the civilization of the goddess the world of old europe

Paleolithic and Neolithic symbols and images cluster around a self-generating Goddess and her basic functions as Giver-of-Life, Wielder-of-Death, and as Regeneratrix.” Further in Civilization of the Goddess Gimbutas outlines the symbolic understanding Old European societies had of the universe and the divine. In fact, there are no images that have been found of a Father God throughout the prehistoric record. In Gimbutas’ last book The Civilization of the Goddess, which synthesizes the work and theses of her previous books ( Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe 1974/1982 and The Language of the Goddess 1989/1991), she wrote, “The primordial deity for our Paleolithic and Neolithic ancestors was female, reflecting the sovereignty of motherhood. Gimbutas’ hypothosis that the Kurgan invasions brought an end to Old Europe and introduced new Indo-European languages to Europe was viewed with skepticism by many scholars in her time in recent years her Kurgan theory was given support through advances in DNA testing.

Old Europe referred to both the geographical area and social structures that existed before the Indo-European influence, and was based on her work on the cross-disciplines of archaeological artifacts, linguistics, ethnography and folklore that led her to posit the thesis that the European prehistoric culture was female-centered and worshiped a Mother Goddess as giver of all life.

A Lithuanian-American archeologist, she is best known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of “Old Europe,” a term she introduced. Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994), former Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at UCLA, contributed to what is considered to be one of the most significant academic watershed moments in women’s studies with her archeological and philosophical work on Neolithic culture and religion.

The civilization of the goddess the world of old europe