of those things that there are as well. and it's going to be activating more of your parasympathetic nervous system, ties intoure gout, and you begin to under how there can be an interaction between the mind and the body. one of the most dramatic case is ever had -- i love the case -- referred to me and it was woman that had not eat 'or drank anything in a year and a half. every time she weapon to drink she would gag and cooperate keep it down. so she hat a peg in place and they were feeding her directly into her stomach. and so they had done all these tests, couldn't come up with anything. so finally they referred her to a psychiatrist, and so i did electroconvulsive therapy on her, and within three treatments this woman was back to eating normally. so, in other words, you see the

link between the depression and the gut. and it gave me such pleasure to call the for say to him, when do you think you want to take out the peg? just joking. sorry. any other questions. >> yes. you spoke about one kind of problem specifically depression nature, but what about the more severe problems like bipolar or schizophrenia and the role of medication how that medication affects the phe? >> i think where i would see it is when you start to look at the imaging studies and stuff that is out there, what seems to me is the major illnesses, such

as -- i show domestic violence, see it with panic, depression. >> tends to be a decreased relationship between cortical structure and lymbic structure. so that pretty well established. now you start to see how these illnesses probably all reflect some sort of lack of inhibitory control that takes you into strong behaviors. and medications make a big difference for depression, panic, and anger, and helpings to hook those things back up. when that thing totally disconnects, road rage, domestic violence, somebody in a state of panic, in severe depression -- you can talk until your blue in the face and they can't connect with youcourt include, that core text is gone at that point in time. bipolar is a fascinating illness, and i didn't include it

in the book because i really didn't have it built into my model. but if you look at that behavior, it's certainly looks as though it would have survival value. i am extremely energized, i have all the energy in the world and i can stay up, i'm not going to sleep, and i am invincible. the things that we attack on to, like you're going out and spending and -- it's just a byproduct of severe energy. schizophrenia, my guess is, i would probably put in terms of the way we deal with sensory input and how you process that. you look at the -- a domestic violence guy will overreact to things seem my wife talking, she's having an affair. they can't process the same thing. they get jealousy and other things. thank you. you've been a great audience. [applause]

>> our final author is adrienne mayor, talks about her book "the amazons." >> it miss great pleasure to introduce adrienne mayor, who is an author on ancient science topics and a class cack folk lorreist. she has sent the majority of two decade researching works of scholarship and classics and mystery philosophy and science and technology. her work has been featured on npr, the bbc, the discovery and health television channels, and has been published in "the new york times" and "national geographic." her latest book is titled "the amazons: lives and legend of warrior women across the ancient

world." through her deep research she combines classical myth and art. to reveal details about the lives of these women warriors across the ancient worlds, from the mediterranean to the great wall of china. ladies and gentlemen, adrienne mayor. [applause] >> thank you. it's really a great honor to be part of the national book festival. it's especially exciting for he because this is the debut of my book. i don't even have a copy of my own yet. this is a sneak preview, really. the book doesn't hit the book stores until mid-september. so, very exciting. with all the popular movies, i think we can start the slide show now -- with all the popular

movies, tv series, featuring bold war-like women, amazons from zina and wonder woman, animated films like "brave," "the hunger gapes" the hercules films the shield maidens in the vikings and the strong women "game of thrones". it's almost impossible to count the number of books for adults and children featuring amazons. and i'm just wondering if the slide show is beginning. >> i had compiled a slide show, but we'll see if it -- oh. i advance each one?

[inaudible] >> who were the amazons? 2,500 years ago the ancient greeks described amazons as the equals of men, independent and fearless women who hunted and rode to battle. i think it's fair to say that the amazons have always been with us, as a reality and as a dream. it's just that sometimes their fiery nature is hidden from view or suppressed. at other times they come blazing into popular culture and into history, especially if you have been paying attention to the kurdistan women who are fighting isis. the images you see in the slideshow really bring that home. the timeless quality.

the timeless quality of ancient amazons as they were depicted in greek face paint examination sculpture. those images i juxtaposed with modern archaeological excavation of battle scared skeletons of real life amazons, women or our ray should buried with their weapons and horses. those real horse women of the steppes, whose graves can tell us so much, were alive at the very same time that the greeks were describing and paining pictures of barbarian warrior women they knew as the amazons, and i'm also included just a few maps for orientation. i don't know if you can see them. they might help you see where we're talking about, and i've added to the mix some thrilling images of modern-day amazons. who were the amazons? it's a simple question but

complex answers. as many of you already know, in greek mythology, amazons were fierce women of exotic lands, as courageous and skilled in bat as the mightiest greek heroes. they were located in a vast territory that the greeks called, citly a, the land background the black sea and beyond the black sea, and played a role in thely trojan war ask the chronicles of the city of athens in greek myth, every great champion all had to prove their courage by overcoming powerful warrior queens and their armies of ruthless million. they were recounted in oral tales and later written down in epic poems like hoe "homer's

illad." the ain't vent greeks surrounded themselves with images of amazon, just as we do today, and every greek boy and girl, every man and woman, knew amazon adventures by heart. but audacious warrior women were not confined to the realm of myth and antiquity. we also hear that famous historical figures, such as cyrus the great of persia, hannibal, alexander the great, and the roman general, pompeii, also tangled with fierce amazons. the idea of war-like, barbarian females, and the greeks used the word were berrian for anyone who didn't speak greek -- they were the opposites of proper greek women, and they certainly served many symbolic and psychological functions for the greeks, but what i was entransed --

entransed by the discoveries that confirm that amazons were not just fantasy, not nearly figments of the greek imagination, as so many scholars believed and that's what i'm going to focus on today, the archaeology of amazon. i was also struck by the fact that greek and roman authors never doubted that amazons existed in the roman past. many ancient writers, up to the roman period, reported that women, live, living women, were actually enjoying the liberated life of amazons and still dwelled in lands around the black sea and beyond. long before mod concern archaeologists began excavating the graves of warrior women, those ancient writers understood that among the know -- nomadic people in western asia, the women lived the same rugged outdoor life as the men. these warlike tribes have no

cities, no fixed abodes, wrote one greek historian. they live free and unconquered, so savage that even the women take part in war. amazons, remarked others, were as courageous and fearsome as their husbands. so, from very early times the ancient greeks realized the amazons of their myths were somehow related to the the living women of cithia. nomad women were described in detail in 470bc by the historian, heroditus. i was intrigued to learn 100 years later the philosopher plato stated the amazons offing mic times and the contemporary warrior women of cithia, inspired plato's idea that greek women should serve as soldiers

alongside men in his ideal republic. thanks to recent and spectacular archaeological discoveries we now have overwhelming proof that girls and women fitting the description of amazons in greek literature and art, really existed. they were members of tribes who ranged over the lands north and east of greece. they were -- among these people, women rode horses and were trained to use bows and spears. they knew how to defend themselves and they even went to war. just like the men. and the lives of these tough, nomadic women, were very different, as i said, from the lives of greek women, who were normally confined indoors, to weave and mind children all their lives, and that difference made a deep impression on the

greeks. the greeks began to encounter these nomadic peoples in the seventh century bc, when many greek cities were beginning to establish trade colonies around the black sea. so, the greeks met and traded with these diverse but culturally related steppe tribes, centered on horses and archery. each tribed a their own names, own dialects, own histories, but they became known to the greeks as the sithians ask that's a conventional term we can use today. rumors and descriptions of these horse-riding nomads, much feared for their deadly arrows and expanding conquests in western asia, captured the attention and fired the imagination of the greeks. stories about them began to filter back to greece and then there was direct contact with formidable mounted archers, both men and women.

it's easy to understand how genuine knowledge, mixed with garbled details, intriguing traveler reports, curiosity, imagination, and certainly a lot of speculation, to fill in the gaps, would have led to an outpowering of sensational -- outpouring of sensational pictures of amazon. we know about these peoples because of archaeological excavations of more than 1,000 ancient graves from ukraine, the caucuses to central asia. they've been cared out since then 1940s. before the advent of scientific dna testing it used to be taken for granted that any bodies buried with weapons must belong to male warriors, and that assumption still holds sway today in some places. a recent example is the tomb of a warrior discovered just last year, in september. the skeleton was holing a spear.

the discovery was hailed as the grave of a powerful warrior, chief tan. but then the dna tests of the grave revealed the owner of the spear was a woman ask archaeologists had to scramble to reword their announcement. in another example in an area that is now bulgaria and romania, to grave mounds filled with magnificent treasure were excavated in the 1960s, each grave held a wealth of weapons, gold and silver artifacts, armor, many things decorated riff fantastic animals and tattooed faces, and there were the remains of richly equipped horses. each mound held a pair of skeletons. and these in the 1960s were routinely identified as two powerful warriors and their wives. but about 50 years later in 2010, dna tests were done and

reveals that all four skeletons belongs to warrior women. the graves were from the fourth century bc, and there were two fine silver cups inside each grave, and the cups were inscribed described with the name of a king of that era, who ruled a confederation of people. the silver cups were parentally honorary gifts from that king to the warrior women, buried in the grave, perhaps to seal a treaty. now that dna analysis is becoming more common, several hundred graves of women buried with their weapons are known, and more are being found every year. bioarchaeologyal studies, studies of the skeletons, and dna testing of the bones, of adult skeletons, can reveal the sex and the age at death with about 90% accuracy. the dna studies tell us that a

substantial number, about 20 to 30 percent, about a quarter to a little over a third of the women were buried with their weapons. and these studies obviously are calling into question the old assumptions of the past, that a body must be female if it's buried with a mirror and jewelry, and that if there are any weapons it must be a male warrior. archaeologists are examining remains misidentified as male warriors simply because of their mass -- masculine grave goods and it turns out that everybody, pan, woman, children, everyone owned a mirror, knives, wet stones, fire starters, needles, beautiful combs, and rich golden ornaments, earrings, bracelets, necklaces. as i mentioned one out of three

women were buried with quivers full of errors, spears, and war weapons just like the men, and many of those women had war injuries just like the male warriors. the archaeological excavations and studies show the women were laid to rest with the same equal honors as the men. evidence of large funeral feasts, sacrificed horses, sometimes as many as 50. little caldrons for burning hemp and food for the afterlife. a cup of ferments mare's milk and a chunk of horse meat on a wooden platter. some of you may have heard or read about one of two of these discoveries but i was astonished to realize and learn just how many female graves of warriors, from antiquity, have been found. more than 300 warrior women's burials have been discovered so

far. the grave goods are described in chapter four with illustrations and maps. the biggest concentration of warrior women burials are in bulgaria, ukraine, south russia, caucuses,, that were considered prime territory by the april -- ancient greeks, they included spears, leather and gold quivers filled with arrows, bronze swords, battle axes, shields, and necklaces of beads and animal claws, golden earrings and sometimes clothing of wool, leather, fur, and hemp has been preserved. the women's skeleton show evidence of a lifetime of hard riding and battle injuries. most of the warrior women were between 16 and 4 , but the youngest girl warrior ever found was ten years polled when she died. she was buried in iron armor, with two spearheads.

evidence that young children were trained for battle. that was in the ukraine. and another nearby grave held the remains of three young girls, age ten to 15. their arsenal was very surprising to the archaeologists because it included heavy cavalry items, scaled armor, helmet, javelins, shields, and conservatives full of arrows. the girls also owned gold necklaces and bronze mirrors. three of the most ancient amazon graves ever found were in the southern caucuses region, now the republic of georgia, a land strongly associate width amazon in antiquity, and these were buried with companions about 3,000 years ago, one of the women was 30 years old, wearing a necklace of red and whiting a good at beadses and was buried in a sitting position.

a bronze sword across her knees, dagger and a spear at her feet. the jawbone of her horse and shield were nearby. the left side her skull had a wound from a battle axe that had begun to heal, actually heal, before she died. she had survived that terrible wound. next to the hand of the third warrior woman were severallyon or helpard claws, prepares hunting trophies or part of a leopard skin cape. the scientific studies of the combat injuries are skeletons are yielding striking detail us. we're getting a lot of information from the bones. some of the women were 0 bow-legged from widing all their lives on horseback, since they were two years old, many suffered arthritis from constant riding, and some women's hand bones showed evidence of repeated heavy use of a bow. typical battle wounds of women

buried with their weapons included ribs, slashed buy swords. arrowheads imbedded in bones, and skulls punctured by pointed battle axes. remarkably, by careful analysis of the bones, bioarchaeologyists can often determine the direction of an opponents attack. they can tell whether the blows occurred while someone was fighting face-to-face, on equal footing, or an horseback, whether the person was in motion when a blow was delivered, and whether or not they tried to deflect the strike. most combat injuries are on the left side, indicating the adversaries were right-handed. all this archaeological evidence points to a level of gender equality unheard of among the ancient greeks. no wonder they were fast nighted and overred by the barbarians of the steppe. little one they spun exhilarating what-if exteriors, pitting strong capable women against their greatest heroes.

amazon tales were a way way of envisioning, dreaming about the possibility of osquall between the sexes even if it remained -- equality between the sexes even if it remained only a dream in greek. being amazon was an option from women 0 on the steppes because they were raised like their brothers. this lifestyle made perfect sense in the nomadic culture. always on the move, you're facing constant threat from enemies. you have to go out and read other enemies. everyone, male, female, young, old, was a stakeholderser and was expected to take part in raids and defense for plunder. it was natural and necessary no these societies to teach boys and girls the same horse-riding, hunting and fighting skills. they all dressed alike in

practical tunics and trouser, and every member of the tribe could handle a bow, spear, and a battle axe. and keep in mind it was among these people that horses were first domestic indicated. this is where the small recurve boas perfected. these two inventions, the horse and archery, were the great equalizers in their society. if you think about it, the combination of horseback riding with archery, meant that a come do we just as fast as man and just as deadly as a man. so that meant that ordinary women could be hunters and warriors. these foreign women could behave just like greek men, free greek men, glorying in physical strength and tree dom, roaming at will, choosing sexual partners, chasing games and killing enemies. this astounded the greeks,

invoked awe, respect, and anxiety, and fear, and that amibition reaction, coupled with the story-telling imagination, generated countless mythic tale about amazon queens from exotic lands and those stories were illustrated in thousands of artworks in greece. today only a fraction of the art that once existed survived today, but we have more than 1,300 images of amazons on greek vase paintings. i was struck by another very opinionent indicator of the popularity of amazon when i visitedded the louvre in paris there was a collection of amazon dolls recovered from the graves of young greek girls. the dolls had moveable arms and legs, wore helmets and had metal weapons and could be dress ned different costumes. my book is peaked with stories about amazons from greece,

persian, egypt, asia, china, but since this is the science section i have been focusing on how archaeology sheds new light on ancient greek narratives and the artistic images we have of amazons and how some details in ancients literature and art, once dismissed as fantasy or just imagination, are turning out to be accurate representations of the steppe nomads' lives. archaeologists showing us how much the greeks actually knew or guessed correctly about the the people. as they learned more they revised their pore trails of the -- portrayals of the amazons. in the fifth century it was reported that they enjoyed getting high on the intoxicating smoke from burning hemp and now archaeologists are finding that the men and women were often buried with their own personal

hemp smoking kits, consisting of little. he 'residue and seeds on the coals or hot pebbles. the depiction of amazon weapons is one of the most striking changes for accuracy in greek art. the first images of amazons appeared on greek vase paintings about 2,500 years ago and the earliest scenes showed amazons dressed just like greek warriors, with greek style helmets, clothing, chest armor, round shields, and they were fighting on foot with swords just like the greek warrior. but greek artists soon began putting amazons on horse baeck, equipping them with weapons and amazons were now sworn swinging battle axes, lungeing with spears and twisting on their horses to shoot backwards, and i found a rare vase painting of a

waron on horseback as she charges a greek man cowering under his shield. the wild pattern and textures of the leggings and sleeves worn by amazons in greek vase paintings matched textile and articles of clothing recovered from the graves. typical amazons are shown wearing necklaces and earrings, and patterned tunics and trousers or leggings, decoratessed with geometric designs and griffins, birds, lions and dear. lots deer. they wear high leather boot and spot it leopard skin, and all of these animals have been found in the burials of real amazons. the greeks were especially fascinated by amazons trousers. something -- this is something no greek man or woman would be caught dead in. trousers were thought to be just

barbaric articles of clothing. why would anyone wear such ugly clothing. the greeks themselves wore simple rectangles of cloth, plain cloth, held in place with pins. butyrouser--- but trousers aretower tailored, fitted together from pieces. the greeks claimed am sons were the first people to ride horses and also claimed the ugly trousers were invented by barbarian women, and in fact the greeks were on to something here. trousers were in fact invented on the steppes by the men and women who first began riding horses. the earliest pairs of to users have been found preserve ned graves from nearly 3,000 years ago. trousers were not just practical, they were necessary for a life on horseback, and these garments were also served as equalizers for the women. the greeks were also fascinated

and repelled and ambivalent about another barbarian custom, and that was tattooing. the greeks themselves considered tattoos barbaric, but according to many ancient greek writers the women wore tattoos of beautiful designs, ain't ingredient greek vase painterrers lovingly detailed deer and other tattoos on the arms and legs of war-like barbarian women and once again we see that ambivalence, that push-pull attraction of amazons for the greeks. what we now have solid physical evidence to prove that women of ain't cithia had tattoos and were much like those in the greek vase paintings. probably some of you have seen the extraordinary photographs of the so-called ice princess and her exquisite tattoos of deer, with towering antlers, griffins,

other animals, both real and imaginary, and she is just one of a score of ancient mummies that were preserved naturally in the permanent tomorrow permanent ma frost. they're body are at that time tied with animals and geo met trek design. some tattoos were invisible to the naked eye until recently in 2004, tattoos hidden for more than two millenia were revealed by archaeologists using infrared cameras at the museum in st. peteersburg, russia. such a wealth of evidence and questions about amazons my mission in writing my book was to sort myth from fact. i wanted to uncover the realities behind the amazon stories, and to unearth some overlooked knowledge and gather the most advanced discoveries about real women warriors who

had been misologyized at amazons. i wanted to find out what we could know about this historical counterparts of mythical amazon, who were the models for thosing mic am sons. how could be certain that amazon-like women actually existed in antiquity, and what languages did real life amazons speak in what are their personal names mean? would female archers really sacrifice a breast in order to shoot a bow or hurl a spear? why did the greeks believe that amazons maimed or killed their boys? what kind of horses did amazons from the steppes ride, and what were their most deadly weapons and what kind of injuries did they inflict? once i had a good picture about what genuine warrior women's lives were like, the famous amazons of classical myth and historical legend seemed to spring to life with remarkable

new clarity. the old myths pose their own very fascinating puzzles. we could ask, why did hercules have to kill the queen of the amazon after she actually offered to give him her war belt in friendship. what was the fate of the only amazon that we know of to lose her freedom by marrying a greek hero. and why did a great amazon army decide to invade athens, and where did the amazons end up after the mythical war. instead of identifying to death on the battlefield of troy, why account the achilles and the amazon scene have been allies or lovers in an alternate world? and one of my favorite questions, who was the beautiful amazon queen who stalked alexander the great across asia? is a delved deeper into the latest archaeological discoveries and the old nomad

traditions, more and more new questions demand answers, and i wondered, who else was fascinated by amazons besides the greeks? what kind of stories did they tell themselves about their own heroic women and what about other ancient cultures that bordered on the steppe regions called cithia. what sort of tales about nomadache warrior women in persia, egypt, india, central asia, and even china. the answers to the questions reveals that the nongreek cultures told radically different stories about warrior women, which i cover in the concluding section of my book. well, i'll stop there because i'm sure some of you have burning questions about amazons of your own and i'll be happy to try to answer them. thank you. [applause]

>> did you find any archaeological evidence linking the methods and legendded of art at the muss and the hunters to actual amazon. >> she was the goddess of the hunt, and it's interesting that among the greeks the two goddesses evolved with hunting and warfare were women. artimus, goddess of the hunt, and-a-thonna, the goddess of war. toy meant to of any archaeology that would give us information that artimus and athena existed but there's a lot of written evidence and also artistic evidence that the greeks believed that the amazons offing my and the real amazons of cithia worshiped artimus and felt that she would have been their patroness because she

hunted and was very ruthless against her enemies and also used a bow and error. she was not on horseback but they really associated amazons with artimus, and felt that if there was any female goddess of the amazons it would have been artimus. in fact, archaeological evidence of real cithian sites, specifically amazon island just off the coast of northern turkey in the black sea, was mentioned by whoever wrote jason and a argonauts, they cullly make a stop on am sign island and see the ruins of temples that were used by amazons that lived even before jason and the argonauts. so this is evidence that the greeks actually looked at arkansasolal ruins in amazon territories and associated them

with amazons. it turns out that archaeologists who have gone to that island -- it's now known at garrisson island and archaeologists from turkey have been working there and discovered that in fact it was center of worship of cabelli, mother goddess of the black sea region. so the real amazons probably worshiped someone like cabelli. >> okay. my question is -- i'm here -- >> yes. >> first of all i was in kazakhstan and people recall the tradition of warrior women so i was excited to learn that many years ago. i have a question about social structure. you have well-sketched the fact we have artifacts, we have injury records in the bones themselves, we have the armaments buried with the women. i what about the social structure? here we get somewhat goo into

conjecture, it could be the women and young girls had sirred roles in these incursions? how would be know if they performed exactly the same sorts of tasks in a raid that the men did? they certainly that the training from what you were saying, but perhaps they weren't put in the most perilous parts of the invading force? i wonder what your thoughts are on that. >> i think the greeks, when they described the living women of cithia, mentioned the girls had to prove themselves in either hunting or battle or emergencies, and they couldn't even form a union and have children until they had at least defeated, maybe killed, a man, an enemy. but if you think about it in that kind of society, small tribe, beset by danger and rugged life, you're facing enemies all the time and raiding, it makes sense that

young people of both sexes would have to prove themselves to the tribe before they could marry. and the greeks also mentioned it was the young girls who mostly did the hunting and went to battle. they were the reckless, tough young women, and then that the older women, owl though they had all the skills, only rode out in emergencies and seems the archaeological evidence that we do have seems to support that. the russian archaeologists and ukrainian archaeologists mention they feel that they have evidence that young girls were sort of the active duty soldiers, going out with boys or with other girls. they had that choice. and the ancient greeks say they either went out by. thes or grouped grouped of yound women, and the older women only fought if