus. . . ' th . the late sixth or the fifth century BC The record of funerary ｡ｲｾｨ･ｯｬｧｹ＠ ｢［ｊｾｮｳｦＺ＠ :eapon s graves of various kinds. The (Guliaev 2003:120), and ｣ｯｮｳｬｾ＠ of skele y 16-30 buried mainly but not exclusively . , ma)' onty ten d to b e 0 f £emales m the ageC range . h' al" d" ale" gravegoods. In practice , t IS . b" of "lem e an m . alone, typically With a com matlon . . h' hest status, within their particular . k I tons are the pnmary, or Ig . means that m h ume d see d . d by personal )' ewelry, mirrors , an , d) and are accomp ame . burial kurgan (barrow, moun , . fb and quivers of bronze- and Iron· dl h I al less often, spm e w or s, ongside the remams 0 I ows d and never battleaxes (FI.all (Q tipped arrows and spears/javelins, but only very rare Y swor s, 1991:8 -11). h h dred female warrior graves in the south Fialko was able to docum ent ｾｯｲ･＠ t an a uhn D b but west of the Don: Fialko h' . (I e 0f t e anu e . Russian steppe 0 f Scyt la proper "'. east h b d ot necessarily completely contradict h' t asts Wit ut oes n T ) 1991; Guliaev 2003. IS con r h ' : f these graves are datable to t he the locational inform ation of Herodo tus, as t e ma)ont y 0 MODEL ING THE " AMAZO N" PHENO MENON 141 fourth century, and those attribu ted to the fifth are often quite general ly ､｡ｴｾ ﾷ ､Ｎ＠ That is to say, at the time The History was formalized (by, perhaps , 450 BC) it is still possible that the phenom enon was more restricted in extent. But this is a more or less tenuous argument. Of greater momen t is the archaeological fact that there is no mass phenom enon of female warrior burial recognizable in the preceding Thraco -Cimm erian archaeo logical horizon (see Sulimirski and Taylor 1990). Indeed, it is unclear if there are, as yet, clearly sixth-century BC examples. Yet the Greek colonization of the rural hinterla nd (chora) of such key strategic sites as Berezan-Olbia, on the Dniepe r estuary (and Dnieper-Bug conflue nce) of the northern Black Sea coast, clearly occurs in the first half of the sixth century BC (Kryzickij 2006); more seasonal or periodic trading contacts may go back well into the seventh century and earlier (Taylor 1994; see Bintlif f2007 for a broader discussion of outstan ding issues in characterizing the timing of interrelations and the nature of colonization phases). Thus, systematic Greek colonization must have occurred at least a full generation in advance of the first emergence of the archaeological Amazon phenom enon, and probab ly a good century earlier. That Homer knows of Amazons as a phenom enon, but cannot locate them, may, given the potential generic "war maker" etymology, simply indicate a periodic, individual level elite choice -a woman in a particular social milieu picking up arms as a happening. What we see archaeologically, subsequent to the event of colonization, is meaningful social change, and it is this that is reporte d on, albeit semi-m ythically, by later writers. Furthermore, the surveys provided by Rolle, Guliaev, Davis-Kimball, and Hanks all demonstrate or explicitly note general increases from the fifth to fourth centuries ｂ ｣ ｾ･ＮｧＬ＠ at Elizavetovskoe in the lower Don region where seven female weapon burials are dated to the fifth and 24 to the fourth century BC respectively: Guliaev 2003: 116). Numbe rs of these burials demonstrate wounds conson ant' with battle injury, including cranial injuries and lodged arrowheads. Some few, such as that from Ordzhonikidze (kurgan 13) in the Ukraine, seem to have been buried with what appear symbolically to be their own children. Wheth er the warrior status thus continu ed past a point of mother hood for some of these individuals, or whethe r status persisted in death after it had lapsed in life, are questions that require further investigation. The Amazons are shown from time to time in Greek iconography, too, most of it dating to the fourth century BC, and including images on pottery and images on goldwork that may have been produc ed for elite indigenous Scythian (or Greco-ScydIian ) consum ption. They often have conical hats of a sort also known from the warrior women burials; swords are used, but not axes; and they may be associated with funerary horse sacrifice. So, in terms of weaponry, it seems that, both pictorially and archaeologically, Hippoc rates' description of the mode of warfare (mount ed use of bows and spears) more or less fits. The images do not have any explicitly depicted cauterized breast, but the right breast is nevertheless symbolically draped. One explanation may be that there was indeed a procedu re, if not on the soft tissue then at least in terms of the battle dress, that brough t the right breast closer to the body to better facilitate the safe operation of the classic 5cythian compos ite reflex bow from the saddle; this would be a binding on the opposite side to the breast protectors worn by right-handed female longbow archers today, consequent on the shorter draw length and the I 142 N" MO D.EL I NG TH E "AM AZO AND B E YON D EV ENT F UL HI S TOR IES to unin tent iona lly 199 6:20 0, where I confused sides, different release position (cf. Taylor give a left-hander explanation). n to be conrates' account of breast cauterizatio The way is perhaps ope n for Hippoc dot us's claim of mass n don e for the related issue of Her o bee ady alre has (as y ousl seri red side increased the muscu2001). Cauterization may not have blinding ofS cyth ian slaves: Taylor arrested develop, but it mig ht to some degree have med clai as arm t righ the of ngth lar stre the martial context ld have had a beneficial outc ome in men t of the right breast, which cou of structuralist and free ourselves from the imposition not we uld sho ed inde y Wh d. icte dep mad e it up? After simply, why would Hippocrates have pos tmo dern semioticism and ask, forms of mutilation, ogically even more compromising biol and al, brut e mor r, nge stra all, cally, and persist rs, have been recorded anthropologi practised by wom en on their daughte in the mod ern world. AN CIE NT ECO NOM Y VES , AND THE SCA LE OF THE SLA , CES OUR RES IAL TER MA ell's reformulation from the cultural schema part of Sew e stag this at on e mov to ible poss It is s, in this case lookl resources element he is so keen to stres of structure to consider the materia the steppe. Products rated from the Greek colonies into ope e trad ch whi in way the at ing include: finished se from the sixth cen tury BC onward that show up archaeologically en mas as wine; ceramic toreutic art; luxury consumables such ral figu ly cial espe , bles dura ry luxu ted fictile vessels, ch the wine was transported, and pain containers, such as amphorae in whi (pace Vickers and would not have been back in Greece they way a in tica exo c boli sym as seen uded agricultural pripe to Greek colonies probably incl Gill 1996). The trade from the step ng Egyptian linen); , probably, hem p-cl oth (un derc utti and n grai g udin incl ucts prod y mar duc ts/m iner al prily horses; silvicultural secondary pro pastoral secondary products, especial y, slaves. lly, and, I would argue, mos t criticall mary products, especially iron; fina e of the ancient scal fully detailed argu men t on the The re is no space here to mo,unt a that have been covlenn ium BC . Qua ntit ativ e aspects of mil first the in asia Eur in y nom eco le site, the fortificalor 200 1), and a brief focus on a sing ered in some detail elsewhere (Tay of steppe and forest y of the Dni epe r, on the bou nda ry utar trib skla Vor the on k, Bels of tion this site, whi ch may ression of scale. As note d elsewhere, steppe, can serve to give a brie f imp 33 km of c.10 s 12 km from nor th to south; it has sure mea " um, ppid er-o "sup a ed be term e are othe r sites of square lan of territory. Alth oug h ther m high earth ram part enclosing 40 the largest, and may t-steppe boundary, this is perhaps ores pe-f step the g alon type ilar sim d-palisaded "Gelonus." plausibly be identified with the woo the Budini, as inha bite d by Geloni in the land of Gel onu s-th e interethnic citadel . As one stade equals him to have been 30 stades on a side described by Her odo tus, is said by 2 , so that Her odo tus , giving an area just und er 30 km side a on km 5.4 have we m, O c.1B , for this archaend 25 percent. We can not blame him slightly underestimates its size by arou ancient auth or of ce any critics tem pted to accuse the silen to ugh eno sive mas site, ical olog ing of the constructruly awesome (Figures 1-3 ). The tim exaggeration in this connection, is questions, which an occ upa tion of the site are complex of od peri and s part ram the for tion (Murzin, Rolle, ram will, hopefully, be able to resolve ongoing international excavation prog k FIGU RE 1 Ram part s at Bels k FIGU RE 2 Ram part s at Bels (1) . (2) . P H E NOM ENO N 143 144 'EVENT F UL HISTOR I E S AND BEYON D FIGURE 3 Rampar ts at Belsk (3). . d Rolle 2007; Zollner et al. 2008; interim repo:ts and Skory 2000; Taylor 2003; Murzm an£, 11 . ) The associated barrow cemetery begms such as Murzin and Rolle 2000 ｡ｮｾ＠ year: ｾｩ＠ ｏ［ｬＺｾｴ＠ of activity in the fifth century BC, to in the late seventh-century BC, wlth th. gG P k' ports date (althou gh they range from .' f h tenSlve ree lm which period the maJont f h y 0 t e ex d . possible that the norther nmost 0 t e . c) Indee lt seems he sixth to the fourth centunes B . . ' ( h the size of a western European t l' enmete t eac al three subforts set into the enc osmg p k d r rampar po' t mediating trade up from the coast h . G ee tra e entre h h d oppidu m in itself), was an et mc r that the Geloni were, anciently, Greek traders w o. a Black Sea colonies (Herod otus note s. d it may be significant that, wlth a f: the Dniepe r River system, an strategically settled ar up i ma have signalled Hellenes). . classic vowel shift from g to h, ｾ･ｬｯｮ＠ f ｂ･ｬｾｫ＠ are legion. Clearly the 40 square km area lS toO "uestio ns about the function 0 d h h sub forts are as heavily defended on '<' c · lex an t e tree large to be a unitary delenslve c o m p,. 'b'llity is that the complex represents . a senous POSSl their inner as well as outer Sl d es. Thus ' . . ombine d functions such as specl..al· h t vanous times, c me kind of secure area, w h lC , a . d d interethnic market Ifree trad e Ｚｾ･､＠ production, warehousing, slaveholdmg compo un , an . aterial from the Belsk kurgan fields has ｾ･ｮ＠ hamPhysical anthropologlcal work on m 1 f '1 h' ing and a lack of conSlst ent past . 1 t mn .ve ered by poor preservatIOn, part Y as a resu t 0 SOl 1 derway )' at the same time, extenSl P "fi k is more recent Y u n , . analysis (although slgm cant wor ) . . S BC h f' . the succeSSlve arma tian period of the thud century . al h robbing in antiqui ty (muc ｾ＠ lt m d Thus althoug h no warrior women bun save has removed many diagnostic grave goo s. , zone. MODEL ING TH E "AMA Z ON" PH E NOM E NON 145 been identified there, it is also true to say that many, if not the majorit y of graves cannot be adequately sex or gender "typed," either by grave goods, or biomet ric indicators, or any combin ation of the two, whethe r conventional or "discordant" (and Bryan Hanks rightly bemoans a situation that affects many steppe sites: 2008:19). However, from the adequate skeletal sexing that has been conduc ted elsewhere, we do have a significant corpus of warrior women burials and, of those publish ed and listed by Fialko, Guliaev (Guliaev 2002: 116f), and others, many have the usual high-status inclusion of an import ed Greek wine amphora. Of course, these objects must be placed in the grave by mourners or those conduc ting the ceremony and do not necessa rily represent the propert y of the deceased at the time of death. Nevertheless, here is prima facie evidence to connec t the Amazon phenom ena, sensu lato, with intensified trade relation s with the Greek world during the fifth century BC . But, so far, what we describe here, in Collingwood's terminology, is the "outside" of an event. To unders tand the inside, the event as action, we have to become aware of its content. Symbolically, it seems clear that these amphorae must indicate that these women needed wine for their feasting in any afterlife , and that they were within the social circle that could comma nd this expensive import. Further , perhaps, social status was constituted through the ability to have such an item placed in the grave. It is by now well docum ented that contact situations produced events in which new items of trade appear, and new production, transportation and military technologies are deployed, and these, in turn, cause significant, meaningful social change . The introdu ction of the horse to North America was particularly potent: as Pekka Hamala inen remarks, "Horses helped Indians do virtually everyt hing-m ove, hunt, trade, and wage war-m ore effectively, but they also disrupted subsistence economies, wrecked grassland and bison ecologies, created new social inequalities, unhinged gender relations, underm ined traditional political hierarchies, and intensified resource compet ition and warfare" (Hama lainen 2008:53). The issue of gender relations among native American Indian tribal groups •has produced an extensive and controversial literature, with disagreement about whethe r "third" and "fourth" genders of so-called man-w oman and woman -man berdach es were constructed (Williams 1986; Lang 1998; Roscoe 1998) or whethe r a more conven tional unders tanding of swapped sex roles between biological men and women suffices to capture an apparent complexity generated by problems in the translation of indigenous category terms, and a highly directed academic agenda (e.g., Murray 1984; cf. also Klein 1983). The former position (currently in the ascendant) typically projects native gender diversit y as a form of timeless difference (or, at least, as having had very long-te rm traditional stability ), until contact, when a prudish suppression of diversity was pursued. Nevertheless, archaeo logical evidence to suppor t such a conjecture is inadequate, and careful readings of early contact narratives might lead one to assume that the frequency in which, especially, biologic al women took over previously near-exclusively male gender roles increased sharply in the early phase of contact, that is, prior to the unquestionable imposition of European gendera l norms. Indigenous women, whose pre-contact paths to power and status typically focused more on basketry and other domestic produc tion, in contrast to the classic male huntin g role (e.g., Kehoe 1995: 114ff discussing the Blackfoot), finding themselves systematically excluded from beneficial post-co ntact trade relations that focused on exchange of hides and furs, and trade in 146 EVENT FUL HISTOR I ES AND BEYON D with female wives and horses and guns, became more likely to position themselves as "men," occurred: in Alaska familie s, This is not to say that such gender crossing had not previously fur trade, Kaska the especially, where big game huntin g was essential to survival long before a man," learn to hunt and Ingalik families withou t sons would select a daughter to "be like 04, with further 1996:2 and participate in otherwise male sweat lodge ceremonies (Taylor , as differential loss of references), The advent of European trade relations (as well, perhaps that ordinarily was a ing warrior males in warfare) would simply have promot ed someth of women took over happen ing to the level of an event horizon, where significant numbers , identity male roles and therefore began to have a form of specific corporate effect that the Arguing along similar lines, Bettina Arnold (1995) has discussed the 's roles in Iron women outmig ration of booty-hungry all-male war groups might have had on ed that such possibiliAge societies in central and western Europe, and Hanks has indicat possible to model the ties require investigation farther east (Hanks 2008:31) , It is indeed innings, in which, in Amazon phenom enon/p henom ena as an event with economic underp to the Greek coloslaves particular, the ability to raid and thus benefit from the supply of time, took on "male" nies, stimulated processes by which biological women, at least for a individual level, may an at roles, The ability to switch roles, traditionally perhaps available level, and have thus have become an increasingly strategic choice at family, clan, or tribal given birth to the have led to the sort of female-only training camps that could so easily (we are obliged to, myth of a female nation, We should keep faith with our ancient authors theoretically heavily we, as they lived close to the times and places under discussion while tus's description of a armed as we are, do not), Perhaps then we can discern that Herodo ly be un alloyed plausib multiship raid capturing a group of exclusively female warriors could d events farther fact, If there was such a happening, or one like it, then it could have catalyze ted with a integra , west on the steppe, as this "Amazon" group, having escaped their captors sly existed in cormartial nomadic Scythian group where women warriors had not previou a fourth) gender (or porate form, Wheth er Amazons should be seen as constit uting a third of individual lives is questionable, The time-facto red aspect of the phenom enon at the level n "gender" is Amazo is clearly revealed in the ancient texts: for Herodo tus and Hippocrates, enemy combatstarkly performative, as Amazon women pass throug h status rites (killing early life, have in may, ants) to access mother hood (in like fashion, the effeminate Enarees played out "male" roles: Taylor 2006) , Cook's arrival Return ing to Sahlins, and his account of the catalytic effect of Captain Cook's arrival and in the South Seas, we may note that Jonath an Friedman suggests that lly produced, externa doings are the only events that structure fails to encompass, as they are red history (Friedman They therefore do not in themselves amoun t to any kind of structu revise him, allowing 1985), Sewell sees the same weakness(es) in Sahlins, but tends to composed not just of that structures should be "plural rather than singular and as being materia l resources" and cultural schemes but mutually reinforcing sets of cultural schemes te history") is thus (my emphasis), A real econom y (even, in Marxist terms, perhaps "concre allowed in under a variety of possible conceptions, raised by ''AmaIf we followed Sahlins /Gidde ns in respect of the complex issues is the critical trade zons" and Scythia, we could say that Greek colonization and the slave MODEL ING THE "AMAZ ON" • P HENOM ENON 147 . event-sparking change, But this would down P1 h' hierarchizating preexis of ance Import ＠ ｾ t ay d d f tion and the widespread "relatio 0 epen ence" In Sc hi H ns , , Herodo tus s, erodotu , y t a pace SIgnIficantly, says that Scythian n b TIty operated WIthou . ' ' " I h "bo t I 0 h , ug t saves, WIth the implica'" ' tIon t at slavery was a commo n preeXls ', b' 'fi d tent InstitutIOn th ' " at 0 jeerI e and UtilIZed human bodles/s ubjects withou t there b· e'Ing a d'Isem bed ded h 'd ' al' ' t at IS entu Ized, commo dity trade in such (one might think of the lat Contrast b d h serfd etween er c om an c atte! slavery -althou gh 1 seers were indeed SOmetI'm es so Id : "r lay or 2005) Th e appearance of Amazon wome n' ' If' dressed "as men"- thus m am'fiests Itse b k prior a agaInst , ｾ｣Ｌ＠ ground of heavy outward codIng, extending far beyond straightfiorward gen d er and CntICal ' , , d" , t o ,creatIng and mainta ining IStInctIOn In a slave-owning, slave-tradin g hlerarchlzed social formation, h , sIgm , ｣ｾｮｴｬｹ＠ Following Sewell's urge t " 0 respect t e matena llty of , resources, not just theIr cognitivesymbolIc value (sensu Giddens) all ' ' ows us to approach the nexus 0 f resources and conceptions ' 1 b 'fjT d yth' S ancient In es a out resourc , b' " ' "h c la I lerent y, Not onl Y IS , t e su Ject avaIlable through ' al multipl e lenses: archaeology, textu ' hI exegeSIS, comparative ogy, dIrect historical approaches, Indo-E uropea n studI'es 0 f 1anguage and m h ant hropo yt ograp y, and so on, but it also b' ' bears on a remarkably wide rang f d' 'd eo putative su jects ab ove th' uallevel: hierarchies among Greeks and Scythians ofdI'fjTrerent sOC!'al and eth ' 'd e' In IVI ,lllC I entity and status, gender differences, gross economic differences between 01'konomla "k and k rematzstz e and, underlying and 1 f , cross-cutting all the mob I'l'IZatIon , ' th l materia as e peop 0 , Ings or Items- the primar y labo r "h resource in the slave trade (and th pOIntIn ' g t e way toward us G 11 a more rymmetrzc analysis, pace e and materiality theory: Taylor 2008, 2010), ,'£ CONCL USION , John Bintliff rightly pointed out a k . , ｬｯｧｹ Ｚ＠ "I want to know why gender ｡ｾ｣ｨ･ｯ ＠ ｾ ｉ Ｌ ＠ ｹ ｮ ｯ ｲ ｾ ＠ ｹ ｾ ph d assume ally men have continu cI tual dOl11inance in human societies," he wrote not un:SalsCo ,sbol ' ,economtoIc andth intellec d ' 'f on gOIng y, a n ' , , say at I gen er IS viewed, as it d h IS In much pOstprocessual archaeology d I cu1tural p h enome non as apu re:;, er t eorv an gen ' "h I' ' h "1' t h en t e entIre point of pnvI ' egIng t e tOpIC t h 1 ate present time is .. ,removed" (Bintliff d 1995:30), Bintliff concludes th t dC' h a we nee a p ural ap proac ,an , ollIngwood makes this h ' same point (albeit unfortunately de l YIng ,t e standard latent lInguistic androcentrism P °h of his day): "Man as bod' h of bod1! sa th h ' sczences e t. atever W IS Y ' at e IS .. , ,Man as mind is . :;' :f '(C 11' wh atever he IS conscious o+b' ) C 11' 1992'7 0 Ingwood 'J etng tion between b ' , 0 Ingwood's distinc the inside and outside of events h as al read , , , "[H] noted, een y , of actIOns and conSIsts ry ,Isto 'd and inside an have actIOns ' an OUtSI e; on the outside the ' , y are mere events, related in space ' 'd th and tIme but not otherwise', on th e InSI d e ey are tho h b ug ts, oun to each other by logical connexions" (Collingwood 1993: 118), Amazons were not j' ust surface (i ' e " really "women unde h") b ut can be inferred as , meat )' a senes of events (sensu Collin gwood 1 'all so a emergIng Cl) at Clet eve, seen in "their" archae"b d o1ogical emergence and cotermin ous escnptIon y Greek oth (I suspect t h is represents a , ers ' " qUIte rapid and destabilizing change) an d (2) at an IndIvI " 1 1 dual, , 1ar stratum of societv recunIn g eve, as one sex in , ' d ' a partICU , ' 1 f -I' over a peno spannIn g , a coup eo centunes, conSIdered gen'd d ered chOICes, options and con t ' ' s raInts In or er to bec ome someth Ing , different, In Sahlins's N" PHE NOM ENO N MO D.EL ING THE "AM AZO AND BEY OND EVE NTF UL HIS TOR IES 8 e. orders, (1), , a nd performativtIon .' . cultural structure, (2)dati . disjunc 1 between the ng s we have a preexlst. ent preSCIlptIVe litical forms, accommo Sewel suggests, term .. (1) d (2) above in a man ner d po a new nt mve and ate goti rene whi ch t Com bmm g ectanagendas for field research an d . h he corr l prescriptive stru ctur e an even . in such a way as to test the mat ena . h t WI: and lly, e ang c we mig ht be able eventua Ic s atial and dIacdhron . 1 utli ned here. p . tion analysIs, to trace osed 0 e mo m the eco nom ic drivers prop 14 ｰｯｳｴ･ｸ｣｡ｾＭ ACK NOW LED GM ENT S the folI sho uld like to than kdem 1 as ect of this paper Sea y of Aca . the e, iativ Init PA d my Black 'h 1 ＠ ｾ wor h Ar field the to tIon rela in t por For sup ca e S ng c aeo 0You rkiv . . . .. the Bntl Kha the and am Id fi 1k lowing projects and mstItutIons Slava Mu rzin , Renate Ro11e, Sergey s Ｎｾ＠ B te Be the v), (Kie Sciences of the Ukraine over the years I pa:tic.ularly gists; individually I wou ld like to tatIOn to B' hI d Dou g Bolend er for the invI 0, 0 rnen Che eny i' ht, Evg and ahW h, S rtyk MaldlO I t eful to Petealr le an t ful to my edit or wife, ar ( ng gra 11 as am . kers Vic l than k Michae e s, gra as way and judg men t as we al ent·, and. 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