A prehistoric Aegean mother goddess

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CLA2323: the “goddess figurines” Glossary ● archaeology —the systematic study of the past through discovery and interpretation of material remains. Some mention in Buxton pp. 16–17, 194–196, 202–204. ● Aegean Sea —a basin in the northeastern Mediterranean that lies east of mainland Greece, separating Greece from Asia Minor and including numerous Greek islands. See Buxton page 13 map. ● Neolithic —meaning “of the New Stone Age”: that is, of the late Stone Age. This refers to the era 7000–3000 B.C. Humans in that era still relied on tools of worked stone , before the use of metal. Earlier than the Neolithic, the prior eras of the Stone Age stretch back many thousands of years. The Neolithic era in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean saw the invention and spread of agriculture and of organized settlements, also of mechanical tools like the wheel, the plow, and the pottery wheel. There was as yet no writing (for example), and in the land of Greece the first Greek-speaking peoples had not yet arrived. Amid the Neolithic material remnants that survive today, some suggest an early religious worship (see below). ● Indo-European —relating to the giant Indo-European language family, which emerged before 4000 B.C. and which has included hundreds of languages, ancient and modern, particularly of Europe, India, and Central Asia. Indo-European languages of the past and present include Greek (ancient and modern), English, German, Gaelic, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, Armenian, and Latin (with its descendants like French and Spanish). Modern scholarship has searched for what common cultural links might have existed among the prehistoric speakers of the various Indo-European languages. The “earliest Greeks” were Indo-European migrants who spoke a primitive form of Greek. They reached the land of Greece by migration—probably by invasion—around 2100 B.C. They found the land already occupied by a people who had been there for centuries and who were not speakers of Greek or any other Indo-European language. Thus the earliest arriving Greeks were different from the existing inhabitants of Greece at that time. The two peoples had different (and unrelated) languages, different cultures, and presumably different religious worships. Regarding what might have been the religion of the indigenous, non-Greek inhabitants— A prehistoric Aegean mother goddess? • Certain ancient artifacts—including “goddess figurines” from Neolithic archaeological sites in what are now Greece and Turkey circa 6000–3000 B.C.—suggest that non-Greek prehistoric peoples in those places worshipped a nutritive, protective mother goddess or family of goddesses. Archaeological evidence suggests that this worship had Stone Age roots in Asia Minor. Then it came west across the Aegean Sea, probably in migrations from Asia Minor to Greece, long before the first Greek-speakers arrived. 1

CLA2323: the “goddess figurines” • Later, around 2100 B.C., when the Indo-European Greek-speakers entered Greece, they would have encountered this native religion—which probably seemed very foreign to them. Worship of a female principle was probably something new to the primitive Greeks. In the centuries following 2100 B.C., the early Greeks would have observed this mother- goddess worship (a) among the non-Greek people of mainland Greece and (b) at the accomplished non-Greek Minoan Civilization of the island of Crete. Probably what happened next was—the Greeks liked it. Probably it appealed to them, as it spoke to certain deficiencies in their traditional Indo-European worship (which was focused on male gods). Eventually, the Greeks would embrace the native mother-goddess—but only in certain secondary forms. The supreme Greek deity would remain to be their Indo-European sky- father, Zeus. In the Greek religion that’s familiar to us from (say) 500 B.C., there were several important goddesses. Among these, the Greek goddesses Hera , Athena [Athene], Artemis , and Persephone all seem to have been pre-Greek in origin . That is, probably they were remnants of the mother goddess or of her family. In other words, probably these four goddesses began as non-Greek forms, worshipped by the Minoans and/or by the indigenous mainland-Greece inhabitants. Then the newcomer Greeks adopted these goddesses into the formative Greek religion, probably during 2100– 1600 B.C. Eventually the non-Greek origins would have been forgotten. Three illustrations Ceramic “goddess figurines” from 6000–4000 B.C. The word “ceramic” just means fired clay. These figurines were made (and worshipped?) by Aegean-region peoples before the Greeks arrived. 1) From Çatal Hüyük archaeological site in Turkey, circa 6000 B.C. Enthroned (and giving birth?) between two lions: 2

CLA2323: the “goddess figurines” 2) From northern Greece, circa 5000 B.C. A bird’s (?) face on a human form: More… 3) From Crete, circa 4000 B.C. A “shaman” or “teacher” pose, reminiscent of yoga: 3

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