Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here -  this is a personal response to the work of Marija Gimbutas by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Marija Gimbutas was an archeologist with more skills and background than usual in linguistics, folklore, comparative religion and mythology. She worked diligintly and hard  across disciplines for many years to synthesise data from her archeological digs, linguistics, folktales and artwork. She saw connections that single discipline scholars could not see. She went on to make interpretations of these connections that gave the world a new way of thinking about pre Indo-European (Neolithic) societies. Specifically, she believed she had decoded the symbolism and mythologies of the Neolithic cultures.

I am fascinated by her interpretations and intuitive leaps. A lot of her conclusions as to the symbolism and surrounding mythology seem to be based on inferred information and can't be proven, or at least, not easily. Her analysis of the artefacts is not necessarily accurate as they are viewed through the lens of our current culture and time. She has stirred a up a hornets nest with her assertion that Neolithic culture was egalitarian, matrilinear, peaceful and Goddess worshipping.

She stood firm and presented what she had found, despite it being so resoundingly unpopular with the academic world and I respect that attitude and fortitude. I really don't know if her conclusions are intuition gone astray or insightful and accurate.

What I do know is that her book, 'The Language of the Goddess' is a compendium of European Neolithic symbolism. Whether her interpretations are correct or not, Westerners like myself now have their cultural symbolic history compiled and available to them.

When I was introduced to this book I was told a story of when it was shown to Aboriginal elders. Their reaction was one of recognition and an exclamation of, 'this is white man's Dreaming'. My intuitive reaction was similar.

Whether Marija Gimbutas' conclusions as to the meanings of the symbols are right or wrong, I now feel that I have a language of symbolism to work with. And as someone fascinated by petroglyphs and rock art, that is indeed a wonderful thing.

More Marija Gimbutas links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marija_Gimbutas

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.