LINGUIST List 5.149

Thu 10 Feb 1994

FYI: In Memoriam: Marija Gimbutas

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. Michael Everson, Marija Gimbutas
2. Michael Everson, BALT:4348 A memory of Marija

Original sender: Andris Prieditis, aprieditisdelphi.com
>From the newswires. Copyright pf Reuters and Associated Press.

APn 02/07 1605 Obit-Gimbutas
Copyright, 1994. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Marija Gimbutas, an archaeologist who
challenged conventional views by concluding that women were worshiped
in Stone Age-Europe, is dead at age 73.

 Gimbutas died of cancer Wednesday at UCLA Medical Center, said her
friend and editor, Joan Marler.

 A professor emeritus of European archaeology at the University of
California, Los Angeles, Gimbutas authored 20 books.

 Her more recent works, including "Goddesses and Gods of Old
Europe," "The Language of the Goddess" and "The Civilization of the
Goddess," challenged archaeological convention.

 She referred to European cultures dating back 6,000 to 8,000 years
as "true civilizations" without war, boasting organized cities that
were run by women.

 Based on thousands of female images from those cultures, she
concluded that women were worshiped and that the primary deities were
goddesses. She maintained that life was peaceful until the worship of
warlike gods was imported by Indo-Europeans.

 Her work was praised by feminists and colleagues such as
mythologist Joseph Campbell.

 A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, Gimbutas received a doctorate in
archeaology in 1946 from Tubingen University in Germany. She
immigrated to the United States in 1949, did research at Harvard
University and joined the UCLA faculty in 1963. She retired four years
ago.

 Survivors include three daughters.

We have lost a great scholar in Marija Gimbutas. I was lucky to have
worked with her for three years while I was at Los Angeles. Marija
had a powerful affect on everyone she met; it was always a joy to
be with her, in an academic setting or a less formal one. My coming
here to Ireland land at all is due to Marija, and I owe her much.

Laima has spun the last of Marija's thread. Those of us who knew
her, and those of us who knew her work, are fortunate that our
threads have been interwoven with hers. The tapestry of our lives
is much richer for it. Let us not mourn Marija's passing, but
rejoice in all she taught and brought us. Ji yra girtina!

Michael Everson
School of Architecture, UCD; Richview, Clonskeagh; Dublin 14; E/ire
Phone: +353 1 706-2745 Fax: +353 1 283-8908 Home: +353 1 478-2597