Marija Gimbutas - The Living Goddesses

MARIJA GIMBUTAS

E D I T E D A N D S U P P L E M E N T E D B Y

Miriam Robbins Dexter

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FIGURES

1. Figurine, Sesklo culture 6

2. Figurine, Starcevo culture 7

3. Figurine, Vinca culture 8

4. Masked figurine heads, Sesklo culture 9

5. Vase neck with mask, Starcevo culture 10

6. Figurine holding mask, Vinca culture 10

7. Bear-shaped lamp, Danilo culture 13

8. Squatting figurine, Vinca culture 15

9. Enthroned nudes, Tisza culture 17

10. "The Gumelnita Lovers," Karanovo culture 18

11. Death goddess, Neolithic Portugal 20

12. Owl goddess, LBK culture 20

13. "Stiff nudes" showing aspects of goddess of death and regeneration 22

14. Masks portraying goddess of death and regeneration, Karanovo VI culture 23

15. "Gorgon" head, Sesklo culture 24

16. Archaic Greek Gorgons 25

17. Neolithic relief of goddess of regeneration as frog, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 27

18. Neolithic frog goddess, Hacilar, western Turkey 27

19. Goddess faces on vases, Tisza culture 28

20. "Sheela na gig," England 29

21. Frog or toad goddess portrayals, Bronze Age and later 30

22. Fish goddess, Lepenski Vir 31

23. Hedgehog goddess, Karanovo-Gumelnita culture, and Late Minoan figure 32

24. Dog with human mask, Karanovo VI culture 33

25. Jumping dogs on vase, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 33

26. Minoan seals 34

27. Female figures revealing a bucranium in the position of the uterus and fallopian tubes, Catal HUyiik 34

28. Owl goddess with bucranium-shaped pendant, southern France 35

29. Bucrania above tomb entrance, Ozieri culture 36

30. New life emerging from horns on tomb wall, Ozieri culture 36

31. Goddess of regeneration, Starcevo culture 37

32. Triangular altar, Tisza culture 38

33. Goddess with body composed of multiple triangles, on vase, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 39

34. Goddess formed from converging triangles on vase, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 40

35. Vultures on dish, Ozieri culture 41

36. Abstract Acheulian signs, France 43

37. Life-giving signs, France and Ukraine 44

38. Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic bird goddess figurines, Ukraine and western Romania 45

39. Chevrons and V's on vessels associated with bird goddess, Achilleion, Obre I, and Troy I cultures 45

40. Eggs within bull on cave floor and dish, southern France and Malta 46

41. Symbolic vase paintings, southeastern Europe 47

42. Labyrinth on early Neolithic handled seals, Sesklo and Starcevo cultures 47

43. Symbols within squares or bands on Old European ceramics, southeastern Europe 48

44. Organized script etched on shallow vessel, Vinca culture 48

45. Inscribed spindle whorls, Vinca culture 49

46. Mother and child inscribed with script, Vinca culture 49

47. Shrine floor plans from Iron Gates region 57

48. Sculptures at head of altar in Lepenski Vir shrines 58

49. Ritual dance scene on dish, Ozieri culture 64

50. Main megalithic grave types found in western Europe 65

51. Earthen barrow with burial chamber, TBK culture 65

52. Rising goddess on passage-grave walls, Brittany 69

53. Engraved orthostats, Brittany 70

54. Clay model of four temples, Gumelnita (Karanovo VI) culture 74

55. Two-story building, Tisza culture 75

56. Vase shaped as enthroned temple goddess, Tisza culture 76

57. Rectangular vessel-shaped deity, Thracian Neolithic 78

58. Temple reconstruction, Tisza culture 80

59. Offering vessels, sixth and fifth millennia B.C., southeastern Europe 82

60. Offering containers, early Vinca culture 82

61. Bowl attached to two figures with breasts, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 83

62. Clay temple models with symbolic designs, Sesklo, Karanovo, and Cucuteni (Tripolye) cultures 84

63. Clay temple model with frog on roof, central Balkan Neolithic 85

64. Unroofed clay temple model with figures, late Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 85

65. Two-room open shrine model with figurines, Dimini culture 86

66. Two-story clay temple, Cucuteni (Tripolye) culture 88

67. Nude figurine with disc-decorated hip belt, Vinca culture 89

68. Nude figurines with fringed hip belts, Vinca and late Cucuteni (Tripolye) cultures 90

69. Nude figurine with tight skirt, Vinca culture 91

70. Figurine with garment of vertical and horizontal panels, Vinca culture 91

71. Figurine with narrow skirt and dotted apron, Vinca culture 92

72. Figurines with conical or cylindrical hats, Vinca and Sesklo cultures 92

73. Double temple, Maltese Neolithic 93

74. Double temple of Mnajdra, Malta 94

75. Largest limestone sculpture of Malta, Hal Tarxien temple 94

76. Stone statuette of double goddess, Gozo, Malta 96

77. Avebury roundel, County Wiltshire, England 104

78. Clay drums, central Germany 109

MAP

1. Sites along Danube 56

tiortly after the death of Marija Gimbutas, her daughter Zivile Gimbutas called and asked me to finish this book, a difficult task since I would not be able to call Dr. Gimbutas to ask her questions about content, formatting, intent. She had reworked the first chapters quite a bit more than the long and very rich final chapter, which at that time formed the whole of part II. I began with my own edit of the text and then gave a more careful look at both details and the final shape the book would take. In order to make the book as up-to-date as possible, I added comments in notes (presented as "editor's notes"). (The author's own sources are given within the text.)

Dr. Gimbutas had planned many illustrations for the second half of the book, but these were not among the illustrations she left at the time of her death. Thus part I, on the prehistoric era, is richly illustrated, while part II has been left unillustrated. Illustrations of the historic-age myths and folklore may be found in editions of Bullfinch's Mythology and in encyclopedias of world mythology such as that of Larousse.

Marija Gimbutas always had "one more book" in her mind. This book was her final work in a prodigious writing career. She continued to edit it until she was hospitalized, ten days before her death. The manuscript manifested her love, perseverance, and hope, for she continued to work and rework it in spite of great physical pain, using her strength to shape it enough so that it could be finished by an editor.

This book was first envisioned as a popularized version of her earlier work. But, in characteristic fashion, in her last year Dr. Gimbutas decided that she must disseminate new work, and therefore she filled this new academic work with her findings from 1991 to 1993. This work therefore stands as a testimony to the research of the final years, months, and weeks of her life.