Jeannine Davis-Kimball (November 23, 1929 – April 3, 2017) was an American archaeologist who specialized in gender studies and prehistory.

Early years and education

Jeannine Davis-Kimball was born November 23, 1929, in

Driggs, Idaho Driggs is a city in the western United States in eastern Idaho, and is the county seat of Teton County. Part of the Jackson, WY-ID Micropolitan Statistical Area, it is located in Teton Valley, the headwaters of the Teton River. The populati ...

. In 1972, she studied at the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; UAM), commonly known as simply la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 alongside the Autonomous Universi ...

in Spain. She graduated from

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and earned a Ph.D. in 1988 from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

Research and career

As a result of her work on her doctoral thesis, she moved to Central Asia in 1985 to study

nomad A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...

s. She became known above all for her research of the "Amazon tombs" in

Southern Russia Southern Russia or the South of Russia (russian: Юг России, ''Yug Rossii'') is a colloquial term for the southernmost geographic portion of European Russia generally covering the Southern Federal District and the North Caucasian Federal ...

. In the 1990s, Davis-Kimball and her Russian archeology colleague, Leonid Jablonski, found in southern Russia and Ukraine numerous tombs (

kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asi ...

s) of

Scythian The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern * : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...

Sarmatian The Sarmatians (; grc, Σαρμαται, Sarmatai; Latin: ) were a large confederation of Ancient Iranian peoples, ancient Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, equestrian nomadic peoples of classical ant ...

women who had been buried along with weapons and armor. An important locality is a

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

at Pokrovka. Davis-Kimball explored areas where there are still women participating in active nomadic culture who shoot with bows and ride regularly. She discovered in

Western Mongolia Oirats ( mn, Ойрад, ''Oirad'', or , Oird; xal-RU, Өөрд; zh, 瓦剌; in the past, also Eleuths) are the westernmost group of the Mongols whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia. Histor ...

, which is inhabited mainly by

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (also spelled Qazaqs; Kazakh: , , , , , ; the English name is transliterated from Russian; russian: казахи) are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to northern parts of Central Asia, chiefly Kazakhstan, but also parts o ...

, the sought-after genetic traits in women. The nomadic women of this area were experienced archers and riders; their equipment and their jewelry resembled the finds discovered by Davis Kimball in the kurgan.J. Davis-Kimball: Excavations Pokrovka, Russia, 1995. In: csen.org, The Center for the Study of the Eurasian Nomads (CSEN), Berkeley California USA (retrieved 16 June 2013), Zitat: "The Kazakh/American Research Project, Inc., directed by Jeannine Davis-Kimball, in collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, led by Leonid T. Yablonsky, completed its fourth successful year of excavations at Pokrovka, Russia." This was the reason she was looking for "living proof of the Amazons" in this region. She came across a blonde Kazakh girl named Maryemgül who was already a very good rider at the age of nine. Due to the deviating from the other members of the tribe's

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

(blond, Central Asian features) of the girl, Davis-Kimball assumed that they have found a descendant of the "Amazon women". The black-haired mother of the girl also said that every now and then, blonde girls were born in their family and in the surrounding area. To prove their assumptions, Davis-Kimball and

Joachim Burger Joachim Burger (born 27 June 1969 in Aschaffenburg, West Germany) is a German anthropologist and population geneticist based at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, where he runs thPalaeogenetics Groupat thInstitute of Organismic and Mole ...

had a genetic test done. They were able to prove that the genetics of the Kazakh girl were almost 100 percent consistent with the genetic profile of the "Amazon women" discovered in kurgans. The connection of the fabled Amazons to the Kazakh tribe in western Mongolia is not conclusively proven. She died April 3, 2017, in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city on the Southern Coast of California and the county seat of Ventura County. The population was 110,763 at the 2020 census. Ventura is a popular tourist des ...

Selected works

* ''Proportions in Achaemenid art'', 1988 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Glenn County'', 1993 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Humboldt County '', 1993 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Madera County'', 1993 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Marin County'', 1993 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Shasta County'', 1993 * ''Finding guide to the California Indian Library Collections : Tehama County'', 1993 * ''Worker owner privatization manual'', 1993 * ''Organizing and caring for photographic collections using computer techniques : an introductory manual'', 1993 * ''Pomo Indians nteractive multimedia compiled by Jeannine and Randal S. Brandt.'', 1994 * ''Turkestan today'', 1994 * ''Miwok Indians'', 1994 * ''Kurgans on the left bank of the Ilek : excavatins at Pokrovka 1990-1992'', 1995 * ''Nomads of the Eurasian steppes in the early iron age'', 1995 * ''Kurgans, ritual sites, and settlements : Eurasian Bronze and Iron Age'', 2000 * ''Warrior women : an archaeologist's search for history's hidden heroines'', 2003 * ''Harcos nők Egy régész kutatása a történelem rejtett hősnői után.'', 2004 * ''Amazon warrior women'', 2004 * ''Donne guerriere : le sciamane delle vie della seta'', 2009 * ''Nomads of the Altai Mountains : the Mongols : ancient traditions in a modern world'', 2010 * ''The Seymours & the Kimballs : a collected ethnography & genealogy of a plethora of descendants'', 2011 * ''Archéologie : ossier', 2012 * ''Amazonlar : tarihin gizli kalmış kadın kahramanlarının peşinde bir arkeolog'', 2013

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis-Kimball, Jeannine 1929 births 2017 deaths People from Driggs, Idaho American archaeologists Autonomous University of Madrid alumni California State University, Northridge alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Prehistorians Gender studies academics Matriarchy 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women writers American women archaeologists

Early years and education

Research and career

Selected works

See also

References