Presents evidence to support the author's woman-centered interpretation of prehistoric civilizations, considering the prehistoric goddesses, gods and religion, and discussing the living goddesses--deities which have continued to be venerated through the modern era.
A noted archaeologist demonstrates the existence of prehistoric goddess-worshipping, egalitarian, nonviolent cultures whose hidden heritage is just now being restored
On the Origins of North Indo-EuropeansThe Indo-Europeans ? Archaeological ProblemsThe Relative Chronology of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cultures in Eastern Europe North of the Balkan Peninsula and the Black SeaProto-Indo-European Culture ? The Kurgan Culture During the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Millenium B.C.Old Europe c. 7000-3500 B.C. ? The Earliest European Civilization Before the Infiltration of the Indo-European PeoplesThe Beginnings of the Bronze Age of Europe and the Indo-Europeans 3500-2500 B.C.An Archeaologists View of *PIE in 1975The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper Age EuropeThe Three Waves of the Kurgan People into Old Europe, 4500-2500 B.C.The Kurgan Wave #2 (c.3400-3200 B.C.) into Europe and the Following Transformation of CulturePrimary and Secondary Homeland of the Indo-Europeans, Comments on Gamkrelidze-Ivanov ArticlesRemarks on the Ethnogenesis of the Indo-Europeans in EuropeAccounting for a Great ChangeReview of Archaeology and Language by C. RenfrewThe Collision of Two IdeologiesThe Fall and Transformation of Old Europe.
The thesis consists of introductory commentaries and other original writings by the author extracted from the published work of the same title, as well as the published work itself (Knowledge, Ideas & Trends, Inc., 1997).
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1974.
"The first authoritative work on the ancient goddess culture."Boston Globe The Goddess is the most potent and persistent feature in the archaeological records of the ancient world, a symbol of the unity of life in nature and the personification of all that was sacred and mysterious on earth. In this pioneering and provocative volume, Marija Gimbutas resurrects the world of the Goddess-worshipping, earth- centered cultures, bringing ancient matriarchal society vividly to life. She interweaves comparative mythology, early historical sources, linguistics, ethnography, and folklore to demonstrate conclusively that Goddess-worship is at the root of Western civilization. Illustrated with nearly 2,000 symbolic artifacts, Gimbutas' magnum opus is at once a "pictorial script" of the prehistoric Goddess religion and an authoritative work that takes these ancient cultures from the realm of speculation into that of documented fact. Over 500 illustrations.