The Temple of Cybele

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The Primordial Goddess

By Priestess Jean

As we know, writing was developed by the Sumerians around 3200 BCE, and the Egyptians around 3000 BCE. Yet those early records are rather scarce, and usually focus on agricultural production and trade. It is not until about 2400 BCE that writing becomes more common throughout the Middle East, and begins to discuss the subject of religious beliefs and customs.

This marks the earliest point in time from which we might receive any direct information from people who actually lived during that period. However, since the Kurgan invasion occured from approximately 4000-2000 BCE, nearly all of our historical knowledge comes from a chaotic, post-Kurgan, polytheistic world... indeed, the vast majority of it is later than the Trojan War, and comes to us only through the Greeks and Romans.

Our topic in this newsletter concerns the primordial Great Mother Goddess... a story which began long before techniques of writing came into existence. In order to gain an understanding of that distant time, we must rely entirely on archeology; the examination of whatever remaining artifacts we can find. The artifacts generally include the ruins of buildings, possesions such as pottery and tools, art objects, grave goods, and of course human and animal remains.

As a science, archeology is a relatively recent phenomena, having begun in earnest only a few centuries ago. Naturally, early attemps to recover the artifacts were clumsey at best. Precious objects were often destroyed by careless excavations, improper preservation, and looting. The total number of researchers involved in archeology was relatively low, and methods of recording and transfering data were tedious and unreliable.

Modern archeological techniques have greatly improved. There are far more people working in the field today, and the capability of computers to store and transfer data has made it possible for experts located virtually anywhere on Earth to collaborate. In addition, new technologies such as carbon dating, electron microscopes, ground-penetrating radar and DNA analysis are providing us with a wealth of insights and discoveries.

Yet what has remained perhaps the most critical problem facing archeologists is the interpretation of the evidence. All too often, they allow their own cultural biases and preconceived ideas to color their work, and seem to find it very difficult to admit that certain long-held and commonly accepted beliefs may be wrong. Fear of ridicule and dammage to their reputation frequently causes them to resist change, until a clear consensus develops in it's favor.

True progress, on the other hand, has always depended upon people with foresight, and the courage to take a controversial stand... and Gordon Childe was just such a man. Born in Australia in 1892, Childe attended Oxford and spent most of his life in the UK. During the course of his career of roughly thirty years, he completely revolutionized our understanding of pre-history, and ultimately became the single most influential archeologist of the early 20th century.

Unlike anyone before him, Childe presented an overview of human development, rather than merely a detailed description of some particular culture. Through a series of over 20 books, he established three key concepts which today form the basis for our understanding of the pre-history of the western world.

First, Childe demonstrated that the origins of human civilization were in the Near East, a fact which had been somewhat in dispute prior to that time. Second, Childe demonstrated that, following the end of the last ice-age (circa 10,000 BCE) Europe was re-populated by people from the Near East, who introduced techniques of agriculture, the domestication of animals, woven fabrics, etc. This was the true beginning of the civilization of Europe.

Finally, Childe established that an invasion of Europe by people from western Russia and the Ukraine occured around 4000-2000 BCE. He referred to these invaders as Proto-Indo-Europeans. They were a patriarchal warrior society, who followed a violent male god, practiced human sacrifice, believed in an after-life, and conducted elaborate burials in large mounds of earth called kurgans.

Childe's work was based entirely on an examination of artifacts and linguistic evidence. However, since that time, a large number of new discoveries have been made which clearly confirm his findings. And in addition to his brilliant technical work, he will also be remembered as a man who made archeology more accessable to ordinary people, with such wonderful books as "Man Makes Himself" (1936) and "What Happened in History" (1942).

Another well-known archeologist who played a major role in changing the world's views of pre-history was Jacquetta Hawkes. Born in the UK in 1910, she attended Newnham college in Cambridge. It was there that she met her first husband, Christopher Hawkes, a working archeologist. She began to join him on digs, and although not afraid to get her hands dirty, it soon became clear that her greatest talent was her insightful and humanistic interpretation of evidence, and her eloquent style of communicating.

While working in the UK early on, she took special notice of a pattern of goddess-worship at Neolithic sites. Over time, she began to focus on the social and cultural role divisions resulting from gender, and questioned the belief that men had always been the dominant members of a community, while women were presumed to have merely played a secondary role.

Yet, it was not until Hawkes started to explore the fabulous legacy of the Minoan civilization of Crete, that she found overwhelming evidence of a society in which women clearly played a leading role... and indeed, a society which was incredibly successful, peaceful and artistic. Through a remarkable series of books, newspaper and magazine articles, lectures, and radio and TV interviews, Hawkes demonstrated the existence of early gender-egalitarian cultures and primordial goddess-worship to the public, in ways that simply could not be ignored.

Although her work was controversial at the time, and was occasionally dismissed as "feminist fantasy", Jacquetta Hawkes remained steadfast and outspoken. Over time, new discoveries began to confirm her theories, and fortunately she lived long enough to receive some of the recognition and honors that she deserved.

Archeologists Gordon Childe and Jacquetta Hawkes had the intelligence and insight to see beyond the mistaken presumptions of their peers, at a time when the evidence available to them was quite limited. However, if the archeological community needed indisputable proof, it was James Mellaart who would supply it... in an overwhelming quantity.

Born in London in 1925, Mellaart seemed to posses a natural instinct for finding hidden ancient sites. Early in his career he made several amazing discoveries, including a large cache of bronze-age artifacts on Cypress, and a fully intact tomb in Jericho. Later, while wandering through the Turkish back-country alone in 1956, he discovered the Neolithic site of Hacilar , which contained figurines suggestive of the Great Mother Goddess Cybele.

Yet it was Mellaarts next discovery which would become the final catalyst for fundamental changes in the view of pre-history, throughout the entire archeological community. In 1961, James Mellaart began the excavation of Catal Hoyuk , a site which would eventually be recognized as the most well-preserved Neolithic city that has ever been found.

Here was a window into a world 9000 years removed from our own... agriculture, the domestication of animals, houses with built-in cooking ovens, pottery, woven fabrics, jewelry, mirrors made of polished black obsidian, stone knives and other tools... and best of all, from a spiritual standpoint, there were the shrines. A very high percentage of the houses contained shrines, and hundreds of carved figurines were found, of what undeniably was the primordial Great Mother Goddess, whom we now call Cybele.

As expected, many archeologists were reluctant to alter their current views, and tremendous controversy ensued. There were even some who said that Catal Hoyuk was an anomaly, not truly representative of life in the Neolithic period. Work is still underway at Catal Hoyuk, and undoubtedly more will be learned from it... but in the interim, many more Neolithic sites have been uncovered in Turkey, and nearly all of them have contained similar artifacts.

Catal Hoyuk was not a mere anomaly... it was, in many ways, typical of it's era. Better preserved than most, more affluent and larger, but in fact an eminently presentable example of it's type. Clearly, James Mellaart's work revolutionized our understanding of the origins of human civilization and spirituality, but it would be Marija Gimbutas who would extend that understanding throughout all of pre-historic Europe and the Middle East.

Marija was born in Lithuania in 1921, and was already an acomplished archeologist when she arrived in the United States in 1949. During her career, she conducted numerous excavations of Neolithic sites and uncovered a large number of household and religious artifacts. She began to see a pattern in them, which eventually lead her to focus on the cultural and spiritual practices of the people involved.

Around 1960, she began to use the new process of carbon dating to determine the exact age of artifacts, and to develop a very accurate chronology of pre-historic events. This enabled her to significantly refine Gordon Childe's Proto-Indo-European concept, into what she called the Kurgan hypothesis. Later, after 1990, techniques of DNA analysis furthur confirmed the scenario, to the point where it is the prevailing view in the archeological community today.

The original population of Europe had indeed come from the Near East. They were the same peaceful, artistic people who had built such cities as Catal Hoyuk. They practiced agriculture, had an egalitarian society, and appear to have worshipped the same sort of primordial Goddess as was found in so many other places throughout the Neolithic Near East.

The Kurgan invasion began around 4000 BCE. It came in several waves, reaching various areas over a span of about 2000 years. The Kurgans had arrived on horseback, bearing battle-axes, which had been previously unknown in the area. From the number of bodies found, who had obviously been killed with these weapons, we can deduce that the Kurgan invasion was a violent military-style assault.

That the indigenous people had an agricultural society can be determined by their diet and the particular sort of tools that they possesed. That they were generally peaceful is readily apparent from the lack of human-caused violent deaths prior to the invasion, and the absence of weapons of war. Moreover, they were an artistic people, which we can quickly appreciate from the ornate and beautifully painted pottery and other works of art, that can now be dated to the pre-invasion period.

The claim that the indigenous people had worshipped a Great Mother Goddess is well-supported by an abundance of Goddess figurines that they made... which, if somewhat speculative, is rather difficult to explain in any other way. Finally, that fact that women had been accorded an equal status with men is indicated by their similar burials, and the quantity of grave goods found with their remains.

As each successive area was subjugated by the Kurgans, everything changed. They installed a barbaric warrior hierarchy, and imposed their language and their religion on the conquered people, the nature of which may be inferred from a large number of crude figurines of a rather stern-looking male god, often bearing weapons. Marija noticed three distinct archetypes of these male gods, which she referred to as the sky god, the thunder god, and the god of the underworld.

Although there has been considerable controversy about European pre-history and the work of Marija Gimbutas, it is diminishing rapidly as a new generation of archeologists with more objective viewpoints replaces the previous one. In addition, early doubts about the exact age of artifacts and the identities of human remains have now been virtually eliminated, as a result of carbon dating and DNA analysis.

Today, a new understanding of human history and spirituality is emerging in the public consciousness. Through the work of archeologists like Gordon Childe, Jacquetta Hawkes, James Mellaart, and Marija Gimbutas, we have learned that peaceful egalitarian Goddess-based societies existed for thousands of years... and that patriarchy, warfare, and domination are not an unavoidable natural phenomena which has ruled our world forever. What effect these insights will have remains uncertain, but what is clear is that it was these four men and women who, more than any other, made them possible.

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From left to right: Gordon Childe, Jacquetta Hawkes, James Mellaart, and Marija Gimbutas

Bright Blessings,

Priestess Jean