Every once in a while I wonder why I never read anything of Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994). When that thought occurred to me while I was looking for something to read, I somehow ended up buying not a book by Gimbutas, but once about her.
Gimbutas was a Lithuania born archaeologist and anthropologist who had theories that were not always well received. Also her ideas are often misrepresented and shoved aside for the wrong reasons. Haarmann sets out to show that Gimbutas’ ideas were actually groundbreaking and more and more scholars start to realise that they make sense.
Two ideas of Gimbutas get the most thought in this book. That of “Old Europe” and that of her often-called “matriarchal” approach. The latter is not true, argues Haarmann.
The most import part of Gimbutas’ writings is that she argued that before the Indo-Europeans came to these parts, there was “Old Europe”, mostly in the region where now is Lithuania. These ‘Old Europeans’ had a much different society than the later Indo-Europeans. Their society was egalitarian (not “matriarchal”) and respectful. They did not need weapons, had (trade) contacts over enormous areas and apparently shared ideas, also with other cultures. This “Old European” culture has left many more traces in our past and present than is usually acknowledged. Haarmann works out a few examples of how well-known elements of Greek culture are actually not Indo-European, but “Old European”.
Rather than repeating her writings, Haarmann looks at recent investigations that are either based on Gimbutas’ ideas or confirm them. Interesting, but the approach is a bit too historical for my liking.
2023 3987950196, Seubert Verlag
