DECEMBER 2017 DRAUGASNEWS8

AUDRIUS V. PLIOPLYS

Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) was an accomplished,world-renowned scholar, known for her studies onancient European civilizations. She created a new fieldof scientific investigation— archaeomythology bycombining archeology, linguistics, ethnology, and re-ligion into a single discipline. Her approach signifi-cantly impacted today’s understanding of prehistoricEurope.

During World War II, faced with the Soviet oc-cupation, she fled Lithuania with her husbandand two young daughters. She completed her

archeological studies in Germany and then movedto the United States. She worked at Harvard Uni-versity and later at UCLA. In 1993 she received anhonorary doctorate from Vytautas Magnus Univer-sity in Kaunas, Lithuania. Marija Gimbutas was alsoan active member of the Santara-Šviesa organiza-tion. She helped Vytautas Kavolis edit the Met-menys journal in which she published her own sci-entific articles in Lithuanian.

On November 8, 2017, at the Oriental Institute,University of Chicago, Marija Gimbutas was the sub-ject of a lecture which I helped organize and un-

derwrite. The talk presented her scientific contri-bution in establishing the origins of the Indo-Eu-ropeans. The presenter was Lord Colin Renfrew, Sen-ior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeo-logical Research, Formerly Disney Professor of Ar-chaeology and Director of the McDonald Institute,University of Cambridge. He flew in from Englandfor the sole purpose of giving this lecture.

Oriental Institute

The Oriental Institute is an internationallyrecognized center for the study of archeology of theancient world. In addition to undertaking andsponsoring a large number of archeological exca-vations and publishing its findings, the Institute, aspart of the University of Chicago, has an active un-dergraduate and postgraduate education program.The Institute also maintains a museum that has animpressive array of unique artifacts from the an-cient Near East.

The Oriental Institute is presently involved ina multi-year project, The Hittite Dictionary, whereextant linguistic material regarding the Hittitelanguage is being collected. It is the oldest knownIndo-European language. The Hittite empire flour-ished in central Turkey from 1,600 to 1,200 BC. Thus,Indo-European origins are of considerable interestto the Institute.

As part of the Institute’s educational program,a monthly public lecture is presented on a currentarcheological topic. This is the first time that the In-stitute sponsored a lecture to honor a specific per-son, namely, Marija Gimbutas.

Origins

The question of origins hasalways been a matter of great im-portance to me. What are the ori-gins of the universe? How did lifeappear on earth? From where didour Indo-European culture andlanguage arise? It is this last ques-tion that brought me to MarijaGimbutas’s research.

In general terms, MarijaGimbutas presents a hypothesisthat ancient Europe was settled bya peaceful, matrifocal society. Fromthe steppes of the Caucasus, theIndo-Europeans came in like an in-vading force—on horses, mili-taristic, and patrilineal. Our ownLithuanian ancestors descendedfrom these invading forces. Shecalled this the Kurgan hypothesis.

An alternative hypothesis,

Professor Marija Gimbutas and Those Indo-Europeans

• Lectureship at the Oriental Insitute • Genetic studiesconfirm her theory • Faced and overcame discrimination

advocated by Lord Colin Renfrew, maintained thatIndo-Europeans originated from what is now centralTurkey and that they slowly, and gradually spreadthrough Europe.

The question which of these two theories is cor-rect has intrigued me for some time.

In studying the literature about Indo-Europeanorigins, a year and a half ago, I ran across a DVD fea-turing an interview with Marija Gimbutas, entitled“Signs Out of Time.” The conversation covered herentire life, from her early education in Lithuania toher professorship at UCLA. This DVD was producedin 2003 by Belili Productions and Canadian DonnaRead and was narrated by Olympia Dukakis. (You canview the interview on YouTube atwww.youtube.com/watch?v=BjE2-H1R9Zs.)

What I heard, stunned me. After surviving theravages of World War II, and ultimately arriving tothe safety of the US, she nevertheless sufferedunimaginable indignities in pursuing her profes-sional goals. She asserted that the discriminationwhich she faced at Harvard was inherently misogy-nistic. That is probably true. But, I also believe, giv-en the severity of what she had to endure, that therewas an additional catalyst for discrimination—thefact that she was an immigrant from Eastern Europe.

Given her archeological accomplishments, andnow knowing the discrimination she had to confront,I felt an obligation to bring her saga to the highest lev-els of academia. I jumped to the task. A year and ahalf later, the Marija Gimbutas Memorial Lecturetook place.

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago – a leading center for the study ofancient Near Eastern civilizations

Archeologists and colleagues (from l. to r.) Ernestine Elster, Colin Renfrew,and Marija Gimbutas in 1986 at the publication celebration for their editedwork reporting on the Sitagroi excavations – a middle neolithic to earlybronze age site in northeast Greece.

Part of the collection of the Oriental Institute.

Prof. Marija Gimbutas

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Professor Marija Gimbutas and Lord Colin Renfrew

As the director of the McDonald In-stitute for Archeological Research atCambridge University in England,Lord Renfrew is considered by many tobe one of the most accomplished livingarcheologists in the world. In 1967Lord Renfrew was invited to be a vis-iting professor at UCLA, where he metMarija Gimbutas. In 1968 he initiateda three-year archeological dig in Sita-groi, Greece, while Marija Gimbutaswas conducting excavations in Obre,Bosnia. The distance between these twolocations was some 250 miles. They vis-ited each other’s archeological sitesand collaborated in presenting their re-search results. They became closefriends and participated in archeolog-ical explorations together. However,they parted ways over the issue of thegeographic origins of the Indo-Euro-peans. Lord Renfrew became a vocal op-ponent of Marija’s theory.

Recently, however, Lord Renfrewhas surprisingly changed his view onthe question and dramatically reversedhimself. Lord Renfrew is involved inongoing Near East and European ge-netic mapping studies. As in manyareas of biologic and medical research,genetics is now the cornerstone. It ap-pears that the same is happening inarcheology. Based on the latest genet-ic population analyses Marija’s theoryis proving to be correct. In his talk,Lord Renfrew reviewed all of the re-

cent genetic studies concerning Indo-European origins. These results strong-ly support Marija’s Kurgan hypothesis.The title of his lecture was “Marija Re-diviva: DNA and Indo-European Ori-gins.” The word “rediviva” means to berediscovered, or reborn.

Discrimination: a womanand an immigrant

I have had the honor of hearingGimbutas speak in Chicago on twooccasions. The last time was but a fewmonths before her death. The difficul-ties that she faced in her professionalcareer were not evident in her pre-sentations and publications. Only inthe DVD interview does she recall anydiscriminatory events. Thus, the fol-lowing information was gleaned fromthe filmed account. The observationswere confirmed in conversations withDr. Ernestine Elster, an archeologyresearcher at UCLA, and one ofGimbutas’s first students, subsequentlya close colleague.

Gimbutas worked as a researchfellow at Harvard University’s PeabodyMuseum from 1950 to 1963. She was giv-en a table in the basement of the Mu-seum to work. She taught students, con-ducted research, and published herresults in Harvard University publi-cations. However, she was not paid. Shedid not even receive royalty paymentsfor her books which the universitypublished. She also suffered other in-dignities. Several research libraries

that she needed to use barred womenfrom entering. This made obtainingneeded reference material difficult.

As a fellow, she was not allowed tojoin the University’s Faculty Club.She could only enter the club if amale member invited her and physi-cally escorted her in.

Marija was fluent in several Eu-ropean languages. Male Harvard fac-ulty members repeatedly requestedher to translate material for them.She did this, receiving no paymentand no acknowledgment. Misogynywas thriving. I do not know whether asimilar attitude was prevalent at oth-er US universities at that time. I amconfident, however, that no male, noteven an Eastern European immigrant,would have been treated in the fashionwhich Gimbutas was.

Named lectureship

The Marija Gimbutas MemorialLecture is the first named lectureshipin the history of the Oriental Institutesince it was founded in 1931. It re-

ceived significant attention. Four rep-resentatives from the UCLA archeolo-gy program flew in from Los Angelesto Chicago to hear it. The lecture wasvideotaped, and it will soon be postedon the Oriental Institute’s website.Anyone, anywhere in the world, will beable to view it. This will be a fitting me-morial to a woman who overcame dis-crimination and accomplished somuch.

Vytautas Kavolis, a renowned cul-tural historian and Gimbutas’s col-league wrote, “She was the only sci-entist in the 20th century who suc-ceeded in finding and researching acivilization that was not yet known.She summarized the abundant exca-vations in the Balkans in her sub-stantial works on the civilization of an-cient Europe, gave it a name, and wasable to decipher its language. Thanksto her extraordinary erudition, Mari-ja Gimbutas was able to discover tracesof a lost world and the fact that in theNeolithic, women played a much moreimportant role than they were attrib-uted to in history.”

Audrius V. Plioplys, advocate of the Marija Gimbutas Memorial Lecture at the OrientalInstitute.

Map of Indo-European migrations from ca. 4000 to 1000 BC according to MarijaGimbutas’ developed Kurgan model.