J1

Ancient goddesses
THE MYTHS AND THE EVIDENCE_
Editors
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris

BRITISH MUSEUM 11111111 PRESS

 IU

3.
ci
The Trustees of the British Museum 1998
Published by British Museum Press
A division of
The British Museum Company Ltd
46 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QQ
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 0 7141 1761 7
Designed and typeset by Martin Richards
Printed in Great Britain by Butler and Tanner
Frontispiece: The ancient Egyptian goddess
Hathor in a role more usually associated with
Isis, nursing the infant Horus. Temple of
Hathor, Dendera. Ptolemaic Period, 332-330 BC.
HARVARD ARVARD R`_ l `f -
LIBRARY
Acknowledgements
Lucy Goodison would like to thank Hilary
Armitage, Sue Cowan-Jenssen, Sheila and
Rosie Ernst, Jane Foot, Anna Ickowitz, Paul
and Barbara Morrison, Stef Pixner, Anna
Robinson, Jo Ryan, Helen Schafer and Vic
Seidler, whose support and practical help in
various ways enabled her to finish co-editing
this volume through the difficult time of her
parents' death. To them Betty and Robin
Goodison she dedicates her work on this
book, in appreciation of their unfailing
encouragement and their rich sense of what
the past can offer us. She is also grateful to
her family Carlos Guarita, Julio Goodison
Guarita and Corey Goodison for generously
tolerating the side-effects of the work,
including stress, long phone calls and piles of
papers.
Christine Morris especially wishes to thank
Alan Peatfield for many thought-provoking
discussions on ancient religion, and for his
unwavering support for this project. Thanks
are owes: also to Parshia Lee-Stecum for his
forthright critica1 comments and for his
readiness to discuss almost anything,
including goddesses. She is grateful to
Amanda Kelly and Conn Murphy for
assisting with the preparation of the volume,
and to her colleagues in the School of
Classics, Trinity College Dublin for providing
a creative and happy working environment.
Her family, Alan, Daniel and Andreas
Peatfield, have patiently endured living with
goddesses and she gratefully acknowledges
their loving support.
Contents
Introduction. Exploring Female Divinity: From Modern Myths to
Ancient Evidence
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris 6
1 Rethinking Figurines: A Critical View from Archaeology of Gimbutas,
the `Goddess' and Popular Culture
Ruth Tringham and Margaret Conkey 22
2 Twin Peaks: The Archaeologies of atalhyuk
Lynn Meskell 46
3 Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 3000-1000 BC
Joan Goodnick Westenholz 63
4 Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion
Karel van der Toorn 83
5 The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt: Divine Mothers and Cosmic Bodies
Fekri A. Hassan 98
6 Beyond the `Great Mother': The Sacred World of the Minoans
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris 113
7 From Athena to Zeus: An A-Z Guide to the Origins of Greek Goddesses
Mary E. Voyatzis 133
8 God or Goddess: The Temple Art of Ancient Malta
Caroline Malone 148
9 A 'Mother Goddess' in North-West Europe c. 4200-2500 BC?
Elizabeth Shee Twohig 164
10 Some Gallo-British Goddesses: Iconography and Meaning
Miranda J. Green 180
Notes 196
lllustration Acknowledgements 218
Index 220

We would both like to express our

appreciation of the skill and good humour of
our commissioning editor at British Museum
Press, Carolyn Jones, who steered and
encouraged the project from inception to
completion.

Exploring Female Divinity: from Modern
Intro duction Myths to Ancient Evidence
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris
he ideaof an original Mother Goddess in prehistory is surrounded by an
1 intense controversy, but one in which neither side speaks to the other. In
entering the debate on the nature of female divinity in ancient European and
Mediterranean societies, this book is intended to bridge the gap between two
camps, shedding light on areas of prejudice and showing that in this fascina-
ting area of study we all still have more questions than answers.
Recent decades have seen the emergence of a new movement which claims
that human society and religion began with the worship of a Goddess in a peace-
loving, egalitarian, matriarchal society, and that female divinities everywhere
represent survivals of this early mode of religious expression. A stream of books
by non-specialists, artists, psychotherapists, feminists and amateur historians has
drawn attention to powerful and often neglected ancient images of the female.
These many voices have together been termed the 'Goddess movement'.
Some Goddess movement writers accuse the academics archaeologists and
ancient historians of wilfully ignoring the evidence for female power in pre-
history. Some have fulminated against the prejudice of conventional scholars
for keeping the `real history' of women in the dark. Contemporary academics
on the other hand have, with a few notable exceptions, either remained silent,
ignoring the claims, or have tended to dismiss the Goddess story as an inven-
tion of polemic and hysteria.
Is one side reinventing the past? What can or cannot be proved by the evidence
from prehistory? Can we debate competing reconstructions of the past in a way
which is both respectful and flexible? This book aims to address such questions
from an archaeological viewpoint; we seek to bring a breath of fresh air, speak-
ing in a spirit of enquiry.
We approached ten scholars and invited them to write about their specialist
areas of study. We asked them to be as open-minded as possible and to make
their material and the grounds for their interpretations visible and accessible
so that readers could make up their own minds. In this way we sought their
help to breach the academic silence and enable the general reader 'to pick a
path through the myths and the evidence in the Goddess debate.
Why does it matter? Why is it important to us now to understand what hap-
pened in those obscure corners of prehistory? There are many reasons for
delving into the past, but people have felt this issue particularly to have a
strong contemporary relevance. Modern campaigns for the ordination of
Introduction 7
women and struggles for a fairer distribution of social power to women have
sought inspiration and justification from the claim that women held those roles
at the very beginning of human society. Opposition to those movements has
countered that there has always been sexual asymmetry, that women have
always been the 'second sex' and should stay so. lf we see those modern move-
ments which draw strength from the Goddess theory as progressive, it might
seem churlish to scrutinize their appropriation of the past.
However, while the use of the `Goddess' as a metaphor has been inspira-
tional for many, the attempt to reconstruct a literal past has appealed to
authoritarian attitudes and fundamentalist principles which we find deeply
troubling, as we will explain below. Let us look briefly at the stories told by
both the archaeologists and the Goddess writers; then we may be able to see in
what ways this book interrupts, underscores or reshapes those narratives.
The archaeologists' story
The discipline of archaeology is in its childhood. Born in the late nineteenth
century, it slowly established an identity distinct from its sibling, anthropology.
Some of the most influential works on matriarchy and the `Goddess'
emerged in those early formative years before either discipline had cut its
teeth. Johann Jakob Bachofen's Mutterrecht (Mother-Right), published in
1861, introduced the idea of female power in prehistory.' He argued that
matriarchy, that is the rule of the mother over family and social institutions,
arose from the close biological relationship between mother and child, but that
this 'primitive' social structure evolved over time into the patriarchal system.
Bachofen based his views largely on reading myth as a memory of historical
reality, while interestingly conceding the absence of `the most elementary
spade work' in the domain of archaeological investigation. 2 Other writers, such
as Tylor and Morgan, added their scholarly weight to this theory. 3 In parallel
with social developments the female `idols' of `fertility cults' were held to have
developed into a more advanced male-focused religion.
Similarly influenced by the evolutionary theories of Darwin, Sir James
Frazer produced a mammoth work on religious thought, The Golden Bough
(1911-15). 4 This compilation of mythical and ethnological material set a mould
by focusing on the relationship, in various cultural settings, of a maternal
divinity and a male son-consort: the Great Goddess and the Dying God. This
was a formation recognized in historical antiquity in the Near East, most
famously in the cult of Cybele and Attis. Through Frazer's writings this
template influenced perceptions of Greek religion and even of prehistoric
cultures, such as the Bronze Age 'Minoan' civilization. 5
In the early twentieth century while Sigmund Freud was presenting his the-
ories about the sexual feelings of the male child for his mother, psycho-anthro-
pological books such as Robert Briffault's The Mothers (1927) helped maintain
8 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 9
a male academic consensus. The `Goddess and her son-consort' became a
catch-all for the interpretation of primitive religion, and terms like `Mother
Goddess' and `Great Goddess' were used unquestioningly of the archaeological
material emerging from Greece, Malta and the north-west European megaliths.
In the 1950s, during the post-war re-emphasis of women's role within the
family, the publication in English of the work of Carl Gustav Jung assigned the
Great Mother transcendental status as an eternal 'archetype' independent
from, predating and influencing human society. He assigned her an immutable
psychic reality (`As a primal being the mother represents the unconscious') and
suggested that the paternal principle of Logos (consciousness) has to struggle
for its `deliverance from the mother', stating that `its first creative act of liber-
ation is matricide'. 6 Psychology interacted with archaeology and this period
saw further books, such as Erich Neumann's The Great Mother: An Analysis
of the Archetype (1955), O.G.S. Crawford, The Eye Goddess (1957) and E.O.
James, The Cult of the Mother Goddess (1959). The latter refers in his pref-
ace to the prominence and prevalence of the Goddess cult throughout the
ancient world as:
an essential element very deeply laid ... centred in and around the mysterious
processes of fecundity, birth and generation.?
It was against this background that James Mellaart's publication of his excava-
tions at atalhyk in Turkey (1967) and the first of Marija Gimbutas' publi-
cations on prehistoric European religion (The Gods and Goddesses of Old
Europe, 1974), both stressing the importance of a Goddess, caught the atten-
tion of many in the newly emerging women's movement.
Interestingly, at the very point where feminists took up the story, many
archaeologists turned their backs. In the late 1960s came a sea change in
archaeological attitudes to the Goddess story: Peter Ucko's 1968 book on
anthropomorphic figurines from Egypt and Crete and a seminal article by
Andrew Fleming, `The Myth of the mother-goddess', in the following year
both pointed out the flimsiness of the evidence, and what massive assumptions
had been built into the existing consensus.$
At this time archaeology took an important general change of direction.
This `New Archaeology' sought explicitly to explain change and the over-arch-
ing processes especially social and economic through which it came about.
This `processual archaeology' of the 1970s and early 80s was often coupled
with rather negative views on the possibility of effectively studying religion
through archaeological materials. The emergence in the 1980s of a number of
yet newer approaches of which cognitive, contextual and feminist archaeology
are most relevant here created a renewed interest in the ritual and symbolic
world.
Within this more fractured academic arena the approaches of the French
structuralists and the later post-structuralists, originally developed to analyse
language, literature and myth into their component structural elements, have
provided new tools for tackling archaeological problems. Marxism too has pro-
vided a vocabulary for looking at power relations in society. As a result issues
concerning structures of social power such as the rise of elites, class conflict,
the role of religion as a mode of social manipulation and control have
become a major focus for archaeological study.
Feminist approaches have had an impact on archaeology only in the last
decade, and they cannot be reduced to a single, shared set of aims and interests.
Feminisms in archaeology range from `adding' women to our reconstructions
of past societies, to radical restructuring (a paradigm shift) of what we deem
appropriate for study and how we study it.
Assessing the archaeologists' story
The discipline of archaeology is grounded in the recovery of primary material:
the laying out of trenches, careful excavation and recording of long-buried walls
and often fragile finds. Less glamorous, but equally important, is the meticulous
task of sorting and classifying the finds in order to reach an understanding of
the material. For the presentation of the findings, the empirical method of the
discipline has required that archaeologists proceed from the material evidence
to their conclusions with the minimum of personal interference.
Implicit in this process was the claim that archaeological publications were
impartial, and the assumption that they provided a well-judged overview of the
lives and cultures of past peoples. For much of the history of archaeology as a
discipline, this 'objectivity' has obscured the importance of how the individ-
ual's experience, as a human being living in a particular time and place, might
shape and filter understanding of the past. `The burial was accompanied by a
mirror, therefore the skeleton was female.' But the expectation that women
(and women alone) look in mirrors is constructed around our society's atti-
tudes to women's appearance; we cannot simply shift those behaviours and
values onto another society in the distant past. 'The figurine has large breasts
so it represents motherhood.' `The figurine is naked so it represents sexuality
and fertility.' Such interpretations, which are still widespread, were first for-
mulated within specific social contexts; contemporary sexual stereotypes were
projected backwards, with little or no self-awareness of how the present was
conspiring in the creation of the past. -
While some archaeologists still subscribe to the `facts speak for themselves'
school of thought, most would now accept that any interpretation of an
ancient society is a working model always open to being confirmed, modified
or rejected by further evidence or analysis. Some archaeologists have also
responded to the idea of multiple, equally valid `readings' of the past.
However, the subjective and partial aspect of archaeological endeavour still
often remains unacknowledged.
10 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 11
Archaeology has in recent decades tended to prioritize questions about cer-
tain aspects of the archaeological record. The decision to focus on issues of
social power and status, and on how religion may have been used to create and
maintain elite groups, has brought with it the implication that these are the
most important questions, and has, for example, often closed the door on
debate about ritual practice and experience. Such tendencies in themselves
reflect the specific time, place and interests of archaeologists. As Ian Hodder
has commented, `On the whole, post-processual archaeology has concerned
power, negotiation, text, intertext, structure, ideology, agency ... [These
concerns] represent the interests of a predominately western, white, male
discourse.' This theoretical discourse is of the mind and relates primarily to
other theories, usually in a confrontational way. The 'body' of evidence
becomes secondary: 'argument is over the top of, rather than through the data
that become relevant only as examples.' 9
The separation made in Western thought between mind and body, and the
associated devaluing of bodies and emotions, results in a denial of many
aspects of experience, as Victor Jeleniewski Seidler has stressed:
Within late modernity so many of our intellectual traditions serve to sustain the
control that a dominant masculinity seeks over experience ... The point is that
life is there to be controlled, not to be lived. 10
The reasoned archaeological publication masks preparatory processes of
hunch, lateral thinking, intuition, even in the case of Sir Arthur Evans
visions, which have all contributed to the final product, but which are rarely
acknowledged." A disembodied mind will be resistant to trying to engage with
the physical, emotional and spiritual experiences of individuals in the past.
Lynn-Meskell has suggested that in recent archaeological work 'ever-popular
models of domination and resistance continue to posit issues of power and
control as central. Somehow this sells short the life experiences of the individ-
uals involved.' 12 Humans become passive objects constructed by society, and
we are left with a non-peopled past, devoid of `embodied individuals' capable
of feeling and acting. 13 While many contemporary archaeologists have been
reticent about investigating the spiritual preoccupations of prehistory, off-
shore of the archaeological establishment recent years have seen a tidal wave of
books from the Goddess movement devoted to these very issues.
The Goddess movement's story
A careful ear can pick out many voices in what has been termed the Goddess
movement: despite calls for unity they are not all discussing things in the same
way.
The impetus came from an archaeologist: in the 1970s Marija Gimbutas'
works, focusing on the prehistoric cultures of south-east Europe, gave
authority to the story of Goddess religion, and other specialist historians
like Gerda Lerner (The Creation of Patriarchy, 1986) have followed. A
parallel strand of works by non-specialists, such as sculptor Merlin Stone's
When God was a Woman (1976), 14 used archaeological material mostly
from Egypt, Greece and the Near East to argue how in a distant past the
worship of a Great Goddess was universally supplanted by male religions. Other
5eviwriters,
dnc.1 such as Asphodel Long, have drawn similar conclusions using textual
Another strand of cultural historians have produced synthesizing works of
broad-sweep history with the express purpose of redressing the balance in
favour of women's contribution to human development. One early such work,
Helen Diner's Mothers and Amazons: The First Feminist History of Culture
(1927), was reprinted in the 1960s, and authors working in this field since have
included Elizabeth Gould Davis (1975), Riane Eisler (1987) and Elinor Gadon
(1989) .16
From a very different perspective, some feminists involved in the field of
theology have asked not so much `what happened in history?' as `where are the
female images of the divine?' If they cannot be found, said Mary Daly, women
should invent them.' Writers working inside and outside the established Judaeo-
Christian traditions have seen the quest as a personal and religious one: a ques-
tion of finding, reshaping and transforming symbols of divinity which validate
women's experience. Their concerns include religious practice and the devel-
opment of new symbols, rituals and forms of prayer. Writers like Carol P. Christ,
Rosemary Ruether and Starhawk have contributed to a lively ongoing discourse
explicitly based around the spiritual needs expressed by contemporary women.'$
Less clearly founded are the series of writings from psychotherapists influ-
enced by Jung; these celebrate the 'feminine principle' linked to elements
such as the moon, mothering, intuition, instinct, mystery and love, and enlist
selective help from archaeology and anthropology to support their case. Esther
Harding's Women's Mysteries: Ancient and Modern (1971) was one of the
earliest of these conflations of archaeological `facts' with previously determined
`psychic truths', which prompted the reviewer of one recent book by two
Jungian analysts to exclaim: 'Mythographers, it seems, are as prone to self-
delusion as any other over-ardent believer. Baring and Cashford have unwisely
swallowed their own story, and taken it for history.' 19 - - -
There is thus a tremendous spectrum of writers within the Goddess move-
ment, and their treatment of the archaeological evidence ranges from the
careful to the cavalier. However, certain themes recur throughout their writings,
certain stories which are retold, whether allegorically, speculatively or dogmat-
ically. A central hypothesis is that a peaceful, Goddess-centred culture existed
in the distant past in many places, and especially in `Old Europe', Greece,
Malta, Egypt and the Near East. Priestesses officiated and the `Goddess',
sometimes represented by a mortal woman, is often seen as entering into a
12 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 13
sacred marriage with a son-consort, in some cases a king who, like the vegetation,
died yearly following Frazer's schema.
Her functions of menstruation and childbirth are emphasized, and the
`Goddess' is often described as having three faces (virgin, matron, crone) or as
having a double role of creator/destroyer. Although primarily a maternal sym-
bol, she can absorb warlike and social skills within the same matrix. She is
linked with the moon, contrasted with a male sun; identified with the earth,
contrasted with a male sky. The end of the story tells of the take-over of her
matriarchal society by warlike Indo-European males (c. 3500 BC), and carries a
strong moral sub-text with women as the `goodies' and men as the `baddies'. 2 o
The claims have largely been either ignored or slated by academics. 21 Let us
step back for a moment and try to appraise briefly both the strengths and weak-
nesses of this strong cultural offensive.
Assessing the Goddess movement's story
The contribution of the Goddess movement needs to be recognized as both
spiritual and archaeological. Spiritually, the images of female divinity it puts
forward has offered comfort and inspiration to women who felt negated by the
female images offered within mainstream Judaeo-Christian religion. It has also
revitalized that tradition as a whole by drawing attention to forgotten material
within it which reflects positive symbols of women and important roles played
by them within it, especially before St Augustine (AD 354-430) definitively
equated women with sin. 22 The movement's emphasis on honouring the
physical the female body and its functions, and the earth - have reawakened
an aspect of Christian thought which is more respectful towards the natural world
and more in tune with modern ecological awareness. As Christian theologian
Mary Grey has commented, the result has been a broadening of the sense of
the divine:
If we can see this affirmation of the female life-cycle as `redeeming' the cen-
turies of anti-body, anti-nature and misogynist tradition, when women were
described as more carnal, more earthy than men, and as such, responsible for
sexual sin, then the value of Goddess spirituality is indisputable. 23
She suggests that Christianity can benefit greatly from the metaphor of the
Goddess through `rediscovering connectedness with nature as a redemptive
strength'.
Archaeologically, the contribution has been more contradictory. Goddess
writers have adopted the nineteenth-century consensus of mainstream (male)
scholarship, despite the fact that the underlying cultural evolutionary theories
have been cast into the `dustbin of long discarded anthropological ideas'. 24
The key differences are that the Goddess literature has reversed the story by re-
assigning positive values to those female elements previously designated as
intrinsically `primitive', and that they pressed the claim that women were
not only `fertility idols' but also held temporal authority within society. This
turns the `Mother Goddess' model into something less cosy, especially when
interwoven with modern feminist issues. It can provoke a defensive reaction. In
Cretan archaeology the Goddess has provoked less intense debate than a possi-
ble `Queen' enthroned in the palace of Knossos. Parallels with gender issues
over who controls seats of learning are easy to see. In this way Goddess writers
have raised issues of power and authority which have made academic prejudice
stir uncomfortably. Ian Hodder has regretted the inaccessibility of archaeological
texts, asking, `how can alternative groups have access to a past that is locked up
both intellectually and institutionally?' He recommends `transforming the
relations of production of archaeological knowledge into more democratic
structures'. 25 In their own way, Goddess writers have indeed contributed to this
process.
However, just as they have challenged the evolutionary model by reversing it
rather than questioning its whole premise so too they have challenged
archaeological authority by setting up new authorities. Many Goddess writers
naturally quote extensively from the archaeologists who have trodden the
ground before them. There is, however, an over-reliance on authority rather
than primary evidence and an appeal to reach certainties about the past, to
establish a new `truth' about what happened `in the beginning' which mirrors
the old fundamentalisms of conventional religion. A personality cult emerged
around the few professional archaeologists notably Marija Gimbutas who
have proposed the Goddess theory and who are viewed as bravely `stepping out-
side the official academic ideology'. 26 The search for a new orthodoxy leads to
intolerance, a shutting down of imaginative powers and a sense of closure. -
As women, mothers and committed archaeologists, we are left with a sense of
the denial of other voices apart from theirs. We experience disquiet at the sense
of the appropriation of feminism for themselves, as if there were not many
diverse feminisms, both within and outside of archaeology, which would all be
silenced if this new orthodoxy were adopted. For us it is important to reassert
the need for continued questioning and debate within a feminist framework.
Another disquieting issue is the appeal to universals, as if human societies
all started the same way following a single blueprint, and all women have been
essentially the same since the beginning of time. Such `essentialism' reduces
our options, as if there were only one predetermined `archetypal' path for
women to follow; ironically at base the same one which male thinkers have
traditionally allotted to us, that of motherhood. Contemporary writers often
overlook the fact that the existence of a `Mother Goddess' in prehistory was a
matter of consensus from the late nineteenth century onwards for many male
scholars who found this image compatible with their sense of the female as a
primitive, `natural', sexual, maternal being utterly divorced from their
`rational' male world. It seems strange that this is a tab which some women now
14 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 15
want to pick up. Although these same qualities are now redefined as positive,
the Goddess literature still frames its discussion in terms of the male/female
polarization which our society imposes. Just as matriarchy is patriarchy in
reverse, so too the Goddess curiously reflects the monotheistic God of
Christianity. Their biologically essentialist vision is one which they share with
the reactionary forces who have always opposed the emancipation of women; it
serves, as Lauren Talalay has pointed out:
to isolate women as outside of history ... If women's reproductive capabilities
are the source of their power, then women remain, to some extent, locked
within an unchanging domestic sphere. 27
The appeal to a fixed definition of women in the name of change is
inherently contradictory. A narrative which promotes `it was always like this'
silences `here is a new possibility, where will it take us?'
The Goddess movement has espoused the `intuitive' or `experiential'
approach which offers potential for fresh ways of looking at the past, and for
making imaginative leaps of interpretation. Archaeology's traditional claims
of scientific objectivity have been shaken by science's own move away from the
notion of an impartial observer towards that of the `participant observer' who
inevitably interacts with what is seen. 28 The role of imagination and inspira-
tion in scientific progress has been increasingly recognized; Einstein himself
described scientific models as `free creations of the human mind'. 29
But again perhaps the opportunity to do more has been missed, by rev-
ersing rather than challenging the whole intuitive/rational dichotomy which
is taken for granted in Western culture. The caricature which pictures the
feminist on an ancient earthwork communing with the 'Goddess' while the
academic sits crouched over books in the library does justice to no-one.
Glamorizing `female' intuition, while demonizing archaeologists as "grubby
schoolboys" seeking shelter in the "hutch of reason"' 30 reinforces the very
gender stereotypes we could be questioning. Subjectivity without self-
awareness can lead to a colonization of the past whereby the remains of ancient
peoples' lives get sucked into a self-centred image of modern desires. In the
rush to reclaim female history Goddess writers have not addressed the com-
plexity and diversity of the archaeological record; in the search for eternal
verities they have failed to engage with its fluidity. By plucking out only those
ancient artefacts whose faces fit their theory, they have not engaged with
the primary evidence in a way which respects its context.
Recontextualizing the past
What we do mean by context? Let us take the example of a figurine, say a
naked female figurine made of clay. She may or may not represent a goddess:
the existence of the figurine is not in itself proof of a goddess. How do we go
about studying it? A Goddess movement writer may quote from what is written
in a book, or on a museum label, and may even travel to the site where the
figurine was found an important aspect of context but will delve no further.
She may then interpret the figurine as a 'goddess' and move on to link it with
other figurines from a different time and place. Curiously, in a movement that
stresses the value of the body of the 'Goddess' and of physicality in general,
this approach shows a lack of care for the physical reality which gave that
figurine birth. To understand the figurine better calls for a process of `recon-
textualizing', of giving back the figurine its context. 31
A first, essential step is to supply, as Susan Sontag puts it, `a really accurate,
sharp, loving description' of the figurine; by describing, handling and drawing
an artefact archaeologists may avoid making interpretations while missing
important details and taking `the sensory experience of the work of art for
granted.' 32 Beyond the object itself there is the find context. As Ruth
Tringham and Margaret Conkey (Chapter 1) emphasize, we need to ask: Was
the figurine found in a building? In a grave? Was it in a well or on a rubbish
heap and how might it have ended up there? What other objects were associated
with the figurine? Was it found with everyday broken pottery or more precious
finds like jewellery or weapons?
We may now have a number of ideas about its possible use but we need also
to explore the social context, that is, what other evidence is available for under-
standing the society which produced and used the figurine. How was society
organized? Who had wealth and authority? What was the economic basis and
the level of technical and artistic skills? Before drawing conclusions about the
significance of our figurine the religious context of the society must also be
explored: can we identify special cult places, ritual paraphernalia, depictions of
religious activity? Unless it is situated in the archaeological record in this way,
the figurine is decontextualized. It becomes simply a passive object onto which
the beholder can project his or her fantasies.
Time provides another context. Many Goddess writers have ignored the
specificity of the historical moment when the figurine was made or used.
Committed to the idea of a static `Golden Age', they have often failed to rec-
ognize that human life is dynamic, always in a process of change. Compiling
encyclopaedic works with the urge to universalize, Goddess writers have rarely
looked closely enough at any one time and place to see the specific detail, or
the value of differences between cultures. Cycladic figurines looted from their
original findspot have been described as `orphaned'. Plucking a figurine from
its geographical, social and historical context also leaves it orphaned; to deny
an object's physical circumstances, lifting it out of time, leaves it strangely
disembodied.
Moving from past to present, there is also the context of modern thinking.
How have others approached the interpretation of figurines? 33 A recent dis-
cussion has, for example, made explicit the possible distinction between `image
16 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 17
of' and `image for'. Haaland and Haaland take a modern ethnographic example
from Tanzania: a Makonde figurine of a pregnant female, but used for the
initiation rites of adolescent boys. 34 Taken out of its context, the figurine
could easily have been identified as a `Goddess' rather than a symbolic device
for the formation of male identity. This framework for thinking is likely
to prove useful for anyone with an interest in figurines. More generally, it
illustrates the importance of being aware of and responsive to current'schol-
arship, rather than (as some feminists have tended to do) writing as if `the
intellectual world began yesterday'. 35
A diversity of goddesses
Neither we nor our contributors can step outside the unique moment of time
which houses us and shapes our view of the world beyond; our own context
inevitably shapes our thoughts and perceptions. Given that limitation, we have
attempted to be aware of our place in history and in contemporary debate, and
to focus in detail on specific areas of study. In this way the material evidence
is made available, which others both now and in the future may see and
interpret differently.
In selecting the areas to be covered in the book we chose for discussion those
places and periods of history where claims for a Goddess have been most insis-
tent and where there is, therefore, a case to answer. The evidence presented is
primarily archaeological but where written evidence is available, especially in
the ancient Near East, texts are fully drawn upon. The contributors are all
actively involved in scholarly study of the areas covered by their chapters, and
some are at the forefront of excavation and have included new material. All the
contributors have looked afresh at their material, presented it accessibly, and,
in keeping with the aims of feminist scholarship, have offered coherent yet
undogmatic interpretations.
The result has been a revelation. Not of a single, fundamental pattern uni-
versally repeating itself, but of a picture of staggering diversity. Most of the
contributors found strong evidence for female divinities, but not necessarily in
the forms or roles conventionally assigned to them. Let us look more closely at
some of the themes that have emerged.
The first of these themes refers us back to the dilemma: how can a deity be
identified? Here the varied types of evidence call for different approaches. A
written text may name a deity, but with a mute anthropomorphic figurine or
an artistic image it is harder to tell whether we are looking at a deity, a priestess,
worshipper, or an ordinary person. In early north-west Europe Elizabeth Shee
Twohig traces the shift in scholarship away from seeing a Goddess in every
spiral to a more cautious and nuanced discussion of possible anthropomorphic
images. Miranda Green, writing on Gallo-Roman goddesses, discusses various
iconographic signs of 'otherness' such as nudity, disproportionate size, or
reversal in weapon-bearing hands, which may be taken as a sign of divinity.
Non-human features such as wings and otherworldly attendants appear in sev-
eral chapters as indicators of a supernatural being, although there is a range of
possible interpretations from god/goddess through to personal deity, guardian
spirit or spirit guide.
Several chapters draw attention to a second theme: the fact that divinity
need not be envisaged in anthropomorphic or personified form at all, remind-
ing us that the humanist perspective is one among many and that anthro-
pocentrism reduces and forecloses a variety of spiritual experiences. Chapters
2, 3, 5, and 6 variously suggest interest in astronomical events, concerns with
animals, plants, the sun, time-keeping, the weather, spirits of place and the
dead. In the relatively well-documented ancient Near East (Chapter 3) it is
suggested that in some areas deities did not take on personified form until the
third millennium BC.
Thirdly, where there is clear and abundant evidence of female divinity, the
question of `one or many' arises. In many of the cultures investigated here,
plurality is most evident, and the interaction of goddesses with other deities
needs to be addressed. Recalling Brested's comment that `Monotheism is but
imperialism in religion', 36 we need to be open to the possibility of religions
structured very differently from Western religion. There is a great difference
between one primal Mother Goddess and a mother goddess amongst other
deities with a range of functions. In the past some writers have treated female
forms differently from male, privileging them or conflating them into one
`Goddess' in a way they would not do with male deities.
Here, the concept of motherhood as itself culturally constructed becomes
crucial, reflecting how a society sees both the biological function of parturition
and the relationships surrounding a mother. A mother figure, like a father fig-
ure, need not literally be a parent. This leads to a fourth theme, that of the
relationships in which goddesses engage, which range far beyond the Frazerian
template of mother-son. Sibling rivalry and sibling love - are fundamental
narratives in some religions; one thinks of Anat, sister of Baal (Chapter 4), or
the siblings Isis, Osiris and Seth (Chapter 5). There is also an emphasis in some
cultures on the relationship of paired female figures, sometimes perhaps the
mother-daughter relationship; examples from atalhyk, Crete and Malta
challenge the notion of a single primary figure (Chapters 2, 6, 8). Joan
Westenholz (Chapter 3) describes how a combined male/female deity and a
divine triad comprising husband, wife and husband's sister extend the range for
Near Eastern goddesses, who are by no means confined to maternal relationships.
The whole concept and process of gendering into male and female can also
be drawn into question. Sometimes gender identification is based on unexam-
ined assumptions; in the case of Malta (Chapter 8) corpulent body forms used
to be automatically designated female. In some cultures, it is suggested, gender
may have been a less important or even an irrelevant factor in defining

18 ANCIENT GODDESSES
figurines and images. Many prehistoric figurines are ungendered or sexless,
while some have been tentatively identified as belonging to a `third gender'
(Chapter 1) or having dual sexuality (Chapter 2).
Another theme which emerges strongly is that the symbols which have been
claimed as `universal' such as analogies between sky/earth, sun/moon, male
thought/female sexuality are clearly seen to be culturally specific. In Egypt
(Chapter 5) frequent references to female links with the sky and to the `Queen
of Heaven' belie the `Earth Goddess' stereotype. The idea of the moon as
inevitably female is challenged by female links with the sun (Chapters 3, 5, 6).
Highly diverse rolesare undertaken by both male and female deities: there are
male deities of fertility, while goddesses may represent the state and justice or
writing and libraries, may give and protect kingship, preside over war and dis-
play violent tendencies. 37 All these roles undermine the male culture/female
nature clichs of western society. Such evidence in well-documented societies
should encourage a greater openness to similar possibilities elsewhere. The
evidence time and again suggests the importance of female divinity, but with-
out the centralized formation proposed in the Goddess literature. As Mary
Voyatzis' (Chapter 7) study of the Greek goddess Athena demonstrates, roles
of deities do not conform to universal schemes or unitarian reconstructions,
but shift with cultural change and the passage of time.
The relationship between divinity and society also emerges as an important
but complex theme. Fekri Hassan (Chapter 5) suggests that the changing loca-
tion and economy of the early Egyptians changed their vision of creation.
However, there appears to be no simple correlation: important female deities
do not necessarily mean a society in which women exert greater authority,
although conventional archaeological scholarship has, from the beginning,
been swift to favour interpretations of male dominance. In the Bronze Age
Aegean, Arthur Evans centred Minoan religion around a `Goddess' and recog-
nized the prominence of women in Minoan art, yet he envisaged a 'Priest-
King' at Knossos. Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris (Chapter 6) reaffirm
the importance of female divinity and female officiants in palatial Crete, but
draw attention to the continuing scholarly ambivalence over the issue of tem-
poral power. Using theories of social development, Caroline Malone (Chapter
8) challenges ideas of matriarchy by proposing a chiefdom structure for pre-
historic Malta, while stressing that the sheer paucity of evidence, especially the
crucial data from settlements, makes it difficult to integrate the rich symbolic
material within a clear social structure.
For societies without translated texts, one is often left with a strong sense of
ambiguity about both social and religious issues. But the availability of both
archaeological and written evidence does not necessarily resolve the situation.
As Karel van der Toorn points out in his discussion of Old Testament Israel
(Chapter 4) there may be a sharp mismatch between the two forms: without
the Bible ohr picture of the religion of that society would be very different;
Intro duction 19
conversely, papyrus texts and archaeological material can subvert and reshape
Biblical narratives. - - -
Conclusions
Given this wealth of diversity in the material from ancient Mediterranean and
European cultures, we might wonder why the debate about early religion has
been relatively mono-track around the question of a `Goddess'. Perhaps part
of the problem has been that unacknowledged sub-texts within the debate have
cast over prehistory a shadow of modern need which has obscured our vision.
One such sub-text is the idea that male reason and female body/emotions
are universal and necessarily opposed categories. Where archaeology meets the
`Goddess' is also where science meets religion, and where mind meets body;
they are not expected to brush shoulders comfortably in our society.
However this potentially explosive mix can also provide a creative chemistry
where new questions and possibilities crystallize. As the discipline of
archaeology begins to acknowledge subjectivity, the emotive and physical
language of spiritual experience awe, calm, trance, arousal, communion,
ecstasy, hallucination can be used to extend the scope of cognitive archaeo-
logy. 38 We cannot assume that those experiences were the same in prehistory
as now any more than eating or sex but enquiring about ritual action, belief
and feeling, and whether these activities and experiences involved a Goddess or
goddesses, is a valid area of study. Linking such aspects of human activity with
a dispassionate appraisal of the material evidence and locating them in relation
to social dynamics, power, status, conflict and change, helps to create fuller
possible pictures of the past. We need to be literate in the worlds of both
material and spiritual experience if we are to understand how the two may
have interacted in an ancient society. Women (past and present) do not need
to be aligned to emotive and biological functions or men confined to a disem-
bodied head any more than we should accept the conventional female
nature/male culture divide. As Raymond Williams has observed, such
dichotomies as 'Man/Nature' are a cultural construct and a denial of complex
interactions: -
In our complex dealings with the physical world, we find it difficult to recognize
all the products of our own activities ,,. We have mixed our labour with the
earth, our forces with its forces too deeply to be able to draw back and separate
either out. 39
Rather than perpetuate traditional splits which polarize 'male' and `female' we
should welcome the challenge and opportunity of moving towards more fluid
and diverse approaches.
A second sub-text seems to be the notion that what happened in the distant
past is a model for political realities today. Using the Goddess as a poetic
20 ANCIENT GODDESSES Introduction 21
metaphor or inspiration for desired social changes is quite different from the
literal approach which seeks to re-write history even at the expense of vio-
lence to past lives in order to validate such changes. Lynn Meskell (Chapter
2) has suggested that our current aims for social change should be based not on
an imagined ancient `golden age' but on the lessons of the recent past, our
humanity and our hopes for the future. Equally, the male academic response
to the suggestion of past female power might be more reflective if it were not
seen as a blueprint for the present and future. Modern struggles for social
justice need to be fought on their own terms. `The past is a foreign country'; 40
and it is not there to serve us.
Another sub-text seems to be the haunting idea that the beginning of society
represents the beginning of our lives. In this curious view of prehistory as the
childhood of humanity, the `Mother Goddess' sometimes seems to reflect our
conflicting feelings about Mother. The Victorian scholars' notion of the all-
powerful, all-sexual and potentially all-destructive Mother Goddess who part-
ners the son-consort-dying god significantly mirrors the obsessive sexual love,
fear and hate of the small Freudian boy in his mother's lap. Glamorizing
`matricide' as a struggle for freedom, the Jungian male hero also has to escape
from the `Terrible Mother', the `womb of death', 41 in order to achieve con-
sciousness and identity, reflecting the dilemma of the male child who must
reject the protective wing of mother, the limitations of home and traditional
`female' qualities in order to forge an acceptable identity out in a male world. 42
If language can betray an undertow of attitudes, we might detect a politer and
chillier note of rejection and the need to differentiate in Fleming's 1969 paper
challenging `The myth of the mother-goddess': `The mother goddess has
detained us for too long; let us disengage ourselves from her embrace.' 43 Denial
and the flight from intimacy resonates in a sense of loss: `Mother, are you there?'
calls Ucko-humorously into the post-modern void in a recent paper. 44
Sexual mother, concubine and entangling female embrace are all male
fantasies. None of these narratives reflect the experience and feelings of the
female child. In response, some Goddess writers have argued with and raged at
the fathers of our academic institutions, and have recreated in their descrip-
tion of matriarchal society a vision of blissful intuitive merging with the
Mother Goddess as all-encompassing and undifferentiated as Winnicott's
`psychological unity' of mother and child or Lacan's `Imaginary' pre-Oedipal
phase, when the infant experiences identity with the mother and is unaware of
any separation between itself and the world. The monopolizing of `truth', the
sucking of all prehistory into one Goddess-worshipping whole, the insistence
on subjectivity at the expense of all else, can be seen as reminiscent of the
mono-vision of the baby at her mother's breast. There is a sense of `this is it,
nothing else exists.'
If such sub-texts have indeed been present it is little wonder that feelings
have run high, that both sides have coloured the Goddess debate with
symbolism about women, mothering and primal beginnings. It seems crucial
to remember that prehistory is not the childhood of humanity writ large. It
is time perhaps for the debate to develop towards an exploration of the bound-
aries between self and other, acknowledging the experience of self, and of
others present and past, and moving beyond the need for certainty.
Ruth Padel has commented on how `feminist reading' was made possible by
reading revolutions of the late nineteenth century psychoanalysis, Marxism
and social anthropology which offered new ways of looking at differences
between people. Moving from traditional scholarship's assumption of a stable
reader and an established `text', feminist perspectives highlight the instability
of the reading, writing self as well as the constructedness of the other. 45 Our
contributors Ruth Tringham and Margaret Conkey (Chapter 1) also stress that
the contribution of feminist archaeology is not to construct `Goddess' narra-
tives but to demystify archaeological `facts'.
Using a variety of approaches, the contributors all seek to communicate and
to `demystify' their material for the reader. They follow neither the path of
dogma nor a scepticism which acknowledges the multivocality of alternative
views as a way of maintaining authority. 46 Certainty is seductive, but we can
learn more about the past by engaging creatively while accepting doubt. In
each of the societies discussed in Ancient Goddesses, our contributors have
reshaped assumptions about the `Goddess' through careful attention to the
evidence within its historical context, while confirmingthat unanswered ques-
tions remain about the reasons for the centrality of women in some prehistoric
iconography. The monolithic `Goddess' whose -biology is her destiny may to a
large extent be an illusion, a creation of modern need, but in acknowledging
greater diversity in religious expression we allow for the possibility of finding
new patterns in a rich and fascinating body of evidence.

z RethiinIing A Critical View from Archaeology of
'Figurines Gimbutas, the `Goddess' and Popular Culture
Ruth Tringham and Margaret Conkey
n almost all of its variants, the Goddess movement has appealed to and uses
I archaeological materials, especially those that it claims to be images of
females: female figurines or statuettes and female motifs on ceramics or other
media.' Above all, images from the European Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic
periods (c. 40,000 to 5,000 years ago) are claimed to represent fertility and
other positively-valued attributes 2 and thus are often taken as material and
symbolic evidence for the existence of a world in which females, as a generic
category, were valued positively. We entered into a more thorough discussion
of the use of archaeology in these contemporary social movements in an earlier
version of this paper, 3 in which we drew attention to the rich literature, the
complexity of the issues, and the variety of participants and views involved in
what for the purposes of discussion we have termed the `Goddess movement'.
Here, we shall focus on the use of the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic (c.
40,000 to 5,000 years ago) figurines of Europe in this literature.
The power and authority of archaeological essentialization
To essentialize something is to reduce a complex idea/object to simplistic char-
acteristics, thereby denying diversity and multiple meanings and interpreta-
tions. Essentialization of women, men, society, and history underlies much
of the diverse literature that is part of the Goddess `consciousness', but it is used
implicitly as a device that may be taken for granted and not questioned. This,
with the unquestioning acceptance of the authoritative word of archaeologists
such as James Mellaart and Marija Gimbutas, forms the basis of our critique.
Recent feminist literature has focused on a critique of such essentializing in
the feminist literature of the 1970s and 1980s in anthropology and history.
This critique, however, has been slow in being trained on the use of archaeo-
logical data. 4 We believe that women and men in prehistoric societies are not
identical and interchangeable. 5 The aim of rethinking our gendered accounts
is not merely to reclaim inventions and origins for women. The recent emergence
of archaeologies of gender confirms why we should inquire into what were sure-
ly variable, dynamic, and historically specific gender roles, relations, ideologies,
and identities. 6 But the emergence of this kind of gender research in archaeo-
logy runs up against an authoritative and totalizing account of `the past' that
is widely held in popular cultural views of the Goddess. Although admitting
Rethinking Figurines 23
variations, the Goddess movement holds a general account of life in what
Gimbutas calls `Old. Europe' that has direct continuities out of the Upper
Palaeolithic (c. 40,000 years ago): `matrifocal, sedentary, peaceful, art-loving,
earth-and-sea bound'.? Marija Gimbutas has `authenticated' a story about such
a positive place of women in human societies ever since the Upper Palaeolithic
of Europe and through the Neolithic period (c. 40,000 to 5,000 years ago),
until `Old Europe' was overthrown around 3500 BC by a `patrifocal, mobile,
warlike, ideologically sky-oriented' society that was `indifferent to art'. 8
In this account, the whole of European prehistory is treated as a homo-
genous unit from the point of view of religion and social organization. The
rich variation of European prehistoric material culture is essentialized so that
the figurine and clay-rich archaeological record of Neolithic south-east Europe
(c. 6500-3500 BC), for example, `stands for' the continent as a whole.
Furthermore, in this universalized Eurocentric story, gender roles are homo-
genized, ignoring the agency of prehistoric men and women, as well as their
variable roles, identities and practices. No gender questions are asked: the role
and symbolic place of men and women are set and fixed.
There is a widespread - demand for unambiguous `facts' that has perilously
constrained the emergent archaeologies of gender that are probing the varied
and dynamic aspects of social relations in past societies. This demand is fed as
well by continuing androcentric or monolithic views, especially in the media.
This demand has been heightened by the recent publications of Marija
Gimbutas, The Language of the Goddess (1989) and The Civilization of the
Goddess (1991), which provide a version of (pre)historical data that obviously
fits the notion of what is desired and 'healthful'. 9 The media and her followers
have deemed Gimbutas `the archaeological au . thority' 10 and it is because of her
status that we take her work to be emblematic of the problems of the Goddess .
movement for both feminism and archaeology. She presents a markedly author-
itative voice that is in line with the prevalent mode of discourse among both
traditional and New (processualist) Archaeologists who all:
... offer authoritative optimistically-worded statements about what they have
found. They interpret (the archaeological record) according to a very specific
[read limited] set of questions which are deemed relevant and answerable, and
based on a number of very specific premises (usually unexpressed) about how
people behave and behaved in the past. It is these mainstream studies that pro-
vide statements on the archaeological `facts', which then become reiterated and
reconfirmed in secondary studies that incorporate.... all the archaeologists' lim-
itations into their own works. 11
Despite the existence of an authoritative discourse within archaeology more
widely, it is still the case that Gimbutas does diverge from archaeological prac-
tice with her arguments by assertion, that increasingly lack even the minimal
24 ANCIENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 25
`linking arguments' between the archaeological materials and the interpreta-
tions that are made of them. The narrative is presented in an authoritarian way
in which the process of inference from artefact to interpretation is mystified
and ambiguities of the archaeological record are hidden. Few of the artefacts
that Gimbutas refers to are presented in their archaeological contexts, and few
justifications are provided, much less developed, for the interpretations of cer-
tain attributes or forms, such as the interpretation of structures as `temples'
or `altars', and of figurines as `the Goddess'. Often, for example, Gimbutas
suggests that the female imagery all shows a certain `cohesion', but this is not
explained. And yet, other leading figures in the Goddess literature such as
Riane Eisler, Elinor Gadon and even Gerda Lerner, accept unquestioningly
these ideas, reproduce them and widen their distribution as `facts' about the
past. 12 The `pull' for a universalizing account has led Gimbutas and others to
some glaring inconsistencies. They focus on the Neolithic period (c. 7000-3500
BC) on the sedentary, agricultural communities yet they invoke a continu-
ity in the symbolic repertoire that `goes back' into the Upper Palaeolithic, of
40,000 years ago. However, their account of the onset of agriculture involves
great social change; humans, no longer gatherer-hunters, now came to `control
nature.' There is no satisfactory account of why the basic symbolic matrix
matrifocal and female, as powerful and fertile, as earth and water remained
essentially intact. Phenomena such as the correlation between social change
and symbolic change or between social and symbolic continuity must be ques-
tioned and problematized, not assumed.
Thinking about figurines
Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic figurines are at the heart of the debate over
origins in the Goddess movement and in Gimbutas' work. They constitute the
main data-base on the religion of Old Europe that Gimbutas has reconstruc-
ted. Figurines, however, do not speak for themselves, as has been concluded by
a number of papers in a recent issue of the Cambridge Archaeological
Journal. 13 They have to be interpreted to have meaning in any century. Since
figurines have been and can be interpreted in many different ways, each inter-
pretation is a clear indicator of where a writer stands both on the past and on
feminism. As Ucko has noted, the antiquity of the female figurines dating to
the Upper Palaeolithic period secured for many interpreters of the later
Neolithic period the notion that the Neolithic figurines (c. 7000-3500 BC) were
indeed `Mother Goddesses' and that this was a symbol of considerable
antiquity. 14 Thus, for some time, the interpretations of the female statuettes of
the two periods have been linked without question.
Female figurines have been found in archaeological sites of the Upper
Palaeolithic from south-western Europe (France) eastward into Siberia, espe-
cially from sites dating to 26,000-10,000 years ago, and of the Neolithic of the
circum-Mediterranean area and of south-eastern Europe 7000-3500 BC. The
ways in which these two sets of figurines have consistently been described by a
wide range of academic scholars and others reflect the primacy of the notion
of `Woman' as both an erotic and aesthetic ideal, and contemporary porno-
graphic views of the female body as sexual object. 15 Late nineteenth and early
twentieth-century authors claimed that the female figurines especially those
of the Upper Palaeolithic with large stomachs and so-called pendulous breasts
depicted pregnancy and/or lactation, and therefore signified fertility and the
magical desire for successful births to maintain the viability of the (assumed-
ly precarious) population. 16 Most traditional authors assume that the depiction
of biological and essential female traits meant that females- in the Upper
Palaeolithic were themselves the objects not just of image-making but of social
control and male desire; that their place and functions in Palaeolithic society
were biologically determined and determinative; and that women's status was
therefore less cultural and less central to the highly-valued arenas of artistic
production, political control, and other domains of social and ritual power. In
contrast, most Goddess authors view the fertility interpretation for both Upper
Palaeolithic and Neolithic figurines as a positive attribution that highlights the
cultural importance and centrality of female qualities and biological powers.
Neither approach, however, problematizes the notion of `fertility' for which
figurines are so frequently believed to be images. That large breasts or large
stomachs are agreed-upon conventions of imagery signifying lactation and the
more inclusive concept of fertility has never been demonstrated or considered
critically. Rice 17 has argued that many of the Palaeolithic figurines are more
likely to be images for `womanhood' than `motherhood', although what 'moth-
erhood' might have meant some 20,000 years ago in these particular societies
is itself problematic. 18 The striking diversity of female imagery of Upper
Palaeolithic and Neolithic figurines is all too readily collapsed under the rubric
of `fertility' images. Even the identification of some imagery as being unam-
biguously referable to the female is itself debated, such as in the debate over
the so-called `vulva' shapes in the Palaeolithic repertoire of imagery. The
Upper Palaeolithic statuettes especially have often been read as sexually
charged because the ones that are usually depicted in texts a non-representative
sample to begin with have large buttocks, breasts, and/or hips. This does not
necessarily and immediately signify fertility but reveals a very contemporary
(and partial) notion of sexuality. Onians describes the so-called Venus of
Willendorf from Austria, one of the major icons of the Upper Palaeolithic
figurine repertoire (Fig. 1):
Those areas of her body which are shown in all their rounded perfection are pre-
cisely those which would be most important in the preliminary phases of love-
making, that is, the belly, thighs, breasts and shoulders, while the lower legs,
lower arms, feet and hands are withered to nothing.l9

26 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Fig. 1. The so-called Venus of Willendorf (Austria). This
is one of relatively few female statuettes from Palaeolithic
contexts that bear a triangular incision clearly marking the
vulva. H. 11 cm.
As Rainer Mack has argued convincingly, this citation
presents `a list of erotically-charged body parts
that are without legs and feet made immo-
bile; passive and available for possession'. 2
He shows that scholarly discourse about
these Upper Palaeolithic female images
relies upon and effects a hierarchical and
gendered subject-object relationship: that is,
the appropriation of a female body by a mascu-
line subject. 21
In much of the more popularized literature
which includes the uncritical inclusion of Venus
figurine interpretations in introductory archaeo-
logy texts twentieth-century sexist notions of
gender and sexuality are all read into the cultural
traces of `our ancestors': the male-female sex and
gender bipolarity, the primary association of the
female with reproduction and fertility, the conflation of
anatomical sex with gender, and the assumption that these
images are unambiguously about female-ness of a limited nature. For the most
part, androcentric and gynocentric views differ primarily only in the high
status that the gynocentric view would hold for the images within a different
system of gender ideology. For both, the authority residing in `origins' then
legitimizes these notions and makes them appear 'natural'. 22
The recent literature about interpreting figurines (especially those from
European and Near Eastern archaeological contexts) has involved a critique of
Gimbutas' books and the derived Goddess literature. Their critique has
focused on forefronting the diversity of the figurines, articulating details of
their context, and offering interpretations that are based on these variables and
on a more careful and explicit reading of theory of representation, imagery,
and social action.
Dealing with diversity
In Gimbutas' books, an entire body or `class' of material culture - clay
figurines has been treated as a homogenous group and given a single inter-
pretation: representation of `the Goddess'.
But the figurines do not occur in equal quantities (or forms) everywhere in
Rethinking Figurines 27
Europe and the Near East from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. Not
only are the geographic distributions for the two periods not at all overlapping
or isomorphic, but also areas and periods of their high frequency south-east
European Neolithic, Western and Eastern European Upper Palaeolithic can
not, in fact, stand for the whole continent or eons of continuous time. The
differences in distributions and forms need to be investigated and explained.
Traditionally, there has been a lack of discussion let alone documentation
of the fact that the female statuettes of both the Upper Palaeolithic and
Neolithic are not all the same in form or context and that females are not the
only sex/gender depicted. 23
For example, quantitative analyses of Upper Palaeolithic imagery make it
clear that there are also images of males and that, by and large, most of the
imagery of humans-humanoids cannot readily be identified as male or
female. 24 In fact, no source can affirm that more than 50 per cent of the
imagery is recognizably female. Most images can be called at best anthro-
pomorphic. With a particularly rich corpus of Upper Palaeolithic figurines
from Moravia (Czech Republic), Soffer shows that most are animals and
that the few human figurines are strikingly diverse, and cannot be readily
accommodated under a single interpretive rubric such as `Mother Goddess'. 25
Likewise, many authors mention the high proportion of Neolithic figurines
in south-east Europe that have no obvious sexual characteristics (e.g. 32 per
cent of the Golyamo Delchevo, Bulgaria figurines) 26 and the clear presence
of a small proportion of figurines with clear male sexual attributes. 27 There
are even figurines with both male and female sexual attributes on Eneolithic
settlements in south-east Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. 28
Quantitative analyses in the 1980s and 1990s show consistently enormous
variability in form, decoration, and degree of abstraction of anthropomorphic
figurines. 29 This formal variety can be explained, generalized or minimized as
`Her' variable manifestations within a standardized iconography, while the basic
interpretation as Goddess representation remains intact. 30 Or the diversity can
be brought into the foreground and investigated as a crucial aspect of figurine
interpretation. Biehl, while recognizing the diversity, has attempted to discover
`rules of production' which constrained the diversity of Eneolithic figurines from
north-west Bulgaria. 31 Bailey, on the other hand, has noted the fact that no two
figurines from the north-east Bulgarian Eneolithic settlements are the same; in
fact he interprets the diversity as a deliberate attempt to represent individuals 32
an approach that Hamilton finds `is most in line with 1990s socio-politics'. 33
The need for context
The generation and use of contextual information where an object was found
and what it was found with has also come to the forefront as a crucial factor
in the interpretation of figurines. 34 For most Upper Palaeolithic images of
28 ANCIENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 29
females, there is very little traditional contextual information, such as associ-
ated stone tools, climatic information or associated fauna that might indicate
how a site was used, how long people were there, what the group size or com-
position might have been. Many statuettes were found early on and/or by
chance, 35 although others continue to be discovered. The contexts on the
statuettes from sites in the Russian Plain such as Gagarino or Avdeevo 36 are
more hopeful and promising. 37
The lack of context for figurines in traditional analyses of later periods has
been discussed by a number of recent studies. 38 `Context' in the case of these
and other authors refers primarily to spatial context: the fact that, as with the
Upper Palaeolithic figurines, the figurines are from the surface or have no exact
provenance, or that it is not known with what other kinds of materials they
were found. Meskell, for example, has drawn attention to the fact that the
figurines from Gimbutas' own excavations at Achilleion, Greece, were not
recorded with detailed provenance. 39
However, we feel that the apparent lack of spatial context may have been
exaggerated by the undervaluing of the varying and yet potentially `informing
contexts' within which figurines were mostly deposited in archaeological sites.
Figurines have been sought in `primary contexts' which it is assumed were the
place of ritual performance, i.e. houses or sacred areas. 4 From this standpoint,
the `garbage pits'- where most figurines end up are seen as `secondary con-
texts' and of less value in interpreting the figurines.
There has been strikingly little concern with what we might call the `use-life'
of a given figurine: how, for example, might it have been altered, modified,
broken, used, re-used, repaired, redecorated, or disposed of? In fact, most
figurines have been found in trash pits in a broken state. What do we know
about other objects that were thrown away with them? Were some objects never
disposed of with figurines? How were the figurines broken? How do we differ-
entiate between accidental or deliberate breakage? What materials were the
figurines made of, are their tempers and pastes all the same and the same as
those used for ceramics and other clay artefacts? How were they formed? At
what temperatures were they fired?
These questions about context are regularly asked of all archaeological
materials. 41 Why have figurines and other imagery only rarely been subjected
to this same level of analysis? Many of the recent analyses have attempted to
unravel why details of use-life variability and context have seemed to be irrel-
evant in traditional interpretations. They draw attention to the emotional and
empathetic reactions that anthropomorphic figurines engender. Traditionally,
figurines have seemed to speak for themselves to the viewer, so that other
sources of information have indeed been deemed irrelevant. Because of the
strong emotions involved in interpreting human representations, such a tradi-
tional viewpoint, although long outdated in modern archaeological practice,
has survived in the treatment of anthropomorphic figurines.
For the south-east European Neolithic-Eneolithic, a number of studies have
recently been published in which the diversity of formal variables of figurines
has been presented in the context of spatial distribution, use-life information
and formal and artefactual associations. 42 We are now ready to add a further
study with the figurines from the Vinca culture settlement of Opovo in the
former Yugoslavia. Today, Opovo is a small town in the recently drained marsh-
lands north of the Danube in the former Yugoslavia. In prehistoric times there
was a small hamlet (now called Ugar Bajbuk), located 2 km from the modern
town, that was occupied for perhaps a 200 year period. The archaeological
remains of the hamlet have been attributed to the Late Neolithic-Early
Eneolithic Vinca culture (c. 4400-4000 BC). Opovo-Ugar Bajbuk is located in
the inhospitable (for early farmers) marshlands in contrast to the majority of
Vinca settlements which are situated in the fertile wooded hilly area south of
the Danube river. During 1983-89, Ruth Tringham, in collaboration with
Bogdan Brukner, excavated a part of this site with a team from U.C. Berkeley
and the University of Novi Sad. The following analysis is the product of a joint
authorship of Ruth Tringham, Mirjana Stevanovic and Vesna Muncan and is
reported more fully in the Opovo monograph which is now in press. 43
The context of figurines at Opovo, Yugoslavia
At Opovo, as in other settlements of this period, the majority of figurines
both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic (animal) were found in pits.
Approximately 100 anthropomorphic figurines 90 per cent fragments were
found in the 16 x 20 m excavated block from this small (12 hectare) settlement
(Fig. 2). The figurines are distributed in all three phases of occupation defined
in the excavated block. Very few of the figurines have obviously sexual attrib-
utes that would identify them as female or male (see, for example, the figurine
with breasts, Fig. 3). Few of the figurines have the mask that Gimbutas sees as
`typical' of the Vinca culture (Fig. 4). 44
At Opovo, we have analysed the formal and use-life attributes of the fig-
urines as in the Selevac project 45 within the context of production and uti-
lization of clay and its firing. The anthropomorphic figurines make up a small
part of the enormous number of recovered items that are made of fired clay.
This material is mostly made into ceramics, but also into clay weights, balls,
other perforated objects, and a variety of miniature objects: pots, furniture,
zoomorphic figurines. Clay was also used in huge quantities for daubing the
walls, floors, (and possibly roofs) of rectangular detached houses and the con-
struction of their interior furniture. Unlike the movable clay objects, the daub
was fired at the end of a house's use-life in what Ruth Tringham and Mirjana
Stevanovic have determined was a deliberately set conflagration of each and
every house that was excavated. 46 The figurines were fired intentionally as part
of their initial production, but those that were caught in the house fires lying


Rethinking Figurines 31

30 ANCIENT GODDESSES

OPOVO 1983-89 BUILDING HORIZON 1 Fig. 2. Plan of the OPOVO 1983-89 BUILDING HORIZON 2
excavated area of 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 the late Neolithic
settlement of 117
Opovo, Yugoslavia
(1983-1989) in three
different 116
occupation phases,
showing the spatial
115
context of
anthropomorphic
figurines. 114
a) Building
Horizon 1 (latest).
113
h) (Opposite):
Building Horizon 2.
112
c) (On page 32):
Building Horizon 3
(earliest).
111

110

109

108

r
N

CD pit or posthole
collapsed, burned house CD pit or posthole

r oven figurine fragment

oven figurine fragment
=S:S : baulk
1^1.:4, bedding trench
441 :-i i bedding trench baulk
secondarily deposited rubble
secondarily deposited rubble
2b external "floor" of rubble and hard clay
2a external "floor" of rubble and hard clay

on the floors and covered by the falling rubble were re-fired and damaged by
the intense heat (Fig. 5).
Very few figurines, however, were found on the floors of structures caught
in the house-fires. At Opovo, the few figurines found within the area of the
houses were located (with one exception Fig. 5) immediately below the level
of the floor of the house, and were not damaged by the fire. In the earliest
house (House 4), for example, although the debris of the house collapse itself
contained a small clay bead, a few clay balls and weights indicating that small
clay objects survived no figurines were found. However, six figurines were
found under its foundations, either in bedding-trenches, in post-holes, or below
the walls and corners of the house (Fig. 2c).
In later houses, such an association with the edges and corners is less
clear. In the burned debris of House 1, large numbers of clay balls, weights
and other artefacts were found in its burned rubble, but only one figurine
at floor level (Fig. 5). Five figurines, however, were found under its floor level.
The other house (House 2) that also dates to the last phase of the settlement,

32 ANCIENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 33

OPOVO 1983-89 BUILDING HORIZON 3 contains no figurines either within the burned rubble or under the house
61 62 63 64 65 foundations. We cannot argue that any figurines caught in the fire would have
58 59 60
disappeared in post-conflagration erosion, since there are large numbers of
117
F.6i _
3 F. 34 small clay balls, several `amulets' and clay loomweights still preserved within
F. 33/59 and under the fallen rubble, as well as a small spindle-whorl and even a tiny

II
I

116

115 e
III
:'/ F '30A--
fragment of copper. Their absence within the house rubble seems to us to be
the result of an intentional deposition of figurines outside of the area of the
house, at least, after the `birth' or laying of the foundations of the house.
We need to go further, however, to ask: what does get deposited or forgotten
in the so-called `primary contexts' of house floors? What else gets deposited
Lie
i with (or without) figurines in the foundations (under floors, in foundation

MI
114
trenches and post-holes)? At Opovo, for example, polished stone axes, bone

11W
F

' tools and other miniature clay objects were also found frequently in foundation
113 contexts of houses. Are the figurines themselves that are found in and under
houses different in terms of breakage, formal characteristics, technique of
112 s production from those in `secondary contexts'?
At Opovo, for the most part, the figurines found in the house foundations
} 3 are fragmentary, whereas the one figurine found within the rubble of House 1

'F. 18/48
3
111 (Fig. 5) was complete, although would probably never end up in an art book!
1111111 At another Vinca culture settlement, Selevac, one figurine that was found on
110 the burned floor of a house had little decoration apart from a 'mask-face' and

kiwi 111 rudimentary breasts, but was accompanied by a miniature figurine of alabaster
and perforated shells that could have come from the Black Sea shore 248 km
109
Eh to the east (Fig. 6). 47

108 5 e F50L } s aaa

IMIN The houses at Opovo were associated with pits, secondary scatters of burned
clay rubble, and isolated ovens. The secondary scatters of rubble and the iso-
N ret 115.98
lated ovens were each associated with one figurine fragment.

1
2m Following a number of anthropological studies that draw attention to the
collapsed, burned house C.) pit or posthole symbolic significance of `garbage' disposal, 48 we have worked from the
figurine fragment
premise that the relatively frequent occurrence of figurines in `garbage' pits is
oven
an intentional social act that needs to be problematized, and that not all pits
r\\ baulk
4.4rii bedding trench have the same `meaning'. The pits are not all the same either in their shape,
I j secondarily deposited rubble contents, or process of filling. Many but not all were topped up at the end
external "floor" of rubble and hard clay
of their use-life with burned rubble from the house conflagrations. Many had
probably been dug originally to gain access to the raw material from which the
daub for house construction was made and were then gradually filled up with
Fig. 3. Figurine fragment with breasts that may be identified as representing
debris of different kinds.
a female. From a `garbage' pit (Feature 61) at Opovo, Yugoslavia.
One pit at least (Feature 30; see Fig. 2c) was kept open during its use-life and
Fig. 4. Two figurine heads with a `mask' that is characteristic of provided access to water (i.e. a well), and was filled as a single act with the
many figurines of the Vinca culture from Opovo.
debris of House 4 immediately after its burning. Two figurines were found at
a) Figurine from `garbage pit' (Feature 41E, see Fig. 2b).
the top of this debris filling, but none lower down.
b) Figurine from area of secondarily deposited rubble (Feature 5, see Fig. 2a).
A pit of similar shape and dimensions (the eastern part of Feature 41) may
Fig. 5. Figurine found in the burned house rubble at the southern edge of have been kept open as a well, but was eventually filled gradually. It provided
House 1 at Opovo (see Fig. 2a).

34 ANClENT GODDESSES
Fig. 6. Clay
anthropomorphic
figurine found with a
small alabaster figurine
and perforated shells
on the floor of a house
at the late Neolithic
settlement of ,Selevac,
Yugoslavia.
a steady stream of figurine fragments (20) for the archaeologists throughout
the excavation of its fill (see, for example, Figs 4a, 7a). From this we conclude
that this pit may not have been a well, or at least not one with the same mean-
ing as Feature 30.
Three other large, deep ovaloid pits (Features 31, west part of 41, and 52)
also provided a large number of figurines distributed evenly from top to bottom
of their fill (Fig. 7 b, c). In the pits, the figurines are buried with fragments of
stone axes, obsidian fragments, bone tools, `amulets' and other miniature clay
objects, but never with clay balls or weights, or grindstone fragments.
The remaining pits provided one fragment or none. Some of these pits with
only one figurine were extremely rich in other artefacts, for example Features
46, 59 (Fig. 2c). These same two pits had very few of the other miniature clay
objects, such as `amulets' and `lamps'.
We have an idea that the distribution of figurine fragments amongst the pits
can help with the interpretation of the pits, as well as vice versa. There is not
space to describe here the details of this study, but it seems clear to us that, in
Rethinking Figurines 35
Fig. 7. Selection of figurines from the deep 'garbage'
pits at Opovo, Yugoslavia.
a) Figurine from Feature 41E.
b) Figurine from Feature 31.
c) Figurine from Feature 52.
the area excavated at Opovo, one pit in each phase of occupation was important
in the burial of figurines. Before we jump to conclusions about `ritual' pits, or
certain pits being more 'sacred' or significant locations in the worship of `the
Goddess' than others, or even about `rituals of life-cycles', we would advocate
a means to thinking about the diversity of interpretations of such contextual
data as these from Opovo.
These contextual and descriptive data provide crucial clues to the meanings
and meaningfulness of material culture. They can become the end-product of
the analysis.4 9 They can also lead to the definition of material parameters that,
although not `facts sealed in stone', form a body of consensus and provide the
basis of `higher-level' interpretations and inferences.5 0 Given that archaeolo-
gists depend upon making their inferences from patterns in the archaeological
record, we need to explore whether, in fact, there is some significance to the
differential distribution of figurines.
36 ANClENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 37
Thinking about figurines in their historical context
For such 'higher-level' interpretations of figurines, an understanding of the
historical context is central, which is why we have placed the interpretation of
the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic data as presented in the Goddess litera-
ture in the context of its wider cultural and historical positionings.
Few archaeologists have tried to explain why images of females, in the vari-
eties that exist, would have been meaningful to some of the Upper Palaeolithic
and Neolithic peoples. To what extent the hunter-gatherers of the Late
Pleistocene (c. 40,000-10,000 years ago) or the early agriculturalists of the
Holocene (c. 10,000-7,000 years ago) found the struggle for food or reproduc-
tion to be a driving force of their rituals (and the production of `fertility'
images) is again something that needs to be problematized, rather than
assumed. 51 What is the historical context of periods and places when clay fig-
urine imagery is not made, such as the Mesolithic (Post-Pleistocene hunter-
gatherer) societies of Europe (10,000-4000 BC) and the Late Eneolithic-Early
Bronze Age of south-east Europe (3500-2500 BC), and many other places and
times throughout the world? These need investigation as well. Why are female
statuettes made at different time-periods and places within the Upper
Palaeolithic and not at others? Is imagery depicted on other media at these
times?
There is no evidence about the sex/gender of the makers or of the audience
for whom the images were intended, although this could also be investigated. 52
While Gamble has suggested that a certain chronological cluster of female
images (c. 26,000 to 23,000 years ago) may have `functioned' as part of a sym-
bolic system of material culture aimed at establishing and maintaining social
alliances across a broad geographic range, at a time when more open resource
zones were needed for successful hunting-gathering, he avoids asking why
images of females would have been meaningful in such a context. 53
In a provocatively different view of the Palaeolithic figurines, McCoid and
McDermott have suggested that the angle of view from which many statuettes
seem to have been formed would be that of a female looking downward at her-
self, which they call 'autogenous'. 54 McDermott has extended this idea to argue
that certain Upper Palaeolithic images of females were made by women and as
part of processes of physical concern to women. 55 Kehoe has pointed out
with reference to Upper Palaeolithic imagery that some of the so-called
female images had to have been suspended in a certain way (given the location
of the suspension hole), in which case, what usually are taken as female breasts
on the top of a straight ivory rod are more 'readable', when reversed, as the
male scrotum. 56 Some figurines bear incisions and nicks on the back that could
easily be included in the broader idea that markings on Palaeolithic objects
were part of calendar-like or time-factoring concerns, as is argued by
Marshack; 57 in this case, as `markings' perhaps related to 'female menstrual
,
cycles. Recently, Soffer has suggested some sort of association between the
number `four' and female figurines from central and eastern Europe.S 8
The large sample sizes from some Russian Plain Upper Palaeolithic sites
allowed one Russian archaeologist5 9 to document varying conventions in the
making of the statuettes. Conroy has proposed that these conventions may be
taken as one indication that gender as a concept was emergent in these soci-
eties, though not necessarily indicative of a gendered world like ours. 6 While
we could present numerous other alternative visions, the interpretive possibil-
ities for the figurines are not endless because there are at least the constraints
of form, media and contexts discussed above. But once the figurines are no
longer limited to being either objects of male desire or `the Mother Goddess',
there are contextual, stylistic, and interpretive possibilities that both of these
inclusive accounts foreclose. This does not mean, however, that both of these
accounts could not be part of some of the 'readings'.
For the Neolithic-Eneolithic period, there is a rich literature with highly
varied scenarios and hypotheses about what 'life was like' in other words,
what might have been the socio-cultural context of the figurines even for the
restricted region of south-east Europe. 61 There are some points of agreement
among the archaeologists working with these data, including Gimbutas, about
the material parameters of the figurines, architecture and spatial distributions
of artefacts on the floors. 62 There are other points of agreement concerning
the general conditions and contexts of life in certain archaeologically docu-
mented villages during the Neolithic, such as the intensification of production,
the increasing degree of permanence of settlements, and the symbolic elabo-
ration of the archaeological record, including the manufacture of three-dimen-
sional anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines. 63
Despite the consensus about the basic data, there are necessarily many pos-
sible interpretations by the different archaeologists. These are based on multi-
ple interpretations of the function, the meaning and the meaningfulness of the
archaeological data including figurines and architecture and on varying
visions of their context in terms of the nature of the prehistoric people and
their lives. In her books, Gimbutas either fails to take into account these alter-
native interpretations or they are belittled as unproven or not valid, in contrast
to her own interpretations.
Whereas Gimbutas envisions an egalitarian matrifocal society based on peace-
ful coexistence, other archaeologists envision villages in which social differen-
tiation and inequality, due to the differing demographic cycles of households
rather than a permanent social ranking, were essential elements of social and
economic action. 64 Such differences among interpretations of the socio-cultural
context of the figurines obviously leads to very different interpretations of
their meaningfulness. For example, the vision of an egalitarian context leads
Gimbutas to conclude that the figurines represent a deity mother, earth, fertil-
ity who impersonally embraces all on an equal footing. She also asserts that the
38 ANCIENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 39
increase in figurines in a certain period means that belief in the deity is stronger.
On the other hand, an envisioned context of a dynamic and ever-shifting
inequality between households has led other archaeologists to relate the increase
of figurines in the Neolithic of south-east Europe (6000-3000 BC) to the
increased autonomy of households in a village and the need to express and
maintain such autonomy symbolically. 65 Such a view of autonomous households
lies at the basis of Biehl's study of Bulgarian figurines in which he suggested
that the figurines were produced without craft specialists by each household. 66
Another area of consensus is the pattern throughout the Neolithic-
Eneolithic period of south-east Europe of virtually every house being burned
at the end of its use-life, to the extent that this period has been referred to as
a 'Burned House Horizon'. 67 Until recently, this pattern had not been prob-
lematized. It was assumed by Gimbutas amongst most others that the
houses were burned in village-wide fires, as a result of accident or invasion.
Recently, however, Ruth Tringham and Mirjana Stevanovic have made this a
focus of their investigation through excavation in the former Yugoslavia. On
the basis of this research they have concluded that the houses were burned
deliberately in individual fires. 68 They have extrapolated from a small excava-
ted sample, and accidental fires may certainly have occurred, but they have
challenged the dramatic cataclysmic village-wide episodes of burning.
Our conclusion of deliberate burning can itself be interpreted in various
ways, each of which has implications for the interpretation of figurines. One
of the interpretations that can be suggested is that this was a deliberate and
symbolic destruction of the house, perhaps at the end of a household cycle, at
the same time as ensuring its continuity of visibility and presence through its
mass of indestructible materia1. 69 There are other aspects of the Eneolithic
material record of south-east Europe in which this idea of `killing' but ensur-
ing continuity could resonate, as seen from our example from Opovo: topping
up the pits with burned rubble, filling a well with burned rubble, breaking
grindstones and placing them in the houses to be burned, breaking stone axes
and placing them with figurines in pits and the act itself of breaking figurines
and depositing them in the fill of garbage pits and in the foundations of a house.
A similar idea of different figurines representing different stages in the
transformation of a household has also been suggested in Biehl's analysis of
clay anthropomorphic figurines from Eneolithic north-west Bulgaria (c. 4400-
3800 BC). 70
Douglass Bailey has emphasized the idea of competition between house-
holds, and the role that figurines might have played. 71 His vision of the con-
text of the figurines drawn especially from the data of Neolithic-Eneolithic
north-east Bulgaria (c. 5500-3500 BC) is one in which there is a growing com-
petition for the control of habitation space and resources, and a growing
importance attached to the expression of individual diversity and identity,
through burial display (grave-goods). This idea is based to a.' certain extent on
his observations of the data from the settlement and cemetery of Golyama
Delchevo. 72 At this site in north-east Bulgaria prestige items (not figurines) in
graves were associated with male bodies, whereas in the settlement virtually no
male figurines were present. Over half of the figurines in the settlement were
representations of women, although a much smaller percentage of women
were buried in the cemetery and with no `prestige' items. He points out, inter-
estingly, that a third gender (neither male nor female) is represented by an
equal percentage of figurines in settlements as bodies in graves. His interpre-
tation of the meaning of the figurines within such a context has changed
through time from a simple expression of individual identity to a more com-
plex, less direct, meaning, as is discussed below.73 -
Gimbutas and other archaeologists agree on some dramatic changes in the
archaeological record at the end of the Copper Age (Eneolithic) in south-east
Europe, one of which is the virtual -disappearance of clay anthropomorphic
figurines. 74 At this same time large villages were abandoned and settlements as
a whole become almost invisible archaeologically. Individual burials under
mounds (named kurgans), on the other hand, became a visible part of the
landscape. What are archaeologists to make of these changes? Are these times -
of social 'collapse' as they are so often depicted? Why would figurines no
longer be made? Why would villages be abandoned?
Gimbutas attributes these changes, which she calls 'the end of Old Europe',
to the invasion of patriarchal Indo-European-speaking pastoralists from the
north Black Sea steppes. 75 The lack of settlement debris and the presence of
domesticated horses prompt Gimbutas to think of pastoralists, and she con-
cludes that this is a male-dominated society, based on the modern myth that all
societies whose subsistence is based in animal-keeping are patriarchal and war-
like. Moreover, Gimbutas interprets the lack of female figurines as a decrease
in the worship of the Goddess deity, as well as a decrease in the respect given
to women. This is by no means an unproblematic and obvious `conclusion'.
None of these paths of inference are incontrovertible facts, and they have all
recently been challenged. 76 In fact, an equally compelling argument can be
made that the supposed devaluation and disempowerment of women did not
occur until several thousands of years after the Goddess movement's postulated
`end' of Old Europe. We can postulate that it is the processes of urbanization -
not the processes of pastoralism that instigate marked re-negotiations of
gender (including the restriction of women's social action and the marginal-
ization of women's labour and household production) . Such processes did not
-
become part of continental European life until Romanization (in the late first
millennium BC).
Thus, we could write a very different prehistory of Europe than that
suggested by Gimbutas, especially given that there is no firm evidence for the
proclaimed Kurgan invasions of Old Europe bringing to an end both figurines
and matrifocal harmony. The observed changes in the archaeological record at

Rethinking Figurines 41

40 ANClENT GODDESSES

3500 BC may alternatively and plausibly be interpreted, for example, as the
result of economic and technological changes, including exchange networks in
combination (or not) with social and settlement changes, such as decentraliza-
tion of settlement, fission of households, and even a growth in the power of
males to control joint action of the scattered villages. 77
The social meaning of visual imagery and representation
The significance of these contextual data as a basis for interpretation is all the
greater when considered within the context of theories of visual representation
and social action. The lack of theories of social action and the lack of explicit
use of social anthropology and history as sources for thinking about the
context of figurines has severely limited many of the interpretations of fig-
urines. 78 It is only through such inquiries that we can begin to imagine the
broader implications of the meanings and roles we believe figurines had with-
in the lives and life-histories of their makers and 'users' as toys, dolls, educa-
tional `aids', 79 personal ornaments, sexual imagery, markers of special spaces
and special times (such as birthing or re-birth),II representations or markers of
special people or status (goddesses, ancestors), 81 furniture or equipment of
special places and events (ritual performance), tokens of economic or social
relations, 82 and/or creators of ideology. 83 The meanings listed here are among
many possible ones and are not mutually exclusive.
Who or what do the figurines represent: supernatural beings such as deities,
dead people, ancestors? What is the significance of the (frequent) miniaturiza-
tion of the human form (or of other subjects, such as a Neolithic house)? 84 Is
it to grasp or control or transcend the reality of a person or a place? What is
the significance of the masks that are frequently represented on figurines? 85
Why do so few of the masks have a mouth depicted? Are overt symbols a
material text that can be read? Is there a whole sub-text that archaeologists are
missing in terms of covert symbols?
the relationship of ritual performance to the construction and maintenance of
ideologies, and the meaningfulness of material culture including decoration of
the body. 87 These are all highly varied and complex, but rarely, if ever, con-
sidered by Gimbutas and other traditional interpreters of prehistoric visual
imagery. For this reason many of the possible meanings that we have listed above
are prefaced by the adjective special rather than sacred, since this latter term
when applied to a prehistoric context needs to be defined and explicated.
What, for example, goes on in a so-called `prehistoric temple' envisaged by
Gimbutas? 88 Why would it be a separate building or space? How do the rituals
performed there relate to the rest of social action? Who performs them, when,
and why? What is the significance of the figurines in these rituals? What does
it mean to call the assemblage of figurines and clay objects found on the
floor at the Neolithic site of Vszto-Magor (Fig. 8) a `cult assemblage' 89 or a
`ceremonial assemblage' ? 90 These questions need to be thought through, and
possible answers posed, even as hypotheses. 91 To name a building foundation a
`temple' or 'shrine' 92 because it is empty except for figurines, a clay platform
or a group of clay objects on its floor, is to make unwarranted assumptions
about function and form.
While the use of terms such as `temple', 'altar', `spiritual', `ritual' and even
Fig. 8. Ground-plan
and reconstruction
of a building with
figurines and other
clay objects on the
floor, excavated at
the Neolithic
settlement of
Vszto-Magor,
Hungary. S.. +C.+lR.s. T+r. 4lXE. d: r#e ^.
i f Y

These inquiries encourage us to avoid constructing a past world that mimics

our modern world a tendency that is inherent in the use of the modern terms
and categories that many archaeologists most obviously Gimbutas use to
interpret the past. For example, terms such as `religion', `temples', `shrines',
`rituals' are used with an apparent unawareness that these terms imply the
clear separation of sacred from profane that is characteristic of modern
Western belief systems. We feel that these terms should not be used so casual-
ly for prehistoric situations without explicit consideration of what such terms
imply, both as cultural phenomena and for prehistoric social lives. 86 Some of
these terms evoke important and contested issues in anthropological and other
studies of religion, ritual and society: the nature of belief systems, belief and
explanation of the world, the institutionalization of belief, the relationship of
the natural, the supernatural, and the liminal in prehistoric cognitive systems,

42 ANCIENT GODDESSES
`goddess' does more to attract the interest and engagement of contemporary
readers than would the more neutral terms, `structure', `mound', `mundane'
`special', and `figurine', the terms nevertheless obscure the dynamics of and
possibilities for differential human social experience. 93 Furthermore, they
preclude alternative interpretations and predetermine function, if not also
meaning and meaningfulness.
Many of the interpretations of figurines contain the implication that rituals
involving figurines in any context (prehistoric or modern) have the same effect
as such rituals and materials in a modern Christian church; that is, that they
confirm the legitimacy of the status quo, encourage conformity, and discourage
resistance. Gimbutas' scenario of egalitarian peaceful coexistence places a
positive value on such conformity and lack of challenge to the authority of `the
Goddess'. Equally plausible models of the south-east European Neolithic, many
of which are grounded in Marxist and neo-Marxist social theory, explicitly
discuss such rituals and their material manifestations as strategies by which, in
the context of household-based social differentiation, one group a household,
senior members, senior males dominate and even exploit another group. In
this kind of interpretation, the figurines are seen as acting as overt symbols
that help create and maintain ideologies by which it seems `natural' or accept-
able that some people have power over the labour, actions, relations, property
of others or have more access to resources and wealth than others. 94
Recently, Douglass Bailey has explored a more complex interpretation of
the figurines of Neolithic-Eneolithic north-east Bulgaria using the social theo-
ries of resistance to domination developed by Shirley Ardener (theory of
mutedness and theory of sexual insult). 95 In this interpretation the figurines
are made as sexual insults by the subordinate `muted' group women to
resist the domination of males. This interpretation is clearly offered within the
broader context that he envisages described above of increasing competi-
tion at this time not only between households, but between men and women,
and an emphasis on the expression of individual identity. Bailey suggests that
in making the figurines of fired clay, the women deliberately achieved a pow-
erful impact by using an everyday material, an impact that far outlived the
short-term impact of the elaborate ritual performance of male burials with
prestige items. The significance of a third gender represented in the figurines
has yet to be explored. Because it is grounded in social theory as well as
explicit contextual data, Douglass Bailey's interpretation gives greater satis-
faction to the critical reader, who can evaluate it without having to rely solely
on his or her emotions and limited imagination.
The more we read about the meaning and role of visual imagery in anthro-
pology and history, the more it becomes clear that archaeologists need to take
into account the fact that there are certain to have been multiple perceptions
and interpretations of the figurines by the prehistoric social actors them-
selves. 96 The idea that spaces and materials are likely to have different mean-
43
Rethinking Figurines
ings and to be perceived differently by different members even within the
same household, according to their gender, age, social status etc is part of a
growing archaeological concern with gender ideologies within the dominance
relations of prehistoric societies. 97 Moreover, far from being a constant from
the Upper Palaeolithic through the early and later Neolithic time (over more
than some 35,000 years!), the meaning of the figurines especially their mean-
ingfulness is more likely to have been varied and varying, more ambiguous
than fixed, and differentially experienced, even at any one point in time. 98
How materials including figurines act as media in the construction,
enactment, and transformation of such ideologies and the negotiations of
power relations is not discussed in the work of Gimbutas or the secondary
Goddess literature, but it is an important question among feminist and post-
processualist archaeologists alike. .
The complexity of the interpretation of figurines in their historical con-
texts should warn us that the interpretation of their disappearance (or rather
absence of their production) is no less ambiguous or complex. 99 If figurines
were not always or only a mere reflection of gender ideologies, then the
discontinuity of their manufacture and use could be linked more to varied and
changing social, economic, and ideological histories. Thus we can begin to
imagine how figurines would have had importance in certain, but not all,
historical contexts. We can strive to construct the specific contexts in which
figurines would have been important and meaningful (or not).
A belief in a female deity may well have been one important feature, but this
must be made the object of investigation for debate, not the assertion. Thus, a
disappearance of figurines may indeed reflect a change in the rituals associated
with belief in the 'Goddess', as Gimbutas supposes. But it could also reflect a
new social context in which the dispersal of socially differentiated households
has negated the need for figurines as a medium in the negotiation and the
, legitimization of power in villages. 1 Or it could reflect a transformation in the
system of rituals and their symbols that had characterized the traditions of the
large Neolithic-Eneolithic villages of Old Europe, for example a decrease in
the importance of household ancestors.' 1 It will take many lines of converg-
ing and compelling evidence to address each interpretation. But that is how all
archaeology especially the archaeology of symbols and ideas, of ideologies
and social life must proceed.
Figurines and the feminist practice of archaeology
The students in our recent classes on 'Archaeology and the Goddess' have
debated long and hard whether the Goddess literature is or is not feminist:
there is a challenge to authority, yet a reliance upon authority; there is a chal-
lenge to a totalizing patriarchy as inevitable, yet the alternative is another total-
izing account. But in assessing if these Goddess narratives are efficacious as
44 ANClENT GODDESSES Rethinking Figurines 45
feminist narratives of resistance that are needed desperately now, we come
back towards feminism and archaeology. What does a feminist archaeology
look like and is a tension between those views and the Goddess movement
necessary but informative?
An analysis of the entanglements of archaeology and `the Goddess' as pre-
sented in Gimbutas' work reveals how complex, multifaceted, polysemic and
ambiguous any archaeological interpretation of this notion necessarily is. Her
monolithic account of 'Goddess-oriented Old Europe' forecloses the goals of
feminist and even of traditional archaeology: to probe and understand how
and why humans use material culture and to probe the various symbolic and
social complexities of past human lives.
In our opinion, the value of feminist theory for archaeology is not so much
in stimulating matrifocal meanings or a female-centred interpretation for
(selected portions of) the archaeological record, such as anthropomorphic fig-
urines. This, however, has been the focus of much of the Goddess literature.
We are more inclined to agree that:
it is ... difficult to establish plausible statements about the meaning of the fig-
urines, if we assume that they say something about women. We rather think it
is more fruitful to ask what may the figurines say about human concerns and
relationships and why does an imagery modelied after attributes of the female
body convincingly express ways of dealing with them.' 02
The new directions and dimensions that are brought to archaeology by femi-
nist theory lie in changes in the practice of archaeology itself and in the way(s)
that the past is constructed and presented. The nature of these changes is not
always clear even to those who claim to be feminists.I 03
One of the most important aspects of the feminist practice of archaeology
is to emphasize the need to demystify the authoritative optimistically-worded
`facts' about the past. The process by which the archaeological record in this
case, figurines and spatial contexts is interpreted and reconstructed by
archaeologists and by which it is given meanings that modern readers can
relate to is a complex series of inferential steps. In practice each step is fraught
with its own challenge of ambiguity and problems of validation. To ignore
the ambiguity and to work within the illusion of 'proven facts' is to claim
that one's interpretation is knowledge rather than a 'mode of transmitting
knowledge' . 104 Feminist theory encourages a celebration and discussion of this
ambiguity rather than its mystification.
The feminist practice of archaeology changes the kind of prehistories that are
envisaged. In contrast to the essentialized prehistory of Old Europe as written
by Gimbutas (and most other traditional prehistorians), in which a mosaic of
varied social actions and histories is reduced to a simple unified trajectory, an
engendered prehistory envisages thinking and acting people who affect the
course of prehistory. In doing this, we think of men as well as women (both
young and old) and we think of children. We also think about the action and per-
ceptions of these people in their personal histories, both every day and during
the course of their lives. Housework and household tensions of dominance and
resistance become important objects of study rather than taken-for-granteds. 105
We suggest that the interpretation of figurines should be presented in rela-
tion to, not in exclusion of, alternative interpretive narratives. The story that
has been presented by the Goddess literature is neither the only story nor `the'
story, despite its power and seduction for those who actively seek to re-imagine
the past and to create a 'usable' past for contemporary contexts. Nor are any of
the alternative interpretations mentioned above the 'true' one. Many of them,
including that of Gimbutas, can be considered plausible within the constraints
of the material evidence. These 'material constraints' are rooted in the con-
sensus amongst archaeologists as to what they call the `archaeological context'.
It may seem more satisfying to be given the 'facts' of temples, of shrines, and
reverence for a deity, but as feminists we are sure that longer-term-interpreta-
tive satisfaction is more complicated than that.
Further reading
S. Ardener, Perceiving Women (Malaby: London, 1975).
D. Bailey, The interpretation of figurines: the emergence of illusion and new ways of
seeing, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6 (1996) 291-5.
M.W. Conkey and S. Williams, Original narratives: the politica1 economy of gender in
archaeology, in M. di Leonardo (ed.), Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist
Anthropology in the Post-Modern Era (University of California Press: Berkeley, 1991) 102-
39.
M.W. Conkey and R.E. Tringham, Archaeology and the Goddess: exploring the contours
of feminist archaeology, in A. Stewart and D. Stanton (eds), Feminisms in the Academy:
Rethinking the Disciplines (University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 1995) 199-247.
,
J. Gero and M. Conkey (eds), Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory (Basil
Blackwell: Oxford, 1991).
I. Hodder, The Domestication of Europe (Basil Blackwell: Oxford, 1991).
C. Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins
(Cambridge University Press: Cambridge and New York, 1987).
R. Tringham, Archaeological houses, households, housework and the home, in D.
Benjamin and D. Stea (eds), The Home: Words, Interpretations, Meanings and
Environments (Avebury Press: Aldershot, 1995) 79-107.
R. Tringham, M. Stevanovic, and B. Brukner (eds), Opovo: The Construction of a
Prehistoric Place in Europe (University of California, Berkeley Archaeologica1 Research
Facility Publications: Berkeley, in press)
P. Ucko, Mother, are you there? Cambridge Archaeological Journal 6 (1996) 300-304.

2 Twin (Peaks The Archaeologies of atalhyk
Lynn Meskell
R isingfrom the Konya plain in modern-day Turkey are the two mounds
from which the Neolithic site of atalhyk (c. 7200-6500 Bc) derives its
name. Archaeologist James Mellaart discovered the site in 1958 and excavated
there from 1961 to 1965. For specialists and non-archaeologists alike, the sen-
sational images from his early excavations captured the imagination and over
time inspired 'Goddess'-based interpretations of the site. Mellaart produced
several volumes focusing on the site, its houses, 'shrines', wall paintings,
figurines, and objects of everyday life. The powerful yet enigmatic nature of
the `art' at atalhyk, and the subsequent interpretations Mellaart construct-
ed, have attained iconic status for the people of Turkey, archaeologists, pagans,
Goddess worshippers, ecofeminists and even fashion designers. However, the
atalhyk Mellaart unearthed in the 1960s fell under the sway of contem-
porary ideas such as the `Mother Goddess', matriarchy, Neolithic utopias and
cultural diffusion. While the images remain the same, the stories told today are
gradually changing.
Archaeologists now realize that the interpretations they produce are very
much situated in contemporary narratives and interests. They are often guilty
of focusing on sensational material, whilst downplaying more mundane or less
controversial material, as is evidenced in the early interpretations of
atalhyk. Moreover, they are often quite rightly accused of interpreting
anything with no obvious practical function as a religious or ritual object. I n
sum, archaeologists' interpretations cannot be separated out from their own
subjectivity and social setting. Furthermore, their descriptions are coloured by
individual experience; thus Mellaart described Anatolian figurines as `slim
girls in topless "bikinis", their hair done up in pigtails'.' This would not be
framed as such today. At the time of excavation, the 1960s, archaeologists were
prone to producing empiricist accounts of cultures and belief systems, rather
than stressing the amount of uncertainty present or the number of plausible
interpretations one could construct from the same evidence. The archaeology
of atalhyk in the 1990s, and the current interpretations surrounding it,
reflect this changed intellectual climate which acknowledges outside influences,
personal predilections, multiple narratives and disciplinary responsibility. A new
programme of excavation and study, directed by lan Hodder, places symbolic
and contextual archaeologies as central, aided by new technology in the spheres
of scientific recovery of material as well as pluralistic visual reconstructions.
Twin Peaks 47
The atalhyk discovered almost forty years ago is very different to that
being excavated today, and will inevitably be transformed again in the next mil-
lennium.
Excavating `the Goddess' in the 196Os
After his first season of excavation Mellaart had already claimed that
atalhyk was without rival in terms of its size, complexity, and art.
Interwoven throughout these claims were three strands of thought. First, was
the desire to stress the links with the earlier Palaeolithic material culture; sec-
ond, was that Minoan, Mycenaean and Classical Greek religion inherited many
of their traditions from Anatolia; and lastly, that the art, religion and economy
of atalhyk formed the foundations of Western civilization through its
direct importation into Europe. For Mellaart, these major claims all fused with
the `Mother Goddess' theory. Such views were typical of the grand narrative
tradition of archaeology in the 1960s, which subsequently coloured the pre-
sentation of the site; only later to be adopted by archaeologists and mythologists
alike as a representation of fact. To trace this trajectory is to uncover the insti-
tutionalization of the 'Mother Goddess'.
In the first major publication of the site, Mellaart had already posited that
the stone and ceramic figurines substantiated a `belief in a goddess of fertility
and abundance'. 2 He attempted to set up a continuity between Palaeolithic and
Classical cultures,, or schools of art as he termed it. Here he drew on Andr
Leroi-Gourhan's assessments of the European Palaeolithic material, particu-
larly his animal symbolism which was equated with male and female principles.
Today, rather than trying to embed sites and cultures within broader, uni-
versal classifications, archaeologists examine them in their own individual
context, so that local variation and character is stressed. In fact, diffusionist
. concepts prevailed in a whole body of writing about the `Goddess' in the 1950s
and 1960s, evidenced in the writings of O.G.S. Crawford and Emily Vermeule. 3
The notion of continuity and linkage, however, was more strongly evidenced in
Mellaart's references to Greece the supposedly unchallenged home of
Western culture as we know it.
A strange, but convincing, circular logic was set up with reference to the
much later Greek evidence. The prehistoric Anatolian iconography was inter-
preted through the lens of Greek civilization, and thus Mellaart's theories
became validated. At the same time, it was claimed that the themes present at
atalhyk were the precursors to Greek religion, thus setting up a self-fulfilling
argument where both theories could be substantiated. The argument was that
if the religions of the Minoan and Mycenaean were influenced by this
Anatolian antecedent, it gave credence to the popular notion that the `Goddess'
held universal religious sway through time and space. Bronze Age Aegean
interpretations were projected back several thousand years to central Anatolia
48 ANClENT GODDESSES Twin Peaks 49
where iconographic images of bees and butterflies became symbols of the
`Goddess'. In trying to interpret the imagery of the atalhyk wall paintings
there was a tendency to project forward. to Classical goddesses like Athena or
Artemis for explanation, or simply to look toward much later Near Eastern
symbols, such as the `Mistress of the Animals.' Architectural structures were
immediately designated `shrines' and figures termed `goddesses', although
they represented the `Goddess' in a singular sense. At atalhyk, according
to Mellaart, she was the `Great Goddess, mistress of life and death, protectress
of women, patroness of the arts ... at this period, there can be no doubt that
the supreme deity was the Great Goddess.' 4
He explained away the male bull imagery, in wall paintings (Fig. 9) and
sculptures, as simply the son, consort or husband of the `Goddess'; as such,
he was not worshipped. 5 When male images were encountered there was a
tendency to diminish their visibility and importance, since their very presence
Fig. 9.
Reconstruction of a
wall painting from
atalhyk.
threatened the monolithic theory of the `Goddess'. In sum, links to the
civilizations of Greece were paramount, as if this would substantiate a con-
nection to Western civilization itself perhaps another form of colonialist
appropriation.
It seems clear that the initial recording of atalhyk was largely influenced
by allegedly Greek notions of ritual and magic, especially that of the Triple
Goddess: maiden, mother and crone. These were ideas which were common to
many at that time, but which probably originated with Jane Ellen Harrison,
Classical archaeologist and member of the `Cambridge Ritualists'. 6 So all types
and representations of female figures become evocations of the 'Goddess'.
Figurine groups are interpreted as representations of the hieros gamos (sacred
marriage), although in a prehistoric context such as this, such a specific term
with such distinct associations may be misleading. Male depictions then come
to represent the dying and reviving god that we see more clearly evidenced in
later cultures. There was also a notion of the `divine family', 7 a term used to
describe statue groups of mixed sex, this too being attributed to Classical
Greece (though also found in Egypt). One wonders where the inspiration for
such strong convictions emanated from, possibly Sir James Frazer's The
Golden Bough, 8 although Ronald Hutton has recently argued convincingly
that the theory can be traced to the earlier writings of German scholar
Edouard Gerhard in 1849. 9 Such religious concepts, coupled with the sensa-
tional nature of the material, seem to have inspired Mellaart's interpretation of
atalhyk. All these assertions are heavily based on modern Western con-
structions of other cultures and do not necessarily reflect reality. We have
decided what is male and female, or sacred and profane, in the imagery of
atalhyk, rather than really knowing what the original inhabitants intended
and in that sense it will always be our fiction. I am inclined to agree with
Huttonl when he comments that archaeologists themselves are responsible for
the construction of the `Mother Goddess' narrative, and perhaps even the
emergence of the new religion itself.
Typical of many excavators in the 1960s, Mellaart was also at pains to stress
that the site was the biggest, best and most ancient antecedent of Western civ-
ilization itself: `atal Hyk shines like a supernova among the rather dim
galaxy of contemporary peasant cultures.' Moreover, the lasting effect of the
site itself was felt not in the Near East but in Europe, according to Mellaart,
since it introduced to the latter agriculture, stockbreeding and the `cult of the
Mother Goddess, the basis of our civilization." From this perspective
atalhyk had been appropriated from the Near East, and Europe was to be
constructed as prime inheritor of its unique legacy.
Site of the `Goddess', archaeology of mortals
Much can be said about the enormous quantity of data yielded by the 1960s
excavations; however, the discussion here will be confined to the wall paintings,
plaster reliefs and figurines since they constitute the primary sources for the
`Mother Goddess' interpretation. Firstly, the majority of painted and plastered
figures on the walls, whether sexless or seemingly female, are labelled
'Goddess'. The posture of extended arms and legs becomes that of a `birth-
giving posture' to Mellaart, even without explicit depiction of birth. However,
Townsend argues that this could easily represent a position for sexual inter-
course. 12 Interestingly, Mellaart noted that there was a complete lack of repro-
ductive sexual organs shown. His explanation for this is that they were painted
by women, since only men would be interested in depicting the phallus or the
vulva. Such an essentialist interpretation would be widely criticized today,
yet one should see this as forming an integral part of the complex narrative
being woven. Interpretations were formulated from our own culture as to what
represented, or was indicative of, males and females. -Thus the bull imagery is
deemed male and therefore structures with a heavy emphasis on bucrania are
correspondingly interpreted as male shrines. There are other interesting
aspects in the imagery, for example boys riding leopards, or the twin and paired
figures (Fig. 10), which receive little attention since they do not easily corre-

50 ANCIENT GODDESSES Twin Peaks 51

spond to the `Mother Goddess' metanarrative (an overarching and generalized

explanative story). The appearance of twinning occurs in both figurines and
wall decoration, and is an evocative motif which has yet to be fully analysed.
This could be seen as reflecting dualism and complementarity, rather than the
traditional Western response of polarity and difference. Generally, it would
seem that the imagery is quite varied, possibly working on many dimensions,
and this too requires further analyses. It would be dangerous to assume too
readily a familiarity with these images, given that the practices we witness at
atalhyk appear very alien to our own Western culture, practices such as
intramural burial under sleeping platforms and the use of strange domestic
symbolism and imagery.
The plastered wall reliefs form another set of enigmatic data, seemingly
sending out a bizarre mixture of messages. The repertoire consists of plastered
figures of bulls' and boars' heads, some containing horn cores and skulls, as
well as leopards and human-like figures. It is possible that these depictions Fig. 11. Examples of zoomorphic figurines found in the recent excavations of
represent composite figures, neither fully human nor animal. A schist plaque atalhyk.
in high relief, discovered recently at the site of Gbekli, 13 shows similar figures
to those at atalhyk yet with an additional tail and non-human head. deities we have to date. This is not to say that a theory of female deities or enti-
Looking more closely at the original photos, rather than reconstructions, the ties is implausible, but rather that it may be something specific to atalhyk,
atalhyk figures could also represent such composite beings. The notion of or Anatolia, at that time and not what the twentieth century Western viewers
composite beings has already been, to have constructed as the `Mother Goddess'. -

some extent, illustrated in some of Another class of data which has received much attention, both scholarly and
Mellaart's own reconstructions, presented popular, is the figurines from the site. Mellaart distinguished two groups of fig-
in his many impressive publications. urines. His first group comprised crude, female figurines with beaked heads,
Again, the unfamiliar nature of such as well as animal figures (horned bovids, caprids and wild boar) frequently
iconography and the meanings attached covered with stab marks, suggestive of magical practice (Fig. 11). He claimed
to them should not be under-estimated. the boar effigies were found in pits, and the female figures were pushed into
In various cultures such as Egypt or the crevices in walls and were not placed in `shrines'. However, animal figurines
Greece, beings which incorporated
, were often found in similar contexts to human representations, though they
human and animal elements were power- have never been considered to be deities; rather they were construed as fertility
ful, troubling monsters which often symbols. As Townsend has noted, no-one has suggested a Bull God. 14 The
threatened to disturb the natural order. second group were made from carved stone or modelled clay, found in what the
So how does one explain a moulded excavator designated as shrines. He states that they were usually found associ-
breast, shaped like a bull's muzzle with ated with broken stalagmites and stalactites of suggestive sexual shape (most
the head of a vulture encased within? Is of these are actually phallic). What is 'noticeable in these discussions is that
this primarily female, male, both, or a Mellaart does not go into detail about male figures or the possibility of a
representation of the `Goddess', or some 'Great Father God' though he acknowledged that male representations were
other set of constructions? If the quite common. 15 When one actually examines the figurines published from the
`Goddess', I would argue it is incongruous 1962 excavations, many could be described as male or phallic (Fig. 12), sexless
with any Mediterranean notions of female or dual-sexed as well as female, though it is always the latter that received most
attention. In fact, there is such variety in the figurines that a single, universal
Fig. 10. A marble figurine from atalhyk. explanation or function cannot be deemed adequate. We must look to anthro-
7th millennium BC. H. 17.2 cm. pological evidence to suggest a wide range of possible functions and meanings,

52 ANCIENT GODDESSES -
and again be cautious about assigning meanings
on the basis of our own personal preferences
or predilections. The multiple meanings
attached to figurines in various cultures at
specific times is well documented: dolls, toys,
magical items, afterlife accessories, sexual aids,
fertility figures, idols, effigies, talismans, ritual
figures, concubines, slaves, subdued enemies,
puberty models, training items, wish figures,
objects of healing, initiation items, communica-
tion devices, primitive contracts, territory
markers, individual tokens, identity markers
and so on. Such meanings may be singular,
multiple or changeable through time and context,
depending on the maker, user or situation in
any given culture. To assume from the outset
there is a `Goddess' behind every representation
is tantamount to interpreting plastic figures of
the Virgin Mary and Barbie as having the same
ideological significance. 16 In sum, we should
not expect to delineate a rigid and unitary code
Fig. 12. A carved stone fig- which holds for all contexts, but rather to
urine of phallic shape from identify the dimensions of meaning found in
atalhyk. 7th millennium particular societies and to comprehend their
BC. H. 8 cm.
social context.
Contemporary visions of atalhyk
Many of the subsequent narratives produced since Mellaart's excavations begin
with the belief that the site is the foremost `Goddess' site in a truly global
sense. Thus they assume 'the Goddess' was worshipped there - this doesn't
mean any female deity, rather the universal, monolithic entity of the 'Great
Goddess' (Fig. 13). 17 She was the Neolithic `virgin' according to Marija
Gimbutas, and her effigies had shared characteristics with figurines from the
Aegean and Europe. 18 Following on from the work of Gimbutas, Riane Eisler
claims that atalhyk was a peaceful, matrilineal society and socially equi-
table, although the highest power was bestowed upon female deities and women
held high social positions, such as priestesses. 19 She claims that archaeologists
like Mellaart have proven this to be fact.
The Neolithic is commonly viewed as matriarchal or matrifocal, leading to
a peaceful, harmonious and artistic existence which was in direct contrast to
the aggressive, patriarchal societies that followed (on the contrary, there is
some evidence for violence at the site, in the presence of weapons and individ-
Twin Peaks 53
uals with head wounds). atalhyk represents the former, i.e. a `Goddess'-
centred culture with direct links back to the Palaeolithic, and forward to the
later Archaic and Classical Greek belief systems. Moreover, the atalhyk
experience formed part of a cross-cultural matrix of female deities: whether in
Egypt, Canaan, Greece, or Rome, the `Goddess' was seen as one and the
same. 2 Peg Streep, another disciple of Gimbutas, claims that atalhyk 'is in
many ways the precursor of the sacred traditions that would find their apogee
in Minoan civilization ... chosen for its position and view of sacred mountains
... did the twin cones of the volcano suggest the breasts of the Goddess?' 21 Her
volume draws heavily on the reconstructions and interpretations of Mellaart,
as well as Gimbutas. There is a unified vision of atalhyk, inspired by the
original excavator's vivid reconstructions and sanctioned by Gimbutas's uni-
versalizing gynocentric narrative.
From the above evidence it is clear that the original `Goddess'-based inter-
pretation of atalhyk was first espoused by the excavator, then taken up by
Gimbutas and other proponents of the `Mother Goddess' theory. As part of a
gynocentric agenda, female figurines and imagery have been considered
largely to the exclusion of male and sexless examples: this selection shaping
the vision of a single, omnipresent female deity. Even if we are witnessing a
celebration of the divine female principle, I would suggest that the images
presented do not conform to the European notion of a `Mother Goddess';
rather they appear to be a complex composite of strange entities and principles,
both human and animal. Moreover, historical evidence from Greece, Egypt and
Mesopotamia, plus numerous
ethnographic accounts, suggest
that cultures with strong female
deities (if indeed those at
atalhyk are deities) may still
regard women in the profane
world as a low-status group. One
need only look at either Hindu or
Christian religions with strong
female deities, and compare that
to the treatment of real women
in everyday life. The fundamen-
tal underlying premise in the
Fig. 13. The most famous image
from the site is most assuredly this
seated female figure, modelled in clay
and dating to the 7th millennium sc.
Many regard it as a depiction of the
`Mother Goddess'. H. 20 cm.
54 ANCIENT GODDESSES Twin Peaks 55
Goddess literature is that where `Goddess' religion existed, women had
status and power equal to, or usually higher than, that of men. Such a model
of feminine reality fits within the revitalization movement theory, having both
nativistic and millenarian elements. 22 The romanticized view of antiquity that
many put forward has more to do with creating an idealized past to contrast
with our own secular, impersonal and industrialized present than with archae-
ological evidence. Their visionary work links notions of ancient and future, so
enabling a richly figured heritage, allegedly once lived and lost, to be experi-
enced again. 23
Just like the people of the Neolithic, we too have consciously moulded the
images of atalhyk into something familiar and desirable, although Western
viewers can have little real understanding of Neolithic experience what was
feared, celebrated, worshipped or desired. Many reconstructions of the site
look more akin to artistic hippie communes of the 1960s: a utopian refuge for
creative, beautiful people to make art and worship the divine female principle
(Fig. 14). It appears that atalhyk holds up a mirror to our own culture, and
we have seen reflections of our deepest desires as we near the end of the mil-
lennium: a peaceful, harmonious existence where women are celebrated and
the earth with all its bounty is held sacred. This is in stark contrast to current
reality as we stare out at military conflict, particularly in the Middle East,
Fig. 14. Reconstruction from the Turkish magazine Focus, September 1995. While some
of the elements may have some basis in the archaeologica1 record, the totality is an
imagined one.
violence and crime, ecological disaster, social inequality, and the disintegration
of institutionalized religion. It would seem that many people need atalhyk,
or rather a specific vision of atalhyk.
Inspired by Gimbutas, legendary feminist writer Starhawk writes a poem
celebrating what she terms the `birthing chambers' of atalhyk, entitled
Mother of Birds. 24 It illustrates clearly the female-inspired vision of the site
in the 1990s; replete with images of the 'Great Mother' and her incarnations
from the animal world, it shows her at one with the natural world and integral
to it.
Great woman, mother of birds
Your shrine is sticky with bees wax and feathers
Your shrine is loud with bird cries and throbs with the beat of wings
You are the vessel, beaked and breasted ...
Great sky woman
Your shrine is deep in the cradling earth
Your shrine is the spirits' resting place ...
These are all positive images and aims which many see as necessary for the
future of humanity and the planet; however, it is not the rationale which is at
issue. The deployment of archaeological pasts for political ends has always
been a problematic area and one fraught with pitfalls. Future change, especial-
ly social change instigated by women, should be forward looking, rather than
backward. The fear being that retrospective parallels may not be forthcoming,
or may continue to substantiate the current status quo, with damaging effects.
Evidence from Neolithic cultures has yet to prove social equality, let alone
matriarchy, and it appears to be a fruitless, unrewarding exercise, as feminist
anthropologists discovered long ago. According to one writer, `the myth of
matriarchy is but the tool used to keep woman bound to her place. To free
her, we need to destroy the myth'. 25 Feminist aims might better be served by
concentrating on current images and icons, or those which have a more secure
history. Although we all realize how evocative images from antiquity can prove,
they are also fluid and malleable because of their ambiguity, and as such
are open to all forms of political manipulation. Invoking the `Goddess' as an
empowering modern construction is positive for many people, whereas claim-
ing archaeological validity for ancient gynocracy, social utopia and a single
`Mother Goddess' at atalhyk may be seen as problematic and dangerous at
this point. The evidence is not forthcoming, which proves antithetical to the
original goals. On this issue many feminist archaeologists and feminist theolo-
gists actually concur. Our current aims for social change should not rest on the
foundation of the golden age of antiquity, a dream which may never have been
realized. They should be based on a fundamental humanity by which we have
learned the lessons of our own recent history and reached realizations about
our future.

56 ANCIENT GODDESSES Twin Peaks 57

Fig. 16.
Excavating atalhyk in the 1990s Plan of
atalhyk \300-
In 1993 excavations began again at the site (Fig. 16), conducted by a multi-
showing
national team working closely with Turkish archaeologists, under the leadership
Mellaart's
of British archaeologist, lan Hodder (Fig. 15) and this collaboration is testa- excavation
ment to changing responsibilities and sentiments about global archaeology and area and the \250-
multivocality. In the time elapsed since the initial excavations much has new surface
changed, not merely the focus of archaeology but also our knowledge of the data scraping and
New
and our retrieval strategies. Extensive new excavations in Turkey now suggest excavations. 1200- areas
that atalhyk was not as distinctive as originally thought, and a range of opened
sites demonstrate densely packed settlements with elaborate symbolism. This up in
suggests that atalhyk was part of a process, and should be perceived as 1150- the
1990s
being part of a long lineage.
Not surprisingly, much of the new evidence has challenged the early inter-
1100
pretations proposed by Mellaart. Firstly, in terms of the structures themselves,
we cannot separate out shrines and non-shrines. Moreover, there is no evidence
as yet for large-scale public construction. Buildings are best described as
1050-
ranging along a sliding scale of elaboration and complexity. The boundaries
between what we would call religious and secular are blurred, and perhaps even
irrelevant. As for social equality, this too has come into question. Burial evi- moo-
dence is certainly uneven, with some individuals having differential wealth on
the basis of age and sex. Data from the earlier excavations has proven to be
unreliable and so earlier arguments based on the placement of male and female 950-
burials can only be dubious. It is not yet possible to determine what sets of
burial goods accompanied men, women or children if such patterning was at
all operative. 26 At present, we can only rely on the new excavations. In the 1996 900-
season, Building 1 (Fig. 17) yielded at least sixty-four bodies, the majority

850-
Fig. 15. Ian
Hodder in front
of the remains of
Mellaart's 1960s 800-
excavation area. 850 900 950 1000

being children and juveniles. Much of the building where burials took place
was kept clean and separate from food production and storage, but this large
group of children's burials occurred toward an area where food processing was
carried out and was subsequently dirty. Older individuals were buried to the
east of the room, younger to the west. This structure encompasses ritual, bur-
ial and domestic functions at all phases. A relevant ethnographic parallel can
be found with the Tikopia of Polynesia, whose social organization is centred on
a house/tomb and its continued ancestral lineage. Though such an analogy can
never stand as proof, it might offer a valuable non-Western perspective and


Twin Peaks 59

suggest another way of seeing the evidence. For the Tikopia, the house/tomb
has a long history of previous residents at the site which shapes the identities
SERE WI of the living. One half of the house is not lived in because underneath the
mats which cover the floor are buried the former occupants of the house, the
previous bearers of the name. Tikopians then live on the cramped borders of
t .- z
0
their tombs and take their identity from this necropolis, which provides a mate-
z rial symbol of the enduring unity of society. 27 Emphasis on lineage through
cn architecture and decoration, combining living and mortuary spaces, might be
E a zw c" d one way to make sense of the data from atalhyk houses.
z g on the P presence of figurines.
The new excavations also shed light g There were
ANDISSImpililix ,
C171 a total of 254 known figurines and fragments recorded from Mellaart's excava-
c^
tions, the majority
Jof which Yare damaged
g Yin some way.
Y A veryg high number,
120 in fact, are representations of animals. It seems that figurines are rare
Fa finds in the atalhyk houses, and are more common in external spaces.
I Often they are found in conjunction with courtyards, refuse areas and pits.

Again the patterns suggested by Mellaart have come into question. There is no
simple correlation between complex buildings and the placement of figurines
0 that would lead them to be labelled `shrines'. Perhaps the deposition-of animal
o and other figurines in house walls indicates a symbolic importance given to the
e construction of such walls associated with ancestors and continuity. Once
O) o

A- N
N
CO again, it is more appropriate to present a range of interpretations with respect
to figurines. Figurines were also found on the floors in burnt rooms, which may
U
N 7
0
be evidence for ritual closure of abandoned houses. Given that these floors
F.2, q ^
z were left in a remarkably clean state, the placement of the figurines becomes a
-

. a? cn a 0 meaningful act. However, special placement of artefacts does not automa-

o I 0..MEi tically suggest deification, much less the practice of `Mother Goddess'
a veneration. Common wisdom now suggests that figurines should not be objec-
.::::::::::
i _ 4 o
o
0
tified, taken as devoid of their cultural and spatial specificity, since objects do
not have inherent meaning divorced from their historically specific context of
ti

ti
- r
Q Q that of the headless figures in the wall paintings. This might further support a
1
11111IMENZi 1111:: : : : !: : : : F1111N111 cn Z= Siiiiiiiiiiii;-,;:::::, z
x a
r v, o
i '
. found with the burials at atalhyk. So we should be careful in attributing
production and use. 28
Many of the human figurines are defaced and damaged, as were the heads
of large-scale figures from the walls. Additionally, some anthropomorphic fig-
urines have removable heads which may indicate a link with death, similar to
m
linkage with death or indicate the adoption of multiple identities for specific
figurines at various times, or perhaps a variety of purposes. 29 It is worth noting
cn
that the bodies of the inhabitants at atalhyk were sometimes decapitated
before burial. However, evidence from the recent examination of human
remains at the site indicate that excarnation (removal of flesh after death as a
result of exposure to vultures etc.) was not carried out, as once thought. This
older idea was largely extrapolated from the iconography, rather than from the
excavated physical remains. Interestingly, figurines and ceramics are never
60 ANClENT GODDESSES Twin Peaks 61

afterlife beliefs to the people of atalhyk; this is a Western notion derived

primarily from our knowledge of ancient Egypt.
In terms of socio-economic data from atalhyk, new evidence again cha\-
lenges the older ideas surrounding the site. From botanical and zoological
studies, it now seems that domesticated crops and animals may not have been
as common as previously thought, and hunting still played a major role in the
village economy. 30 This may go some way to explaining the plastered figures of
large bulls and other wild, horned beasts. Perhaps they represent an element of
trophyism, of overcoming the wild and proving one's power. Such a theme can
be represented in other cultures in various iconographic forms, whether it be
wall paintings, bear rugs, tiger skins or moose heads. This theme is perhaps
reiterated in several wall paintings of humans hunting or teasing animals. The
atalhyk iconography could also represent the presence of clans or
totems. 31 To date, few of these provocative alternative explanations have been
given their due attention.

An archaeology of desire
So what can be said for the `Goddess', the alleged depictions of women and
birthing, and all the common images we have associated with atalhyk since
its discovery? If the past thirty years have taught us anything, it is to realize we
are all subjective viewers and that our interpretations are open to question. In
the 1960s notions of household cult predominated, offerings were supposedly
made by priestesses and Neolithic religion was above all concerned with
`fertility'. As Townsend has pointed out, ritualized fertility should not be con-
flated with the presence of a `Mother Goddess', 32 since they can be mutually
exclusive concepts. But even fertility is under question since new analyses
indicate little evidence for it in the figurine or iconographic corpus. Images of
large, mature women do not a priori equate to fertility. Hard evidence for
birthing is also lacking in all visual media. Even the interpretation of the
famous seated figurine flanked by leopards (Fig. 13), which supposedly shows
childbirth, should be seen as doubtful. 33 As for female imagery, the protuber- 1020 1160

ances, usually termed breasts, bear no correlation to female breasts portrayed

in other visual media, and may in fact represent the heads of smaller animals.
Fig. 18. Ground plan
This idea is supported by their close association to plastered bucrania and by revealed by surface Hellenistic/
the finds of animal skulls and teeth within these sculptures. atalhyk is still Byzantine walls N
scraping during the
being re-moulded, though often it is in an image too like our own. But the 1990s excavation.
inherent strangeness of the site is easily glossed and manipulated by contem-
porary desires. Goddess groups. In questioning why the fervour is so strong, one might look to
In sum, there is no evidence to support the notion of matriarchy, let alone Max Weber's concepts about the roots of structured inequality. If inequality,
the presence of a universally worshipped `Mother Goddess' at atalhyk. whether it be class- or sex-based, is socially constructed, then it should be
This lack has stimulated a very real archaeology of desire for a number of possible to find examples where the status quo was different. So the desire to
groups, from archaeologists like Mellaart and Gimbutas, to ecofeminists and elevate atalhyk can be seen as the search for a utopian model, which doubly
62 ANClENT GODDESSES
serves as an explanative story, and a template for change. We might also turn
to Eric Hobsbawm's ideas about the invention of tradition. 34 This invention is
seen as a common means of conferring legitimacy upon certain practices (of a
ritual or symbolic nature) throughout society. Contemporary desires are
appeased by the creation and maintenance of myths about the past, a phe-
nomenon which is particularly strong at present due to millenarian sentiments.
In a sense the plasticity of atalhyk means it can be all things to almost all
people, being safely shrouded in prehistory and yet veiled in evocative, power-
ful images. There are few archaeological sites which loom large in the popular
psyche and which subsequently act as a mirror for our desires, for the past and
for the future. atalhyk has achieved that iconic status.
Acknowledgements
Ronald Hutton has been a great inspiration for this work, his ongoing interest and support is
much appreciated. I want to thank Ian Hodder for providing photographs and documentation
on the new evidence from atalhyk. Thanks also to Ian Todd, Andrew Sherratt, Mehmet
zdogan, Cathy Alexander and Dominic Montserrat. Permission to reproduce Fig. 14 was gen-
erously granted by Dr. Gunduz Tezman on behalf of Focus magazine and Hurriyet. Additional
photographs were reproduced with the kind permission of the Ankara Museum, Turkey.
Further reading
J. Bamberger, The myth of matriarchy: why men rule in primitive society, in
M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (eds), Woman, Culture and Society (Stanford University
Press: Stanford, 1974) 262-80.
M. Bloch, and J. Parry, Introduction: death and the regeneration of life, in M. Bloch and
J. Parry (eds), Death and the Regeneration of Life (Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, 1982) 1-44.
M. Gimbutas, The Goddesses and Gods 0f Old Europe (University of California Press:
Los Angeles, 1982).
I. Hodder (ed.), On the Surface: atalhyk 1993-5 (McDonald Institute: Cambridge,
1997) .
R. Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the British Isles (Blackwell: Oxford, 1991).
R. Hutton, The Neolithic Great Goddess: a study in modern tradition, Antiquity 71
(1997) 91-9.
J.Mellaart, atal Hyk: A Neolithic Town in Anatolia (Thames and Hudson: London,
1967).
L.M. Meskell, Goddesses, Gimbutas and `New Age' archaeology, Antiquity 69 (1995)
74-86.
T. Taylor, The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years 0f Human Sexual Culture (Fourth
Estate: London, 1996).
3 9odctesses of the
Ancient .Near `F,asf 3000-1000 BC
Joan Goodnick Westenholz
he fundamental problem with any investigation of religion in the ancient
T Near East is that the available evidence does not actually 'speak' to us;
inevitably, we impose our own cultural preconceptions and interpretations on
the surviving texts and artefacts. In order to reconstruct the role of goddesses
in this period, we must recognize the layers of cultural 'filters' through which
we approach the problem, and if we cannot completely discard them, at least
make allowances for the distortion they produce.
Religious filter
First and foremost, it must be remembered that the polytheistic approach to
religion differs fundamentally from the monotheistic view of the transcendental.
Where the monotheistic lens focuses on only the central one instead of the many,
the polytheistic kaleidoscope sees diffused and shifting patterns of divinities
immanent in the physical world. Each turn of the kaleidoscope reveals different
alignments, representing different cultural assemblages. The existence of gen-
uine cultural diversity in religion has been ignored by modern writers bent on
'recovering' a postulated ancient Goddess-centred religion. They have assumed
there is just one archetypical Goddess, variously termed `Great Goddess',
`Mother Goddess', or `Earth Mother', and have tried to force all ancient god-
desses into this preconceived mould. It could be argued that this concept is the
product of our own monotheistic culture and its associated, limited concepts
of the feminine; conditioned by our familiarity with one-of-a-kind multi-
dimensional divine figures such as Mary, we tend to classify the rich, amorphous
cast of ancient goddesses as aspects of a single, monolithic Goddess.
Socio-political filter
The official religions of the ancient Near East formed part of societies, amply
documented in contemporary texts as male-dominated, in which both gods and
goddesses played essential roles. A popular modern misconception, an out-
growth of contemporary strivings to find a specifically female spirituality,
claims that Goddess worship was part of a separate women's religion, but in
reality goddesses as well as gods were an integral part of Near Eastern religion
and thought. The worship of goddesses did not empower female worshippers;'
64 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 65
in contrast, the earliest goddess worship was led by a male as the highest cultic
officiant (en).
Cultural filter
Many assumptions about ancient religion are based on values associated with
women in Western cultures, e.g. virginity, chastity, sexuality and fertility. The
first two of these seem to have had no importance in Mesopotamian culture.
Sexuality and fertility were separate aspects of life in ancient Near Eastern
thought, and were not restricted to the feminine sphere. In the Western world,
with its Classical basis and Christian heritage, the two are inextricably linked,
with the latter being the excuse for the former. The inappropriate ascription of
these aspects to Mesopotamian goddesses has thus resulted in their characteri-
zation as sexually active 'fertility' goddesses.
Contextual filter
Another barrier to better understanding of the position of ancient goddesses
is our lack of knowledge about their original social context; as our evidence
is fragmentary and our interpretation of it unavoidably skewed, the partial
picture of past social conditions automatically distorts our comprehension of
the goddesses' place in their worshippers' lives. In very basic terms,
Mesopotamian society at this time was organized in city-states
which constantly feuded and jockeyed for power, occasion-
ally falling under the domination of an outstanding
dynasty to form a transient empire. The economy was
based on irrigation agriculture and animal husbandry
with commerce playing a vital role in political develop-
ment and cultural progress.
We must also consider three social registers of reli-
gious expression: folk religion of the common people;
temple or priestly religion; and royal religion.
Documentary evidence provides insight into the last
two registers, but folk religion leaves little mark in the
textual sources and the ambiguous evidence offered by
artefacts. For instance, although archaeological excava-
tions yield mass-produced terracotta figurines of nude
females (Fig. 19), these are not marked as divine, 2 though
Fig. 19. Terracotta plaque of a nude female, showing woman with
hands clasped below her breasts. Her neck\aces, jewelled belt and
pudendum are incised. Old Babylonian, c. 1800 BC. From Ur.
British Museum. H. 15.6 cm.
they have been interpreted as evidence of continuing veneration of the 'pre-
historic Mother Goddess'. Some scholars have identified the nude figurines as
s
various goddesses or as ba tu 3 (`dignity') personified. 4
Gender filter
One of the major problems in this field is also one of the least acknowledged.
Our thinking about ancient deities is permeated by our conception of gender
a cultural and linguistic construct. In ancient times, divinities were gendered
by the specific culture to which they belonged. For example, the sun is
gendered male in Mesopotamia, but female in the Levant and Anatolia. The
`fickle' moon, which is female in Western imagery, was gendered male
throughout the ancient Near East and was viewed as the father of the sun. The
cultural category of gender was applied in the Near Eastern divine world in
the conception of pairs of divinities, male and female frequently primeval
elements from the beginning of time.
This problem becomes particularly acute when we look at Sumerian god-
desses, due to the nature of the Sumerian language, which lumps masculine
and feminine into a single grammatical gender: `human'. The single term for
deity (dingir), which is not marked for gender, makes it impossible to determine
the sex of the deity without further clues. Similarly, the word nin can stand for
either `lord' or `lady'; both gods and goddesses have names composed of nin
and a place name, such as Ningirsu (lord of Girsu'), or Ninisina (lady of
Isin'). This seems to imply that the Sumerians were not primarily interested in
the gender aspect of their deities.
The nature of the evidence
The evidence underlying all reconstructions of ancient Near Eastern religion
consists of texts and artefacts, though these are not evenly distributed in time
and space throughout the ancient Near East. Roughly three-quarters of our
information on the period 3000-1000 BC is derived from cuneiform texts from
Mesopotamia, with an increasing number of texts from Syrian sites; 5 the
remaining evidence consists largely of depictions on seals and numerous
terracotta figurines from all over the Fertile Crescent.
Various types of written material yield information on goddesses: personal
and place names, godlists and offering lists, seal inscriptions and votive dedi-
cations, mythological literary compositions and liturgical hymns, petitionary
prayers and exorcistic incantations. Literary compositions encapsulate the
stories of the goddesses; these were not women's myths but formed part of
traditional literature, the high culture of ancient Sumer.
In general, the authors of most of these compositions are anonymous,
though the earliest poems of Sumer were supposedly written by Enheduanna,
66 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 67

Fig. 20. Terracotta relief of an unidentified

goddess, wearing a horned headdress and seated
on a throne, Old Babylonian, c. 1800 BC. From
Ur. British Museum. H. 10 cm.

the daughter of the Akkadian king

Sargon of Akkade. Consequently, we
cannot assume that we are hearing only
men's voices, although most educated
scribes were male. Recent research has
recovered women's voices in
Mesopotamian love poetry and
laments, and men's voices in mytholo-
gical and epic literature. 6 Another .^ .1.^^ ^..^,^^ _ n u^.,_,^i4.ei::..=3i i..a+f_:^^St^zn LJi:>'JS^ ^ -- __ M..^,v X^.ic w, TJ.' ^Y__ . s.

aspect of written evidence is the con-

text of composition: while offering
lists, seals and votive inscriptions reflect
contemporary usage, godlists, literary
compositions and hymns are products
of a continuous ancient tradition.
Personal names often include a deity's
name, placing the person under the aegis
of the god or goddess. However, both men
and women's names might refer to gods or
goddesses, so it cannot be assumed that
the divine name always refers to a goddess
in the case of female names.
The literary and visual evidence are
neither complementary nor comparable.
Unfortunately, the texts have no pictures
and the pictures rarely bear texts. Thus,
although images of goddesses are clearly
differentiated from mortal women by their
divine horned headdresses, they are not
clearly distinguished from one another (Fig.
20). For instance, the goddess with weapons
Fig. 22. This sea1 impression, from a serpentine cylinder seal, bears two scenes. On the
left, a worshipper standing before an altar brings a gazelle to a war-goddess with weapons
protruding from her shoulders. Behind him stands a goddess, holding a vase flowing with
the never-ending waters of abundance. On the right, two `fertility' deities with branches
of vegetation sprouting from their shoulders, face each other over a leaping sheep. The
god is bearded, wears a lion's pelt and carries a club in his right hand and an unidentified
object in his left. In the crook of his left arm lies a twisted sprouting stick. The goddess
stretches out her right hand and holds two sticks in the other. The sea1 owner was Ih-
Ashtar (`my god is Ashtar'), the scribe. Old Akkadian, c. 2200 BC. British Museum.
H. 3.4 cm, DIAM. 2.4 cm.
protruding from her shoulders (Fig. 22) was assumed to be Inanna, but recent
research has brought this into question.? Other recurrent images that cannot
be identified with a specific deity are the goddess with date palms (Fig. 21) and
the goddess with birds or geese.
The following survey aims to be comprehensive and inclusive, but is
inevitably rather general in character. In 1914, Anton Deimel, the compiler of
the first Sumerian dictionary, listed 3,300 names of Mesopotamian divinities,
and the number known has grown with each passing decade. 8 Furthermore,
continual processes of reinterpretation and syncretism, mutation and fos-
silization, fusion and fission generated a Mesopotamian religion that was a
complex multilayered accumulation. -

Fig. 21. Terracotta of a seated goddess flanked by
palm trees with two birds at her feet. The
excavator suggested that images such as this were
worshipped in small wayside chapels and private
shrines in the city of Ur. Old Babylonian, c. 1800
BC. From Ur. British Museum. H. 10 cm.
Sumerian goddesses of the third millennium
There are three main historical divisions in the third millennium in
Mesopotamia: 9 Early Dynastic (2900-2350 BC), Old Akkadian (2350-2150 BC),
and Neo-Sumerian (2100-2000 BC).
Lists of deities survive from as early as the Early Dynasty period, demon-

68 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 69

strating the way in which Sumerian theologians organized the divine world.
The city deities were supplied with secondary spouses and courts, and the rela-
tions between them were defined as family ties. If the city deity was female, her
male spouse was less significant, and vice versa. The forty-one temple hymns
of the Old Akkadian period, dedicated to the tutelary deities of all the major
contemporary cities, include sixteen hymns dedicated to goddesses, indicating
that 39 per cent of the city deities were female. However, neither the gender
nor the family relations of the gods were completely stable; some deities were
perceived as male in one city and female in another, such as Dumuziabzu, who
was female in Lagash and male in Eridu. The vizier deity Ninshubur was male
when ministering to male gods and female when ministering to female gods. It ,

has even been suggested that deities originally had no gender and were only
differentiated in this way during this period, when they took on human form. 10
As mentioned above, Sumerian has only a non-gendered term for deities, with
no separated generic term for goddesses alone. Some epithets applied to god-
desses are gender-specific, such as the epithet `true woman' (munus-zi), applied
to Inanna and other goddesses, while others have no gender connotations, such
as 'sun of the land', applied to Nanaya and Lamasaga.
Goddesses performed varions functions: initiation of creation, familial
roles, domestic chores, moral and spiritual enforcement, royal legitimation and
local tasks.
Goddesses' roles in creation
The earliest extant story of the creation of the gods and humans comes from
Nippur and therefore reflects the theogony of that holy city, where `Heaven
(An) talked with Earth (Ki) and Earth talked with Heaven'. 11 This `cosmic'
theogony is characterized by the reciprocity of the male (Heaven An) and
female (Earth Ki) divine elementals. On the other hand, the `chthonic'
theogony known from later manuscripts, which are said to reflect the earlier
tradition in the city of Eridu, names the goddess Nammu (personification of
the subterranean waters) as the single prime element, the progenitress of all
the deities, including An and Ki. She is `a goddess without a spouse, the self-
procreating womb, the primal matter, the inherently fertile and fertilizing
waters'. 12
Goddesses in familial roles
The women in the divine family occupied the same sex roles as in the human
family: mothers, wives, brides, sisters and daughters. Goddesses who play the
role of mother in divine families are: Nammu (mentioned above), Ninhursaga
(lady of the foothills'), Nintu(r) (`lady of birth'), Dingir-mah (`exalted deity'),
Ninmah (`exalted lady'). These goddesses are known from early Sumerian texts
as mothers of immortals, humankind and animals. These divine mothers were
in charge of placing the semen in the womb, the formation and gestation of the
Fig. 23. Detail from the limestone stela of Ur-Nammu, showing the ruler making identi-
ca1 libations before the moon-god Nanna-Sin and before his spouse, the goddess Ningal.
Third dynasty of Ur (e.2100). From Ur. Origina1 H. of stela 3 m.
foetus, and the birth of the child. After the birth, these goddesses determined the
child's fate. Other goddesses assisted in the process, such as Ninirigal, who acted
as wet-nurse and Ninnigingar, `the lady of the birthing hut'. Ninhursaga was
mother of the wild animals while Nintu was progenitress of the domestic herd.
.
The role of spouse of a more important male god is exemplified by Ningal
(`great lady') (Fig. 23), Sud, Ninsun (`lady-wild-cow') and Ninlil (`lady air').
The word `spouse' (dam) appears in the names of goddesses such as
Damgalnunna `great spouse of the prince' or Damkina 'the rightful spouse'.
The nubile young woman, ripe for love, the archetypical bride on the verge
of marriage, was Inanna. Her suitors and lovers were legendary but she never
crossed the marriage threshold to become a wife. Thus, she epitomized love
and sexual attraction.
The paragon of sisterly devotion was Geshtinanna (grape-vine of Heaven').
She sheltered, protected, substituted for and mourned her brother Dumuzi.
Sisters were very important in the Sumerian divine scheme. In place of a
divine triad consisting of father, mother and child, there were divine triads of
husband, wife and husband's sister.
Goddesses' status as daughters is emphasized in mythological literature.
According to one tradition, the god Anu is credited with begetting many of the

70 ANCIENT GODDESSES
great goddesses: Inanna, Bau and Gatumdug. Daughters of goddesses, such as
Bau and Nanaya, are younger editions of their mothers with many of the same
characteristics.
Goddesses in the domestic sphere
In addition to representing divine women at different stages of the life cycle,
goddesses had responsibilities and duties, rights and privileges in the' realm
of the household. Like their human counterparts they were involved in grain
production, clothing manufacture and beer brewing; education of children;
and doctoring the sick.
Bau (or Baba) and the grain goddesses Ezina/Ashnan were responsible for
grain cultivation. Other goddesses were associated with domesticated animals:
Lahar, the ewe goddess, and Duttur, the sheep goddess. The seas and their
denizens were the sphere of the goddess Nanse. The agricultural and pastoral
spheres were also the province of gods: Ninurta, the god of ploughing and
farming, Sakkan, the god of the animal herds, Nanna, the moon-god who
ensured fertility among cattle and other minor deities. Thus, both female and
male divinities were `fertility' deities (see Fig. 22). Women's food preparation
activities may have involved butchering animals, since the goddess Ninmu was
the butcher for the god Ningirsu. Intoxicating beverages were concocted by the
goddess of beer, Ninkasi, and goddess of the vine, Geshtinanna.
Although Nissaba (lady of Sab(a)') may have originally been a grain goddess,
she became the goddess of writing, accounting, surveying and scribal
knowledge, perhaps because of women's role as managers of the household, in
charge of production, storage and administration. There seems to have been a
congruence of goddesses and women in the learned arts.
Clothing and textiles were not only essential to the household but formed
one of the main export items of southern Mesopotamia. The goddess of weav-
ing, Uttu (`spider'), oversaw the textile industry which was considered women's
work on earth. Likewise, arts and crafts such as pottery-making, jewellery-
making and metal-working were in the hands of goddesses: Ninurra for pot-
tery, Ninzadim (lady of the lapidary') for jewellery and Ninmug (`lady vulva')
for metallurgy and woodworking. Craft metaphors were used to describe the
birth goddesses' shaping of the foetus, so Ninhursaga becomes Ninbahar (lady
potter') and Tibirakalamma ('bronze caster of the nation'). Although in this
period there is a plethora of female artisan goddesses and a dearth of any cor-
responding male deities, the actual artisans and craftsmen were male, judging
from the names in the texts. This incongruence may reflect the time lag between
the past social functions of women, expressed in divine imagery, and their
current, more limited functions. Divine imagery does catch up in the second
millennium, when some of these goddesses change into gods. The basis for the
change was probably the transformation of many crafts which had previously
been carried out within the household into full-time male professions.
Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 71
Healing was in the hands of the goddesses of medicine, Ninisina (lady of
Isin'), Gula (`great'), Nintinugga (`she who gives life to the dead') and
Ninkarrak (lady of the quay'), while pestilence and destruction were in the
hands of the gods.
Goddesses in moral and spiritual roles -
The goddess associated with divination, dreams and oracles was
Nanshe. She was also an administrator, responsible for check-
ing weights and measures, protecting the weak, meting out
justice, and punishing immoral acts, as well as being
linked to fish, birds and flowing waters. Purification was
the concern of various goddesses: Kusu, associated with
the nig-na, the cultic incense burner, and Ningirima,
associated with the a-gub-ba, the `holy water basin'.
Ningirima also appears prominently in the incantation lit-
erature as the divine exorcist and the goddess of magical
formulae. The suppliant-goddess (Lamma) developed in
the course of the third millennium as a protective
and personal deity, the cosmic go-between the
human individual and the deities (see Fig. 24).
In the Mesopotamian perspective the cosmos was
composed of the heavens, the terrestrial plane and
the underworld. In the heavens were the mostly male
astral deities; Inanna in her aspect as Venus was the
most important female member of this group. The
proportion of female goddesses was much higher among
the deities who took care of matters relating to plants,
animals and human affairs. The underworld was ruled by
Ereshkigal ('lady of the great place'), the goddess of the
realm of the dead. She was Inanna's sister and counter-
part.
Goddesses in the royal sphere
The oldest inscriptions show that Inanna of Uruk was
the giver of the supreme kingship of Sumer, until
replaced by Enlil of Nippur in the Early Dynastic peri-
od. Her close relationship to the body politic of Sumer
in general and to the holders of political power in
particular is expressed in the title `spouse' of the
Fig. 24. Copper statuette of the interceding goddess,
Lamma. Isin-Larsa period, c. 1900 BC. From Ur. British
Museum. H. 9.8 cm.
72 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses 0f the Ancient Near East 73
goddess, assumed by several rulers. The manifestation of the palace, Ninegal
(lady of the palace'), was the patroness of the royal family. Ninmena (lady of the
crown') and Ningidri (lady of the sceptre') were the protectors of kingship.
The warden of Sumerian prisons was Nungal (`great princess'). It has been
suggested that a prison sentence was a compassionate alternative to the death
penalty, and compassion in Mesopotamia was seen as a female attribute.
Nungal herself is described as compassionate in several passages. Her role may
also reflect an underlying body metaphor: the prison seen as a womb from which
the newly rehabilitated person will be reborn to a new life after expiating his
crime.1 3
Goddesses manifested in certain terrestrial localities
As discussed above, some gods and goddesses have names composed of th e
element nin and a place-name, e.g. Ningirsu (lord of Girsu'), Ninisina (`lady
of Isin'). These geographically-based names are manifestly the symbols of the
community. Cities were identified with their deities; the names of the cities are
the names of their gods. Other divinities identified as city deities bear unique
individual names such as the goddess Gatumdug, who is called `Mother of
Lagash' and `Mother who founded Lagash'.
There were many local forms of Inanna, as shown by the literary texts, offer-
ing lists and god lists. These local manifestations were often distinguished from
each other by epithets or honorific titles. In Kish, she was known as Inanna-GAR,
in Zabala as Inanna-Zabala (possibly also Inanna-kur or Inanna-hud), in Uruk as
`lady of Uruk'.
Inanna-Ishtar a case study
Inanna (in Sumerian, Ishtar in Akkadian 14) was the most revered and popular
goddess of ancient Mesopotamia, and has consequently served as a focus for
modern writers seeking to revive `Goddess' worship. Controversy surrounds
the figures of Inanna and Ishtar both in scholarly and popular literature.
Although there is scholarly consensus concerning the factual evidence, its
interpretation is far from clear. The etymology of their names, their genealogy,
consorts, children, and manifestations are all controversial issues.
In Goddess movement literature, the goddess Inanna is said to be the Great
Mother:
... [her] title `Queen of Earth and Heaven reveals the lineaments of the
Neolithic Great Mother ... For Inanna, is, above all, a lunar goddess who gives life
as the waxing moon and then withdraws it as the waning moon ... she is incar-
nated in the morning and evening star and in the star Sirius ... The light and
dark dimensions to her power, the horned headdress and serpent staff, her dying
and resurrected son-lover, who annually descends to the underworld and rises
again from it all suggest a lunar mythology. 15
This thesis is based on several false premises: there is no evidence for a char-
acterization of Inanna as a mother goddess or as a lunar goddess, nor does she
have a son who is her lover. The only correct statements in the above paragraph
refer to her incarnation as the evening/morning star and her horned head-
dress, which is not particularly relevant since every divinity in Mesopotamia
wore a horned headdress. Nevertheless, this thesis has now become accepted
dogma among a wide public. -
The etymology of both Manna's and Ishtar's names are uncertain. Inanna
was explained by ancient as well as modern scholars as deriving from nin-an-na
`lady of Heaven', while Ishtar (originally cAshtar, a form with no gender mark-
ing) has been derived from the root c-t-r `to be rich'. 16 Any attempt to dissociate
these two goddesses is complicated by the vagaries of the cuneiform writing
. system, in which the name of the Semitic Ashtar was written syllabically as
Ash-dar only in personal names, with the logographic 17 form lNANNA used in
all other contexts.
Inanna first appears in the late fourth millennium as the patron deity of
Uruk, representing the numen 18 of the city's central storehouse. The sign with
which her name was always written is easily recognized and goes back to an
archaic pictograph representing a gatepost of a storehouse (Fig. 25). Her
earliest epithets are: nun `princely', UD/hud `morning', sig `evening' and kur
`mountain land'. Thus Inanna seems to have been worshipped as the planet
Venus, shining both in the morning and evening.
She was also the youthful goddess of love, and hymns and literary composi-
tions relate the romance of Inanna and Dumuzi. Paradoxically, some composi-
tions hymn her as a timid virgin while others exalt her as a licentious harlot.
Her function as bestower of kingship and protectress of the city-state of Uruk
may have given rise to her warlike character, since kingship followed the
fortune of arms. As the en priest and later the king held their throne by the
love of Inanna, she was the most prominent goddess involved in royal rituals,
including the `sacred marriage'. 19
Fig. 25. A basin which once stood in the temple of the goddess Inanna, depicting a sheep-
fold topped with the gatepost symbol of Inanna, flanked by lambs, ewes and rams. Jemdet
Nasr period, c. 3000 BC. Probably from Warka. British Museum. L. 16 cm.
74 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 75
From the mid-third millennium, she was the 'lady of all the me's (divine
principles), resplendent light, righteous woman clothed in radiance, beloved of
Heaven and Underworld'. 20 The first epithet reflects Inanna's theft of the me's
from Enki, the god of the sweet waters. This tale may show Inanna's trickster
aspect or present an etiological explanation of the transfer of religious power
from Eridu to Uruk, but Inanna's role of guardian of the me's is a central
feature of her character in all her manifestations.
Scholars have described Inanna as a `goddess of infinite variety'; 21 as a god-
dess of strife who `troubles heaven and earth'; 22 as a liminal goddess, embodying
the power and danger inherent in the boundaries delineating the basic categories
of existence and who thereby defined and preserved these boundaries; 23 as a her-
maphrodite exhibiting feminine and masculine characteristics whose cult called
for transvestism; 24 and as an earth goddess, mistress of both life and death. 25
This serves to underline the ambiguity and diversity of the evidence about
Inanna and to emphasize the complexity of her character, which cannot be
reduced to a neat label such as `fertility goddess' or `mother goddess'.
Inanna represented both order and disorder, structure and anti-structure,
and by transcending the normative categories and boundaries she defined and
protected the norms underlying the structure of Mesopotamian civilization.
Her bipartite, if not bisexual, character has been traced to the bipolarity of
Venus. Her liminal, ambiguous nature may stem from her status as perpetual
marriageable maiden, suspended in the liminality of adolescence where male
and female social roles have not yet been fully differentiated. Inanna is the
`unattached woman', whether unmarried maiden or harlot, eternally free of
the marriage tie.
Inanna and her Semitic counterpart Ishtar partly merged by the mid-third
millennium. In the Old Akkadian period, Ashtar was the tutelary goddess of
Akkade, the capital of the Akkadian Empire, and her fortunes and character-
istics were intimately linked with the political aspirations of the Sargonic
rulers. Sargon and his successors seem to have actively encouraged the syn-
cretism between Ashtar of Akkade and Inanna of Uruk in order to make the
national Akkadian goddess more acceptable to the Sumerians. Simultaneously
with this fusion, different goddesses split off from this amalgam. At the end of
the third millennium, the goddess Nanaya appeared in Uruk as the goddess of
love; in second-millennium Larsa, Inanna's functions were split between
Nanaya, as goddess of love, and Ishtar, goddess of the me's and of war.
Inanna's aspect as Venus became Ninsianna `red lady of heaven', who judged
the cases of the just and the unjust during the night.
Akkadian goddesses of the third millennium
Unlike Sumerian, the Akkadian language clearly distinguished between male
and female grammatical gender; in spite of this, however, only two universal
divinities, Ilum ('god') and Ashtar (`goddess/Ishtar') the masculine and
feminine aspects of a single divine entity seem to have been worshipped by
the Akkadians. The most characteristic feature of pre-Sargonic (early third
millennium) Akkadian personal names is that practically the only deities
they incorporate are Ilum and Ashtar. This bipartite entity was honoured in
personal names as the `dual deity' D\NGIR.DINGIR. The divinities that appear in
Sargonic and later Akkadian names are rarely mentioned during the entire
pre-Sargonic period.
The later Akkadian (2254-2154 BC) view of the divine was influenced by the
Sumerian and Syrian pantheons, both of which were peopled by various divini-
ties, including gods of natural phenomena. Consequently, Akkadians began to
worship them as Shamash (the sun), Suen (the moon) and Adad (the storm).
Other deities, such as Ea and Erra, embodied the forces of life and death.
Other Sargonic gods included the city-gods, as well as the deified sea (Tiamat), -
rivers and mountains.
From about 2200 BC onwards, popular Akkadian religion, as reconstructed
from personal names and seal inscriptions, was characterized by a host of
obscure deities, small local shrines and the concept of personal gods `patron
saints' of the individual, family or clan, about whom very little is known. In
addition to a specific personal god, everybody had a pair of guardian deities,
one male - (Sumerian: udug, Akkadian: sedum) and one female (Sumerian:
lamma, Akkadian: lamassum). The female of the pair was the principal
guardian, and later took over the male's role, while he degenerated into a
demon. Local goddesses appeared in abundance, such as Belat-suhnir `lady of
Shuhnir' and Belat-terraban `lady of Terraban'. The deified spirit of a place
always had feminine gender: e.g. Ulmashitu, the goddess who manifested her-
self in the E-Ulmash temple.
Although there were male gods of martial prowess, goddesses of war and
victory predominate: Ashtar-annunitum (`Ashtar the skirmisher') and Irnina
(`Victoria'). This may stem from a battle metaphor, in which women in child-
birth and men in battle were seen as struggling with the elemental forces of life
and death. It has been suggested that the notoriously warlike character of
Ashtar was a specifically Akkadian trait. Although Ashtar as the city-goddess
of Akkade (Ashtar-annunitum) was indeed the Lady of Battle, a sort of
ancient Wonderwoman, the Akkadian Ashtar was a multi-faceted deity as early
as the third millennium, like the Sumerian Inanna, and was also a love goddess
and a motherly protector.
Syrian goddesses of the third millennium
In contrast to Akkad, the Syrian city-states emphasized local pantheons,
almost all headed by a male divinity. Major textual evidence is provided by the
archives found at Mari at the confluence of the Khabur and the Euphrates
76 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 77

rivers, and at Ebla near Aleppo in north-western Syria. Mari had a basically perhaps because all the other astral deities were male and judgement was a
Semitic pantheon, with some Sumerian and Akkadian cultural influences. male prerogative.
Ninhursaga, a Sumerian mother goddess, had a temple in Mari, while Nanshe, With the rise of Babylon and its god Marduk to supreme dominion of the
the Sumerian goddess of oracles, appeared in personal names there, as did the divine and human worlds, Sumerian and Akkadian divinities were relegated to
Akkadian dual god DINGIR.DlNGIR. A fascinating anomaly is INANNA.US 'the lower positions in the hierarchy. From this period onwards, `ishtar' was used as
male Inanna' (this Sumerian logogram is usually read Ashtar, a god known a generic term for goddesses and for standards carried at the head of the armies.
from later West Semitic sources), a local manifestation parallel to the local One group of lesser goddesses is the daughters of the sky god Anu, who carry
goddess Ashtarat; both of these may have split off from the bipartite jars with the waters of healing. Plaques of goddesses holding jars (Fig. 26) may
Ashtar/Ishtar of Mesopotamia. Ashtarat is marked as feminine, while be related to these deities.
INANNA.US is marked masculine, thus indicating the splitting of the Venus Mythological compositions focused on the human world, relating the
deity into the female evening star and the male morning star. In the temple of creation of humanity, the flood, and the origins of human birth, marriage,
lNANNA.US at Mari there seem to be two cultic sanctuaries, perhaps for the two procreation and death. The origin of the cosmos was now viewed in terms of
manifestations of Venus. 26 Finds in the cellas (inner sanctuaries) may show human bisexual reproduction: the watery abyss is divided into male (Apsu) and
that one was used by women and the other by men. 27 female (Tiamat); the fecund earth is divided into Urash `earth' and Ninurash
The archives of the royal palace of Ebla date from the twenty-fourth cen- `lady earth'. An atypical example is the Theogony of Dunnu, which plots the
tury BC and include bilingual (Sumerian=Eblaite) lexical lists, 28 a few hymns genealogy of the gods of Dunnu, a central Babylonian town, as a series of
and rituals, juridical documents, administrative documen/s and personal names. incestuous and patricidal events, which can be paralleled by Hittite myths and
The lexical lists mention the sun goddess, mother goddesses referred to only by Hesiod's Theogony. Harab `plough' and Ki 'earth' are the first parents and
their Sumerian names, Ashtar (written INANNA) and Ishhara. The juridical they beget Shakkan the cattle god. Earth desires her son and marries him, hav-
texts mention the main deities of the city-state of Ebla: the god Kura, the sun ing killed the father. This sheds an interesting light on the phallus/plough
goddess and the weather-god. The offering lists contain about forty deities, of woman/furrow as a common symbol
which the following have been identified: Semitic (eight deities, of which the of patriarchal authority and sub-
only goddess is the sun goddess); autochthonous (ten deities, of which five are jugation of women.
goddesses); and Sumerian (four deities, of which two are goddesses). The only Most of the goddesses popular
goddesses appearing in personal names are Ashtar and the sun goddess. Two in the third millennium contin-
Sumerian goddesses were adopted with all their cultic trappings intact: ued to be worshipped. Those most
Nissaba, goddess of writing and literacy, and Ninkarrak, goddess of healing often mentioned in texts, in
and medicine. addition to Ishtar, are the mother
goddesses Arum, Belet-ili `lady
Mesopotamian goddesses in the second millennium of the gods', and Mama/Mami.
Many goddesses were relegated
The second millennium began with migrations of West Semitic peoples into to the underworld. Female
the Mesopotamian plain which destabilized the established political hierar- demons such as Lamashtu
chies, resulting in the development of new polities and governments as well as appeared, representing the
in far-reaching changes to the social structure and cultural heritage. Goddesses
played a diminishing role in the affairs of city and state, of household and
cosmos. Their marginalization and the reduction of their roles, as well as Fig. 26. Terracotta relief of an
domination by divine male spouses, curtailed their power of independent unidentified goddess holding two
action. They therefore assumed an increasingly mediatory function between botties. She is surrounded by six
eight-pointed rosettes, typica1 of
the human world and the masculinized divine world. Not only were they mar-
Inanna-Ishtar, and wears a tall
ginalized but some underwent a sex change: Lisin and her spouse; Ninurra,
crenellated crown and an elaborate
the pot maker; and Ninshubura, the vizier, who was now equated with the garment. Old Babylonian, c. 1800 BC.
Akkadian god Ilabrat. Ninsianna became a male manifestation of Venus, From Ur. British Museum.

78 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 79

Fig. 27. Painted plaster plaque West Semitic goddesses in the second millennium
representing a female figure,
probably Ishtar, found in the area of At the beginning of the second millennium, the Amorites (also known as
the Ishtar Temple at Assur. Mid-late West Semites) appeared in Syria and Mesopotamia, bringing their own gods
third millennium BC. British Museum. and goddesses. Archival material from many sites is available, such as Alalakh,
H. 18 cm.
Mari, Tell Rimah and Tell Leilan for the first half of the millennium, and
Alalakh, Emar, Qatna and Ugarit for the second half of the millennium.
danger of infant and child mor- Dagan was still head of the regional pantheon, while each city had its own
tality. Lamashtu seems to be a peculiar set of deities. Ruling goddesses included the `lady of Nagar' in the
demonic Ishtar, shown as a naked Khabur region and Baualat, lady of Byblos. A rare Ishtar manifestation is
winged deity with bird talons INANNA.LUGAL, `Ishtar-the-king', who appears in a dedicatory inscription from
standing on the lion, symbol of the Old Babylonian palace at Mari. 3 o
Ishtar, and flanked by owls. _ Ugarit, on the Syrian coast, has the largest archives and libraries known
Abstract principles were per- from the late second millennium. Its temple archives included several mytho-
sonified and deified, some in the logical and ritual compositions, not only in the Akkadian lingua franca 31
feminine such as Kittum `truth' but also in the native West Semitic language, written in a cuneiform alphabet.
and some in the masculine, such The city-state boasted a cosmopolitan society, with goddesses from various
as Mesharum `justice'. Mamitu, a cultural spheres: Hittite, Hurrian, Babylonian, Sumerian and local West
feminine formation meaning Semitic. The principal Ugaritic goddesses are the West Semitic cAnat, Atirat
`oath', acquired the chthonic and (Ashratu, Asherah) and cAttart (Ashtarte). cAnat, whose name probably
negative aspects of the curse reflects the Hanat known in Mari, was the daughter of the great god El and
brought on by a broken oath. incorporated the passionate lover as well as the impetuous warrior (Fig. 28).
In northern Mesopotamia, She bore the epithets btlt, usually rendered `virgin' but actually meaning a
homeland of the Assyrians, the young unmarried woman, st `woman', and hbly `destroyer'. She is said to be
goddesses generally played a sub- the protectress of animals. Like Inanna, cAnat in her character of perpetual
ordinate role to the gods (for an btlt was forever on the threshold of adulthood with its defined sexual roles.
early rendition of an enigmatic This lack o comp ete gender se paration was expressed myt DQlogid- aIl -hy a
Assyrian goddess, see Fig. 27). `confusion of categories', the absence of a boundary between male and female
The only independent city goddess was Ishtar of Nineveh, whose fame spread spheres of activit leavin her free to articipate in the culturally masculine
throughout the ancient Near East; her statue was even sent to the pharaoh in pursuits of warfare and hunting. 32 The feminine role of wife and mother was
Egypt. In her Assyrian guise, Ishtar was the custodian of secrets. Her secret filled by the goddess Atirata, wife of the great god El, who had seventy sons
teachings were at the centre of the Middle Assyrian ritual KAR 139, on whose and bore the title qnyt ilm 'creatress of the gods'. She is also associated with
basis Leo Oppenheim postulated the existence of Assyrian mystery cults. 29 the fecund sea.cAttart, whose name is the feminine form of the god Ashtar,
Further knowledge of goddesses worshipped in this period can be found in the plays little role in Ugaritic myths but is often found in offering lists and
coronation ceremony and the royal ritual called tdkultu, which originated in rituals; she also bears the name Ashtart-gm-Baal 'Ashtart-name-of-Baal' or
this period. During the latter, the king hosted 246 divinities, 168 gods and 78 `Ashtart-heavens-of-Baal'. She is occnsinally paired with cAnat and also
goddesses of the official pantheon, whom he greeted in solemn toasts, asking seems to be a warrior goddess and is depicted riding on horseback. Other
them to bestow blessings on his royal person and the entire realm. goddesses include the Katiratu (Kotharat), `skilful ones'; they were usually
seven in number, daughters of the new moon, connected with childbirth and
fertility. Qudshu `the holy one' (Fig. 28) 33 and Shapshu, the sun goddess, are
also mentioned.,AShapshu acted as an intermediary between the divine sphere,
the human world and the underworld. llat, the female divine principle, was the
only goddess who had a temple. The divinities responsible for fertility were

Goddesses of the Ancient Near East 81

Fig. 28. (Opposite) Limestone

stela with two registers,
depicting Canaanite goddesses.
The upper register presents a
naked goddess standing on a
lion, holding snakes and
flowers. The inscription
identifies her as Kent (whom
some scholars would equate
with the goddess Qudshu). She
is flanked by Min, the
Egyptian fertility god, and
Reshef, the Canaanite plague
god. The lower register depicts Fig. 29. Sealing of the ruling dynasty of the Syrian city
a goddess sitting on a high- of Emar, depicting three maie figures looking towards
backed throne, wearing an a female figure. From left to right, they represent a
atef- crown, brandishing a warrior god holding a mace and bow, a second warrior
mace-axe above her head with god holding a tripod and saw, and probably a human
her left hand and holding a figure (the king?) with his arms hanging loosely at his
shield and spear in her right. sides. The winged nude female goddess holds her breasts.
The inscription identifies the These figures probably represent the gods of the roya1
figure as 'Anat. Dynasty XIX, house of Emar; if so, the figures would depict Baeal,
c.1307-1196 BC. Presumably Dagan, the king and Ashtarte. Composite figure made
from Deir el-Medina. British on the basis of three sealings on clay tablets at the
Museum. H. 75 cm. Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. c.1300-1187 BC.

male: Baal was responsible for the fertility of the crops and El for that of
human beings.

Conclusion
This discussion has emphasized the plethora of written and material evidence
for ancient Near Eastern goddesses, in order to counteract the general tendency
to overlook the individuality of the goddesses, reducing every goddess to some
other goddess and equating all of them with the `Mother', as if female divini-
ties, unlike male divinities, were interchangeable. The evidence also invalidates
the sexist approach which defines goddesses in terms of biology and normative
feminine roles; goddesses are not just sexual
females writ large, divine wombs,
and thus all earth mothers. There are many types of goddesses. Some fulfil
traditionally feminine roles, balancing the social equilibrium, while others
ignore the normative feminine roles of wife and mother, seemingly threatening
patriarchal social and gender ideologies. Goddesses should be placed in their
social context, where the security of the city and the fertility of its land were
in the hands of the city deity, be it a he or a she. Fertility and sexuality were
traits of both gods and goddesses.
82 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Further reading
General
T. Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses (The Free Press: New York, 1992).
J.A. Hackett, Can a sexist modei liberate us?: Ancient Near Eastern 'fertility' god-
desses, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 5 (1989) 65-76.
W.G. Lambert, Goddesses in the pantheon: a reflection of women in society? La
Femme dans le Proche -Orient Antique. Compte rendu, Rencontre Assyriologique
Internationale 33. (ditions Recherche sur les Civilisations: Paris, 1987) 125-30.
G. Leick, Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature (Routledge: London,
1994).
InannalIshtar
W. Heimpei, A Catalog of Near Eastern Venus Deities. Syro-Mesopotamian Studies
4. (Undena: Malibu, 1982) 59-72.
J. Ochshorn, Ishtar and her cult, in C. Olson (ed.), The Book of the Goddess, Past
and Present (Crossroad: New York, 1983) 16-28.
C. Wilcke, Inanna /Istar, Reallexikon der Assyriologie 5 (1976) 74-87.
SyrialCanaan
A. Archi, How a pantheon forms, in B. Janowski, K. Koch and G. Wilhelm (eds),
Religionsgeschichtliche Beziehungen zwischen Kleinasien, Nordsyrien und dem
Alten Testament (Universittsveriag: Freiburg, 1993) 1-18.
W.G. Lambert, The pantheon of Mari, Mari, Annales de Recherches
Interdisciplinaires 4 (1985) 525-39.
N.H. Walls, The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Myth. Society of Biblical Literature
Dissertation Series 135 (Scholars Press: Atlanta, 1992).
WG.E. Watson, The goddesses of Ugarit: a survey, Studi Epigrafici e Linguistici sul
Vicino Oriente Antico 10 (1993) 47-59.
S.A. Wiggins, A Reassessment of shera. Alter Orient und Altes Testament, 235
(Butzon und Bercker: Kevelaier/Neukirchener Verlag: Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1993).
4 9oddesses in
(Lady Israelite Religion
Karel van der Toorn
mce the Bible is commonly considered the document of a religion in which
there is place for only one God, the publication of The Hebrew Goddess in
1967, by Raphael Patai, made quite an impact. Patai argued that beside the
Hebrew God there has always been the Hebrew Goddess. Under such different "
names and guises as Asherah, Astarte, Anat, Shekhina, and Matronit she was
the Hebrew expression of the universal longing for the ultimate Mother. Though
there is much to criticize in the book, it has opened a debate about an issue that
had long been neglected by biblical scholars. Few scholars would be ready to
accept the notion of one Hebrew goddess, but the importance of various god-
desses among the Israelites is widely recognized. In the thirty years that have
passed since the appearance of Patai's book, new evidence has become available
and many other books have seen the light. They call for a dispassionate assess-
ment of the empirical evidence for the worship of goddesses in early Israelite
religion, i.e. the religion of the Semitic people living in the rea corresponding
more or less with that of modern Israel between 1200-500 BC (Fig. 30).
The Queen of Heaven
It is no secret to anyone familiar with the Bible that there has been a devotion
to goddesses in Israel. Around 600 BC, in the cities of Judah and in the streets
of Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah saw `the children gathering wood, the
fathers kindling fire, and the women kneading dough, to make cakes for the
Queen of Heaven' (Jeremiah 7:17-18). The cult of this goddess was continued
in the Jewish diaspora in Upper Egypt' where women took the lead in her
worship with the approval of their husbands (Jeremiah 44:19). The veneration
of the Queen of Heaven cannot be dismissed as a fabrication of the biblical
authors designed to discredit Jewish customs in the diaspora. A letter from
Hermopolis in Upper Egypt, dating from the fifth century BC, mentions a
chapel dedicated to the gods Bethel and the Queen of Heaven. 2 Letters and
documents from the Jewish colony at Elephantine, also in Upper Egypt, con-
tain evidence which supports the inference, drawn on the basis of the biblical
texts, that the cult of the Queen of Heaven had been brought to Egypt by
migrants from Judah. 3
It is somewhat tantalizing that in one of the rare instances of a biblical ref-
erence to the cult of a goddess performed by women, her name is not given.


ANClENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 85
84

`Queen of Heaven' is not a name but an epithet. Which goddess is hiding

behind this honorific title? If we had only the text of the Bible, the riddle of
the Queen of Heaven would probably remain unsolved. Fortunately there is
extra-biblical evidence that furnishes elements of an answer. The Jewish
diaspora in Upper Egypt is known not only from the Book of Jeremiah,
but also through Aramaic letters and documents written by Jews, mainly
from Elephantine. Their publication at the beginning of this century elicited
considerable interest because they showed that the religion of these migrated
Jews was quite unorthodox by biblical standards. One of the Elephantine
papyri recorded an oath in the name of Anat-Yahu. 4 This name is most likely
interpreted as a genitival construction, meaning Anat of Yahu', Anat being the
name of a goddess, and Yahu a variation of Yahweh, the name of the main God
of Israel. Despite a few unconvincing attempts to interpret Anat here as a
noun instead of a proper name, 5 the evidence is unequivocal: the Jews of
Elephantine worshipped Anat as the consort of Yahu (Yahweh).
This leaves us with two references to a goddess in Upper Egypt: Jeremiah
mentions the Queen of Heaven as the goddess worshipped by Jewish migrants,
and the Elephantine papyrus implies that they worshipped the goddess Anat.
Anat is a proper name (though originally it was an epithet, meaning 'the
Hanaean goddess') while the `Queen of Heaven' remains a honorific title. Do
we have to conclude that Anat is the Queen of Heaven? Indeed, there is good
reason to give an affirmative answer to this question. It is unlikely that either
the migrant Jews in Upper Egypt mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah or the
Jewish colony at Elephantine worshipped more than one goddess. The per-
functory mention of `other gods' in Jeremiah 44:15-20 is a standard element of
Deuteronomistic rhetorics. This type of rhetoric is characterized by a strongly
monotheistic perspective and simply groups all non-monotheistic practices
together as the cult of other gods. It is clear from the rest of the passage in
Jeremiah that in reality the women are concerned with one goddess only.
The Elephantine Jews were worshippers of Yahweh. The temple in which
they worshipped is referred to as `the temple of Yahu' ( gwr dy yhw). 6 The
correspondence with the authorities in Jerusalem after the destruction of this
temple by priests of the Egyptian god Khnum in the summer of 410 BC
shows that the sanctuary was acknowledged by the Jewish authorities in the
homeland.? Although the Elephantine papyri contain references to divine
names other than Yahu, there is only one goddess who is explicitly associated
with him. This is Anat-Yahu, apparently the official consort of the god of `the
temple of Yahu'. The suggestion conveyed by the Elephantine papyri is that
the Jewish colony directed its worship only to Yahu, and to Anat as his consort,
subsequently its religion can hardly be qualified as polytheistic or syncretistic.
In fact it conformed to a well-established practice in Judah and Israel, where

Fig. 30. (Opposite) Map showing sites of the ancient Near East.
86 ANClENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 87

Fig. 31. (Below) Gold necklace
pendant depicting the goddess Anat.
From Minet-el-Beida. Late Bronze Age. ,./
Fig. 32. (Right) Gold plaque
depicting the goddess Anat. From
Lachish. 12th century BC.
Lf with either Yahu or Bethel. Since Anat-Bethel is mentioned in a record of
donations to the temple of Yahu, we may go one step further and suggest that
in Elephantine Yahu and Bethel were identified with one another. 9 To the
Elephantine Jews, Anat-Yahu and Anat-Bethel were two names for the same
goddess, and `Queen of Heaven' was her epithet (just as Yahu could be referred
eeNA
J to by Jewish migrants in Elephantine as 'the Lord of Heaven', smy*. 1 The
point that needs to be explained, then, concerns the reason why Yahu and
Bethel could be identified.
The possibility of an identification between Bethel and Yahu is given with
the nature of the god Bethel. The name Bethel means `house of God'. It nor-
mally refers to a standing stone or stela, which is regarded as the embodiment
of a deity. The Semitic term was given the Greek form (3a(TVXo (whence the
English 'baetyl') and adopted as the technical term for a stone fallen from heav-
en and regarded as sacred in Greek writings." As Bethel represents the deified

'L
is
i
M
itati":44
PIRIIV Pin
ilINVIMEMINFIVNIIMPI
WIPWIMPFNIMPONNINWIN
WwWPOIFFOVIRMICIPPIIIRWr
Yahweh used to be worshipped together with a divine consort (see the evidence
discussed below). Consequently, the Queen of Heaven can be identified as
none other than Anat (Figs 31-32).
An important objection that might be raised against this identification is the
association of 'the Queen of Heaven' with the god Bethel in the fifth century
BC Aramaic letter from Hermopolis mentioned above. Even if the reference to
`the chapel of Bethel' (byt bt'l) and `the chapel of the Queen of Heaven' (byt
mlkt smyn) could be interpreted as a reference to two separate temples, the
phrase provides a link between the two gods. The inference of a close associa-
tion between the Queen of Heaven and Bethel is supported by the occurrence
of the divine name Anat-Bethel in an account listing 128 persons who each
contributed two shekels to the temple of Yahu. 8 We have argued that the
Queen of Heaven is an epithet of Anat. Anat, apparently, could be associated
stela, the identification of Yahu and Bethel is most plausibly explained by
assuming that the temple of Yahu contained a standing stone (a massb,
if one may use the biblical term) that functioned as a symbol of Yahu's
presence. 12 This stone was referred to as Bethel and therefore for all practical
purposes, Bethel and Yahu coalesce, and the names Anat-Bethel and Anat-
Yahu are interchangeable.
Both the biblical and the extra-biblical evidence lead to the conclusion that
in sixth-century Judah, the goddess Anat was worshipped alongside, and pre-
sumably as the consort of, Yahweh. The name Anat (also spelled Hanat in
cuneiform texts) is etymologically connected with the Hanaeans: she is `the
Hanaean goddess'. 13 This piece of information is not terribly helpful in deter-
mining the nature of the deity, but it renders other more fanciful speculations
about the meaning of her name redundant. The Hanaeans are a branch of the
Amorites, a pastoralist people which, in the first half of the second millenni-
um BC, settled in and around the urban centres in Syria and Mesopotamia.
They brought their goddess to Ugarit, the fourteenth-century BC city-state on
the coast of Syria. In the Ugaritic mythology Anat stands out as a volatile,
independent, adolescent warrior and a huntress. 1 4 Being the `sister' of the
weather-god Baal, Anat fights his battles and takes care of his burial when he
has died. In her relation to humans, she acts as a patroness of warriors and
kings, in which latter capacity she can be referred to as a royal wet-nurse as
discussed by Walls in his book The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Myth. 15 In the
Ramesside period (c. 1300-1200 BC), the cult of Anat spread southwards. An
Egyptian stela depicting Anat, in a temple built by Ramses lIl found at Beth
Shan in modern Israel, calls her `Queen of Heaven, Mistress of All the Gods'. 16
These titles echo her epithet belt fmm, 'Lady of Heavens' in an Ugaritic text
(KT U 1.108:7) and foreshadow the appellation `Queen of Heaven' in Judah.
To what degree the Jewish Queen of Heaven conformsto the Anat we know
from Ugaritic texts is uncertain. The main indication to follow is the description,
88 ANClENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 89
in Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:15-19, of the cult she receives. Her worshippers
burned incense for her (44:17), poured out drink offerings (44:17; cf. 7:18),
and offered a special kind of cakes in the preparation of which the entire fam-
ily was involved (7:18). These cakes were called kawwdnm (7:18; 44:19), and
they had the shape of the goddess or her symbol (44:19). 17 No bloody sacrifices
are mentioned. The cult seems to have been performed mainly in a family
context, in the open air, without the intervention of a priest. Devotees' to the
goddess regarded the offerings as a duty resulting from a spoken commitment
('We shall certainly perform every word that has left our mouth', according to
the literal translation of 44:17). The rewards of the cult, experienced in the
past and hoped for in the future, are plenty of food, prosperity, and protection
against calamities (44:17). Unfortunately, these data give no sharp contours to
the goddess; and this role as a divine patroness could be fulfilled by almost
any goddess in the ancient Near East. Apparently, then, the Anat worshipped
by the Jews as the Queen of Heaven and consort of Yahu had lost a distinct
personality and become a divine protectress of common people. The available
evidence does not warrant such specific categorizations as `fertility goddess' or
`warrior goddess'.
Yahweh and his Asherah
It has long been the prevailing opinion, in the scholarly literature on the sub-
ject, that the religion of the Jews in Elephantine was a syncretism born from
the intercultural contacts to which the migrants were exposed. As a deviant
religion it was in no way representative of Israelite religion in the homeland.
Regarding the cult of the Queen of Heaven practised in Judah, it belonged
to the popular religion of the times, and should therefore be regarded as a
corrupted form of religion as well. The underlying assumption was that god-
desses held no legitimate place in Israelite religion.
The widespread confidence that the `real' Israelite religion, evidently a qual-
ification that can hardly be called objective, was without a goddess received a
blow when archaeologists discovered several Hebrew inscriptions containing
a reference to `Yahweh and his Asherah' (*yhwh w'srth). Since Asherah is
well-known from Ugaritic and other texts as the name of a major West Semitic
goddess, the possibility had to be considered that the people responsible for
these inscriptions regarded her as the consort of Yahweh.
The first inscription associating Yahweh with Asherah was found in 1967 at
Khirbet el-Qm, a fortified town-site in the Judaean hill country midway between
Hebron and Lachish. It is one of three inscriptions from an Iron Age tomb. 18
Uriyahu the rich wrote it.
Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh <and by his Asherah>
and save him from his enemies! 19
The expression `and by his Asherah' occurs once more toward the end of the
text, but the context is too damaged to allow a connected translation.
The second site which has yielded inscriptions giving evidence of Asherah
as the companion of Yahweh is Kuntillet cAjrud, located in the northern Sinai,
some fifty km south of Kadesh-Barnea. The Israeli archaeologist Zeev Meshel
directed excavations there in 1975-76. Three formulas of blessing were found
inscribed on two fragments of large storage jars, the sherds having apparently
been used as a convenient surface for exercises in letter-writing. The first text
reads as an epistolary blessing:
PN l says, `Speak to PN 2 , to PN 3 and to PN 4 : l bless you by Yahweh of Samaria
and by his Asherah.' 20
The second exercise contains a similar turn of phrase, but this time the bless-
ing is to be brought about `by Yahweh of the South (Teman) and by his
Asherah':
May he be granted everything he wishes from anyone, and may Yahu give him
his heart's desire. By Yahweh of the South and by his Asherah. 21
The third exercise in epistolary phraseology has been preserved almost in its
entirety:
Amaryau says, `Speak to my master: Are you well? l bless you by Yahweh of
Teman (the South) and by his Asherah. May he bless and keep you, and may he
be with my master [for ever.]' 22
The frequency of the formula of blessing `by Yahweh (of Teman, of Samaria)
and by his Asherah' is such that we must conclude that, in certain circles at
least, Yahweh was conventionally associated with Asherah. 23
Let us first try to be more specific about which circles these were. Contrary
to what might be suggested by its location south of Judah, Kuntillet oAjrud has
yielded the remains of a centre that belonged to Northern Israel (or rather
Israel in the strict sense of the term, as distinguished from Judah). The
Phoenician script used for some inscriptions, the pottery types, and the ending
of the personal names in yw instead of yhw all point to the Israelite character
- -
of the site. Another indication to the same effect is the presence of a blessing
`by Yahweh of Samaria', i.e. `Yahweh of the Northern Kingdom'. 24
The inscriptions found at Kuntillet cAjrud are generally dated between 800
and 750 BC. The religious nature of some of these texts does not warrant the
claim that the site was a religious centre, as formulas of blessing were quite
common in epistolary texts of varied character. Most probablythe site served
as a trading post on the route between different Mediterranean ports and Elat
and the Arabic Peninsula beyond. About one hundred cloth fragments, in addi-
tion to loom-weights and wooden beams, suggest that the place also produced
textiles, mainly linens, the quality of which has been described as superior.25
90 ANClENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 91
Everything suggests that the people who lived at the site were quite affluent.
The peculiarities (if they may so be called) of the religion of Kuntillet cAjrud
cannot be dismissed as deviations characteristic of the devotion of the common
people. In fact, there is no reason to assume that the religion of these people 0
was in any way nonconformist, as the presence of a blessing by 'Yahweh of
Samaria' (Samaria being either the capital city of the Northern Kingdom or by
extension the Northern Kingdom as a whole) would rather suggest that the
texts from this site reflect notions and practices of the official cult of the
Northern Kingdom.
The most striking aspect of Israelite religion revealed by these inscriptions
is the presence of Asherah alongside Yahweh. In the Hebrew Bible, the term
'aser can be used as the name of the goddess Asherah, but it can also refer
to the wooden pole erected as her symbol (and as such comparable to the stand-
ing stone for a male god). Though scholars are still divided over the issue, a
majority take the expression `his Asherah' in the texts from Kuntillet cAjrud as
the name of the goddess. 26 On the assumption that Asherah is here indeed the
name of a goddess, the texts from Kuntillet cAjrud are evidence to the fact that
Yahweh had Asherah as his divine consort.
That Yahweh of Samaria, that is, the national God of the Northern
Kingdom, should have Asherah as his consort is less surprising than it seems.
It has long been known that Yahweh was represented in the national temple at
Bethel (see Amos 7:13) by means of the image of a young bull, the so-called
`golden calf' (1 Kings 12:28-29). From the Ugaritic texts we know that `bull'
(tr) is the exclusive epithet of the god El. Also in view of the name Bethel
(which means `Temple-of-El'), there is good reason to suspect that Yahweh was
identified with El and took over his iconography. The identity of the two gods
is assumed in a number of biblical texts. Now we also know that the consort of
El in the Canaanite mythology is none other than Asherah. Apparently,
Yahweh not only inherited El's iconography but also his consort. The `Yahweh
of Samaria' was represented by 'the Calf of Samaria' (Hosea 8:6) and had 'his
Asherah', namely `the Asherah of Samaria', to quote the corrected text of
Amos 8:14. 27 Another hidden reference to Asherah is found in Deuteronomy
33:2, which provides the description of a divine appearance. When Yahweh
came from Sinai, so the emendated text says, Asherah was at his right...'. 28
In the Northern Kingdom, then, Yahweh had Asherah as his consort. The
situation seems to have been similar in the South. The inscription from
Khirbet el-Qom, cited above, comes from the heartland of Judah, and it also
mentions Asherah in what seems to be the capacity of consort of Yahweh. If
the usual reading of the first line of the inscription is correct, it was written
by someone who refers to himself as `the rich' (h`sr). This means that the
religious views reflected in the inscription were held by at least some of the
wealthier members of the Judaean society. Since Uriyahu regarded Asherah as
the consort of Yahweh, it is likely that she had that function in the official
religion of his day as well. And indeed, this is what the Hebrew Bible suggests
in several places. Maacah the queen mother is charged with the introduction of
an `abominable image' of Asherah in the Jerusalem temple (1 Kings 15:12-13).
Various kings are said to have either made an Asherah for the temple, or to
have removed it from there. A definite cult of Asherah in Jerusalem seems
implied by the reference to women `who wove clothes for the Asherah' (2 Kings
23:7). It is simply because the cult of Asherah is condemned in the Bible that
many scholars have been reluctant to acknowledge the goddess's role in the
official religion of the time.
Though their characters are different, neither Asherah nor Anat ever
fulfilled a role in Israelite and Judaean religion comparable to that of the
national god. Yahweh. They were never more than his consort. It is striking that
the epistolary blessing by Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah from Kuntillet
cAjrud continues in the third person singular: 'May he bless and keep you, and
may he be with my master [for ever]'. The priority of the male is evident.
Scholars hoping for a religion in which men and women are equal will find
little comfort in the fact that Yahweh had a consort. Her position vis--vis her
divine companion was a fair reflection of the position of most women of the
time regarding their husbands. The cult of these goddesses does not contain
the seeds of women's liberation. -
Figurines of `goddesses'
A study of the role of goddesses in early Israelite religion would not be com-
plete without a discussion of the many Israelite figurines that represent
women (Figs 33-38). It is widely held that these women are in fact goddesses.
This is why the figurines are commonly known as 'Astarte' figurines, or
'Mother-Goddess' figurines within the scholarly literature. They have been
perceived by some as material tokens of goddess worship. Their distribution
over the Palestinian soil is seen as evidence of a flourishing cult in the popular
religion of Israel, from 1200 until about 550 BC. Martin Rose has suggested
that the Asherah-statuettes served as house goddesses once the deity had
been banned from the official cult. 29 Thomas Holland has suggested that
these baked clay figurines were `the outward expression of popular "Israelite"
religion'. 3 o
The first to have studied these figurines in a systematic way was James
Pritchard. In his book, Palestinian Figurines in Relation to Certain
Goddesses Known Through Literature, he distinguished eight types. They all
represent naked women, with arms hanging, or supporting the breasts, or hold-
ing an infant. Certain categories stand out from the rest, such as the so-called
pillar figurines and the 'Astarte plaques' thus named because the woman
represented was identified with the Canaanite goddess Astarte. The pillar
figurines (Figs 37-38) have the shape of a pillar in place of the lower body while

92 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 93

graves and even if it is assumed that some of them were used as toys, such can
hardly have been the function of the entire group.
The context of the finds is also an argument against their interpretation as
occasional artefacts for purposes of sorcery. Mesopotamian rites of healing
and measures of counter-magic prescribe the preparation of images, at times
from clay and at times from tallow, to be damaged, destroyed or buried. Similar
practices are known from Egypt. Magical ways of dealing with adversaries were
not unknown in Israel either. 35 It is possible that some Israelites used figurines
for purposes of sorcery, and accordingly in the Septuagint rendering of a bib-
lical psalm against enemies there is a reference to a waxen image (Psalm 58:9).
Fig. 33. Bronze
However, the figurines found so far are hardly to be interpreted as sorcery
woman figure
holding a child. props: the fact that most of them show no traces of maltreatment does not
Middle Syrian. favour the assumption that they served as implements of sorcery or counter-
sorcery, nor does the variety of places where quite similar images were found.
Fig. 34. Terracottas
depicting 'naked
Another view, which still enjoys considerable popularity, maintains that the
goddesses'. Cast figurines were used for purposes of imitative magic. Because the so-called
from moulds found `pillar figurines' tend to accentuate the issue of fertility by their protruding
at Tel Bata s breasts, in combination at times with the presence of an infant, they have been
(Timna). Iron Age characterized in general terms as `fertility figurines', or even `fertility amulets'.
IIB. It is then assumed that their purpose was to bring about conception, to facili-
tate parturition, and to guarantee the production of mother's milk. 36 Another
the upper body is in the form of a woman's torso on which the presence of group of images, the so-called 'Astarte plaques', has been interpreted in terms
breasts is often emphasized by the position of the arms. The `Astarte plaques' of imitative magic along rather different lines. Miriam Tadmor has argued that
(Fig. 34) present a nude woman against a background either
lying on a bed, or standing in a frame. Fig. 35. (Opposite) Moulded female figure holding a disc. Iron Age IIA - B.
However, there is no unambiguous indication that these Fig. 36. Bottle in the shape of a female. Tel Qasile, 11th century BC.
various types of figurines are in fact goddesses. Their nudity Fig. 37. Pillar figurine from Jerusalem. 8th century BC.
does not make them divine, neither do their protruding
Fig. 38. Pillar figurine from Lachish. 7th-6th centuries BC.
breasts or other symbols of physical beauty and fertility. A
survey of the relevant literature shows that several authors
have indeed suggested non-religious interpretations of the
figurines. Some have considered the possibility of their being
toys and puppets of clay. At first sight, the interpretation of
the figurines (or some of them) as playthings is quite attrac-
tive. 31 Puppets as playthings are mentioned in Mesopotamian
texts, 32 and various examples of toys have in fact been
found. 33 Even if there is no word for `Barbie' in the Hebrew
Bible, Israelite girls will certainly have had their dolls. 34
Unfortunately, however, these dolls can hardly be identified
with the figurines that have been found. The typology of the
figurines does not militate against their interpretation as pup-
pets and toys, but their distribution does. The very same type
of figurine found in a domestic context is also discovered in
94 ANClENT GODDESSES ) Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 95
they were given to the dead to ensure that they would have the services of a
concubine in the afterlife. It has been suggested that this is why fertility seems
to be a less important factor with them than sex-appea1. 37
However, analysis of the Hebrew texts, both biblical and epigraphical, does
not produce arguments in favour of the interpretation of the figurines as
forms of 'imitative' or `sympathetic' magic. It does show that issues of fertility
and child-birth were of great concern to many Israelites, and that women
might resort to such means as `love apples' (Genesis 30:14-16; Song of Songs
7:14) to increase their chances of sex and pregnancy. Certainly, the biblical
silence about fertility figurines does not mean that they did not exist. However,
the varied nature of the find spots of figurines of one and the same type makes
it difficult to believe that all of them served as fertility amulets. In regard to
the interpretation of the `Astarte plaques' as concubines, although it is likely
that the prospect of a concubine in the afterlife, well-attested in the Egyptian
material, may have been alluring to Israelite men, it was hardly what they
expected. The Israelite view on afterlife is scarcely joyful (see, e.g., Psalm
30:10); in the dim existence of the netherworld, all the spirits really care for is
some food and cool water. 38 -
It seems to me that the most attractive explanation of the majority of the
Israelite figurines is to interpret them as reflections of official cult images or
symbols, used outside the cult for devotional and prophylactic purposes. In
illustration of such practices one could refer, once more, to Mesopotamian cus-
toms. In Mesopotamian religion, according to A. Leo Oppenheim in his book
Ancient Mesopotamia, `the role of the image was central in the cult as well as
in private worship, as the wide distribution of cheap replicas of such images
shows.' 39 It is true that terracotta figurines, often similar to the Israelite exam-
ples, have been found in substantial numbers in domestic contexts. 40 They
presumably- served there as 'icons' of sorts. 41 They had functions comparable
to those of the clay models of sacred architecture also found in Mesopotamian
(and Syrian) houses. 42 Replicas of cult images, as well as miniature shrines,
kept the memory of the real images and the real shrines alive and kindled the
devotion of those who possessed them. The prophylactic powers ascribed to
such figurines (or clay models) may account for the variety of contexts (includ-
ing burials) in which they have been found.
Are the Israelite naked female figurines to be similarly interpreted as cheap
imitations of cult images for purposes of devotion and protection? There are
several arguments in support of this possibility. In our own time, people who
have come to such pilgrimage centres as Lourdes do not like to leave empty-
handed. The Book of Acts tells that at Ephesus, in the first century AD,
Demetrius and his fellow silversmiths had a thriving business in the produc-
tion of miniature shrines of the local goddess Artemis; presumably they
owed much of their wealth to the pilgrims (Acts 19:23-41). Pilgrimages were
common enough in ancient Israel and the centralistic religious politics of both
Samarian and Judahite kings favoured the development. Being unable to visit
the temple daily, many people may have regarded the possession of a replica of
a cult image, with the attendant cultic utensils, as a kind of substitute.
The word `replica' suggests a high degree of similarity between the clay
figurine and the far more precious cult image. The latter images, usually from
wood with a coat of precious metal, have not been preserved due to robbery,
iconoclasm, and poor conditions of preservation. In some cases, the corre-
spondence between replica and original may have been quite close. Some of the
'Astarte plaques' depict the goddess within a frame. Though Miriam Tadmor
interprets the frame as a bed, which fits her contention that the plaques
represent human concubines, the frame could also, and more plausibly in my
opinion, be seen as a schematic representation of the shrine. The plaques,
then, are not just replicas of the image, but of the image in context. 43
Yet while the replica theory may hold good for the `Astarte plaques', it does
not entirely fit with the so-called pillar figurines (Figs 37-38). These, it would
seem, are an iconographic type of great antiquity, and do not correspond to a
specific localized cult image. The naked female whose fertility is stressed by the
size of her breasts, the way in which she holds her body, or the presence of a -
child, represents the oldest type of figurine known from the Near East, dating
as far back as the fourth millennium BC." She is indeed a type rather than a
personality and as such can be identified with a variety of specific goddesses.
A sub-category of this type is described in an inventory text from Qatna in
Syria where the temple treasury includes 'a necklace with four lapis lazuli
sassrcttu, each holding a child on her lap'. 45 The word sassitru means `womb'
and, as a personification, denotes-a 'fertility goddess'. 46 Against this back-
ground, the customary characterization of the Israelite pillar figurine and
related types as `fertility goddess' or dea nutrix is not without precedent in
antiquity.
The non-specificity of the `fertility goddess' type does not preclude its
identification with one of the major goddesses of the ancient Near Eastern
pantheon. In fact, quite a number of goddesses participate in her nature. In
Canaan and Israel the most likely identification of the `Mother Goddess', and
thus of the pillar figurines, is no doubt Asherah. She is, according to the
Ugaritic texts, mother of the gods and spouse of El, the creator of humanity.
In contrast to Anat, whose associations are more exclusively erotic, she is con-
nected with motherhood. 47 Since Asherah is well attested in Israelite religion,
it is justifiable to admit an identification to which so many indications point.
The reluctance of Pritchard to commit himself to a specific identification
seems unnecessary. 48 The identification of the pillar figurines with Asherah
was made as early as 1967 by Patai in The Hebrew Goddess and has been
supported by a number of scholars since then. 49 The new epigraphic evidence
for the cult of Asherah in ancient Israel, discussed above, further strengthens
this interpretation.

96 ANCIENT GODDESSES Goddesses in Early Israelite Religion 97

Conclusion
The evidence for the early lsraelite cult of goddesses, biblical, epigraphic, and
archaeological, is strong. When this cult is set in the broader framework of
ancient Near Eastern religions, three points deserve to be noted.
Firstly, unlike in other Near Eastern religions, there is virtually no evidence
from Israel for a goddess who stood on an equal footing with Yahweh or any
other male colleagues. Mesopotamian religion has Istar, Gula, and Ereskigal,
and Ugaritic religion knows Astarte and Anat as goddesses that are by no
means inferior to the other gods. None of these was worshipped initially as the
consort of a male deity. They were goddesses in their own right, some of them
(Istar, Anat) combining traits of the alluring young woman and the warrior, to
the point where they unite conventionally female and male characteristics in
their personality. The theme of the `bearded Istar' is a graphic illustration of
Ugaritic texts making intercession with El. Consequently, we can suggest that
she was perceived as the human face of God by her worshippers.
Further reading
M.T. Barrelet, Figurines et Reliefs en Terre Cuite de la Msopotamie Antique, I:
Potiers, Termes de Mtie; Procds de Fabrication et de Production (Geuthner: Paris,
1968) .
J.A. Emerton, New light on Israelite religion: the implications of :the inscriptions from
Kuntillet cAjrud, Zeitschrift fr die alttestamentliche Wissenscheift 94 (1982) 2-20.
T.A. Holland, A study of Palestinian Iron Age baked clay figurines, with special reference
to Jerusalem: Cave I, Levant 9 (1977) 121-55.
O. Keel and C. Uehlinger, Gttinnen, Gotter und Gottessymbole (Herder: Freiburg, Basel,
Wien, 1992).

a goddess mixing genders. 5 Such goddesses are not in need of a divine spouse R. Kletter, The Judaean Pillar Figurines and the Archaeology 0f Asherah (Oxford
to be worshipped. They are such strong personalities, to translate mythology University Press: Oxford, 1996).
into psychological terms, that they are independently worshipped. There does A. Lemaire, Les inscriptions de Khirbet el-Qm et l'Ashrah de YHWH, Revue Biblique
not seem to have been a goddess of a similar stature in Israel. 84 (1977) 595-608.
The second point is intimately related to the first one. The goddesses of J.B. Pritchard, Palestinian Figurines in Relation to Certain Goddesses Known Through
Israel were consorts of Yahweh (or, initially, of El and perhaps Baal). We Literature (American Orienta1 Society: New Haven, 1943).
know Anat from the Ugaritic texts as an impressive and fearsome lady. Her M. Tadmor, Female cult figurines in Late Canaan and Early Israel: archaeologica1
mythological persona is quite capable of handling situations by herself. The evidence, in T. Ishida (ed.), Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and Other
Anat worshipped by the Jews at Elephantine (whose cult we have argued to be Essays (Eisenbrauns: Winona Lake, 1982) 139-73.
a continuation of the cult of the Queen of Heaven) is Anat-Yahu, i.e. Anat of K. van der Toorn, Anat-Yahu, some other deities, and the Jews of Elephantine, Numen
Yahweh. She is defined by her relationship with her divine spouse. The same 39 (1992) 80-101.
holds true for Asherah. She is `the Asherah of Yahweh'. Such, at least, is her K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel (Brill: Leiden, 1996).
official position which reflects dependence on, and submission to, the male
K. van der Toorn (ed.), The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise
God. The name Anat proves to be no guarantee that the goddess has kept the of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Peeters: Leuven, 1997).
characteristics she is described with in the Ugaritic texts. As for Astarte, after
N.H. Walls, The Goddess Anat in Ugaritic Myth (Scholars Press: Atlanta, 1992).
whom the `Astarte plaques' have been named, she does not even occur once in
the inscriptional evidence from Israel.
Thirdly, it is striking that in spite of their subordinate position to their male
consorts, goddesses (more narrowly defined as Asherah and Anat) figure
prominently in the popular devotion, a standing which is reflected in the bibli-
cal references to the family cult of the Queen of Heaven, on the one hand, and
the many `Astarte figurines', on the other. This does not mean that the worship
of goddesses was established only in the popular religion. Asherah had a place
in the official cult as consort of Yahweh. But in the day-to-day devotion of
ordinary people, goddesses seem to have played a role inversely proportional to
their official importance. This is best explained by saying that the cult of the
goddess was - popular, not in spite of, but because of her subordinate position.
Because she was closer to humans than her divine spouse, the goddess could
act as a mediator. She could intercede with Yahweh, as Asherah is described in

5 The Tar-hest
Divine Mothers and Cosmic
9oddesses of (f-gypt Bodies
Fekri A. Hassan
Re-inventing the `Goddess'
Isis, the devoted sister-wife of Osiris, and nurturing, protective mother of
Horus, achieved in late antiquity an unrivalled position as a great mother
goddess of Egypt (Fig. 39). She is frequently mentioned in the Pyramid Texts
dating to the fifth and sixth dynasties (2465-2150 BC). These texts, among the
earliest records of Egyptian religion, indicate that Isis was one of Egypt's
earliest goddesses. Isis was linked in the Heliopolitan creation cosmogony with
a royal ideology that legitimated the rule of the king, as Horus, her child from
Osiris. Regarded as the first god king of Egypt, Osiris was also the brother and
husband of Isis. Both of them, along with their siblings Seth and Nephthys,
were the children of Nut and Geb. Nut was the paramount sky goddess
(Fig. 40) often depicted naked
stretched over the earth god
Geb. The stars and sun travelled
through her body. ln the morn-
ing she gave birth to the sun.
Nut and Geb were the children
of Shu, god of air, and Tefnut,
the goddess of moisture. This
ancestral couple was produced
by the creator god, Atum,l who
emerged from the primordial
water of creation.
The king, supreme lord in
the land, can thus claim a
descent through Isis and Osiris
to a cosmic lineage of gods. 2
Fig. 39. Isis wearing bovine crown
with sun disc and a protective
serpent uraeus at the front. Tomb
of Nefertari (QV 66), Thebes. New
Kingdom, 1290-1224 BC, XIXth
Dynasty.
The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 99
Fig. 40. Nut on the ceiling of
the tomb of Ramesses IX
swaliowing the sun disc, which
then passes through her body
heading for rebirth at dawn.
Many other Late Ramesside
tombs also have the Book of
Earth framed by the double
form of the sky goddess Nut.
Tomb of Ramesses IX (KV 6).
Thebes. New Kingdom, 1131-
1112 BC, XXth Dynasty.
The close connection between
royalty and religion in ancient
Egypt was a key feature of
Egyptian kingship. At the
core of this religion were the
fundamental notions of birth,
death and resurrection. The
goddess, as a mother, was
essential to this schema.
Isis and Nut were promi-
nent goddesses throughout Egyptian history. The popularity of Isis was such
that she assimilated the religious and cultic functions of many other goddess-
es. 3 As Egypt passed from the rule of its native kings to the Ptolemies, Isis
became an official goddess of the new state cult. The idea of Isis as a mother
goddess persisted and infiltrated the Graeco-Roman world, as demonstrated by
R.E. Witt in his book Isis in the Ancient World. 4 Isis was variously named
Demeter, Thesmophorus, Selene, and Hera. Osiris was also identified with
Sarapis and. Dionysus, and Horus with Apollo. Isis was fused also with other
mother goddesses, and as the 'Mother of the Gods' was identified with the pri-
mordial divine mothers of Asia Minor (Cybele) and Artemis/Diana of Crete,
as she indeed was with Ishtar of Assyria and Babylonia. She was the tutelary
deity of Egyptian sailors and merchants which spread her influence to most of
the ports and trading centres of the Mediterranean. In Apuleius'
Metamorphoses (second century AD), she was `the Mother of Nature, the
mistress of all the elements, the first offspring of time, highest of deities,
Queen of the Underworld, foremost among the gods of Heaven, in whose
divine appearance all gods and goddesses are fused.' 5
During medieval times and the Renaissance, the Egyptian mythology in
Greek accounts influenced the Neo-Platonic doctrines and mystical Hermetic
literature involving Hermes (the Egyptian Thoth), who was regarded as the
inventor of writing. In the seventeenth century, Athanasius Kircher, a German
100 ANCIENT GODDESSES The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 101
Jesuit, asserted that Isis was the principal emanation of the Queen of Heaven,
and identified with the moon. 6
In the `original' myth of Isis and Osiris, which might have also been a
reworking of older myths, Isis plays a major role as a loyal wife who resurrects
her murdered husband to conceive from his revived body her son Horus. Osiris
was murdered by his brother, Seth. His body was dismembered and thrown
into the Nile. Isis, together with her sister Nephthys (Seth's wife), gathered the
torn pieces of Osiris and brought them together as the first mummy. Isis nur-
tured and protected her son Horus in the marshes of the Delta before he grew
up to avenge his father's death and claim his rightful position as the king of
Egypt.
Today, the cult of Isis still flourishes in many countries far removed from
Egypt and the Mediterranean world. At Clonegal Castle, Ireland, an Irish
priestess holds court over the Fellowship of Isis, a group with more than 15,000
followers in sixty countries.? The power and far-reaching influence of the Isis
myth today, a revival of the Hermetic literature in New Age cults, cannot be
reduced to a single cause. 8 Nevertheless, the mysticism of lsis is linked to the
power of the female as a deity, strongly denied in the practice of Protestant
Christian religion, and is an effective counter measure to the gender inequali-
ties in modern history. 9 Isis survives, however, not just as a political icon, but
also as the embodiment of the potent emotions of love, loyalty, nurture,
pleasure, joy and passion, as well as loss, suffering, healing, wholeness. 10
Another element of the Isis myth that lingers on from her prototypical
imagery, is her role as a generative force and a procreative power. This image,
as a Great Mother, is empowering and potent. Perhaps some women who are
denied or deny the role of a mother in their struggle for equality with men, are
drawn to the psychologically charged and re-mythologized story of Isis. As
Barthes" remarks, 'woman' or `mother' in the popular mind may be drained
of the historical and emotional significance of the experience of pregnancy,
birth, or nursing. Isis can thus stand both for love and union as well as for
individuality and the idealized power of the `virgin' Mother.
The ascent of the goddesses
Although we can regard individual goddesses or gods as separate individual
entities, or as beings that may merge one into the other, 12 it may also be useful
to perceive deities as embodiments of a set of ideas and metaphors that coa-
lesce in certain instances as iconic tokens for discourse or ritual purposes.
Their distinctions are only as real as the elusive visions of the mind reworking
its own formulations in inventive and creative processes, which may be at times
linked to changing social and political conditions.
The `cross-identification' of Isis, Hathor, Neith, and Nut, four of the most
prominent goddesses of early Egypt, and their representation at times as cows
(among others) cannot be simply a matter of isomorphism (similarity in form).
We must dig deeper to understand the symbolic iconography of the cow. We
also cannot settle for the surface enunciations of the Pyramid Texts, 13 our
main textual source for early goddesses in Ancient Egypt. As Eric Hornung"'
points out in his masterful interpretation of Egyptian religion, we have to
probe deeper to uncover the hidden mental structures that underlie the variety
of gods and goddesses mentioned in these texts, and to disclose the web of
meaning and network of relations that bind them together in a cosmic myth.
We must also seek deeper sources beyond these texts, delving into the dark
recesses of the prehistoric past where, in the absence of written texts, artefacts
and the `decorations' on pots and ceremonial objects are our only clues to the
prehistory of the earliest gods and goddesses.
In embarking on this journey, I suggest that the images of goddesses and
their iconography were deeply embeddedn the early phases of cattle herding
(as far back as 7000 BC) in the Sahara, in the- the desert west of the Nile Valley,
where the concepts of the female as the source of life and nurture were
depicted, as later in Nubia, to contrast with those of the male as a hunter. 15
I also suggest that these ideological notions were linked with the emergence of
tribal chiefdoms that were later transformed in the Nile Valley into village
agrarian chiefdoms (beginning c. 4500 BC). In these political units, goddesses
along with early male (ithyphallic) gods were conjoined with local territorial
deities. The subsequent unification of Egypt into a single nation state (perhaps
as early as 3200 BC) brought about a dramatic change in ideology, legitimating
the role of a national king who incorporated and assimilated earlier deities
within a cosmogonic myth that placed him as the descendant and legitimate
inheritor of the throne. The change signalled a shift in the role of female
deities to a supporting character.
The transition and the transmutation of the role of the goddess from pre-
history to history was not a simple ideological replacement of her role with
that of a male god. As Lana Troy has demonstrated in her classic study of
queenship in ancient Egypt, gods and goddesses were intertwined in a creative
interaction that was both dynamic and trans-sexual. 16 The richness and com-
plexity of this early mythology betrays the turbulence and mental turmoil of
the transition from one cultural stage to another, and the rich intellectual
ingenuity of the early Egyptians.
Kings and goddesses
The emergence of divine kingship in Ancient Egypt marks a historical turn in
Egyptian cosmogony. 17 Divine kingship in ancient Egypt is linked with power-
ful kings (pharaohs) who are a manifestation of Horus a male god often
depicted as a falcon. 18 The first king of the First Dynasty (c. - 2920 BC) was
Horus Aha, linking his name with that of the god as an element of his title.
102 ANCIENT GODDESSES The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 103
Other titles related the king to the `Two Ladies', the goddesses of Lower and
Upper Egypt.
The development of the Osirian myth places Osiris, presumably a deifica-
tion of a ruler from the Delta, as an ancestral king who, upon his death,
becomes the king of the dead. His son Horus (represented by a falcon) inher-
its the throne and is the living king. Horus is also regarded in one account as
the son of Re and Hathor. Horus was perhaps already known from Predynastic
contexts, as on the Two Gazelles' Palette dated to the late Predynastic.
According to Henri Frankfort in his pioneering work on Egyptian kingship,
the protohistoric king identified as Scorpion and all the kings of the First
Dynasty identified themselves with Horus. Later, these kings of the distant
past were referred to as the Followers of Horus. 19
One of the earliest manifestations of a goddess in Early Dynastic times is
the representation of a human face with cow ears on Narmer's Palette (Fig. 41).
Each side of the palette has two faces at the top flanking a serekh with the
name of the King. The serekh represents the faade of a temple or palace used
in association of the name of the king. The faces are often presumed to repre-
sent the goddess Bat or Hathor. 20 There is no reason to doubt that the faces
belong to a cow goddess with a human
face, which is a common representation
of Hathor in later times 21 (Fig. 42).
Hathor was one of the three
goddesses closely associated with
kingship in early Egypt. 22 She was
worshipped in many places, and
might have been originally associa-
ted with Naqada, a Predynastic site
between Luxor and Qena on the west
bank of the Nile, close to where she
was later worshipped at Dendera.
Hathor was a goddess of love, joy,
and fertility. Golden mirrors, some-
times explicitly depicting her cow-eared
face, were offered to her. The mirrors
were symbolically associated with the
sun. Hathor was regarded as the wife or
consort of the sun god Re. She was also
Fig. 41. A depiction of the cow goddess, Bat or
Hathor, on the Narmer Palette. Faces of the
goddess are depicted in each of the top corners.
Cairo Museum. Early Dynastic Period, c. 3000 BC,
First Dynasty.
Fig. 42. Hathor
capita1 with
human face and
cow ears in the
temple of Hathor
built by Ramesses
IL Memphis. New
Kingdom, 1290-
1224 BC, XIXth
Dynasty.
regarded as his daughter. Hathor was the 'Golden One'; in this respect, Hathor
was related both to Re who was sometimes referred to as the `Mountain of
Gold' and to Horus: one of the titles of the king as Horus was that of the
'Golden Horus', which was denoted by a representation of a falcon on the
hieroglyph of `gold'. The title dates to the Third Dynasty (2650-2575 BC) with
forerunners in the First and Second Dynasties. 23 lsis, who later assumed many
of Hathor's attributes, was also associated with gold. Her name was often placed
upon the hieroglyph for gold at the foot or head of New Kingdom sarcophagi.
In addition to Hathor's bovine aspect, she was also identified with the
sycamore fig tree, an identification she shared with lsis and Nut (Fig. 43).
However, it was Hathor who was the `Lady of the Sycamore', and who was often
represented offering food and water to the deceased from a sycamore tree. 24
Burial in a wood coffin was viewed as a return to the womb of the mother
tree goddess. Sycamore fig trees were also often planted near cemeteries.
Perhaps because of this connection with a tree, Hathor is linked with the
colour green and turquoise2 5 (also the colour of Osiris, the, Eye of Horus con-
nected with healing, and Wadjet the protective serpent goddess of the Delta).
Hathor's royal connection is clear. In the Fourth Dynasty (2575-2465 BC) King
Mycerinus (Menkaure) was depicted with Hathor and a personification of the
seventh nome of Upper Egypt. From the First Dynasty, the titulary goddesses
were Nekhbet of El-Kab, Upper Egypt, and Wadjet of Buto in the north-western
part of the Delta. Hierakonpolis, opposite El-Kab, was one of the early
Predynastic political centres, and Buto was also an early religious site in the
Delta. Both goddesses were protectors of the king. Nekhbet was depicted as a
vulture, and she may have been the protecting bird hovering over Narmer on
his sealing and macehead (Fig. 44).2 6 lvory tags from the reign of King Aha
depict the protective green serpent goddess.

104 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Fig. 43. The tree goddess on a pillar
in the buria1 chamber of Tuthmose
III (KV 34), Thebes. Isis extends her
breast to Tuthmose III to suckle
from. The inscription reads
`Menkhepherre (Tuthmose's
coronation name) suckles from his
mother Isis.' New Kingdom, 1479-
1425 BC, XVIIIth Dynasty.
One of the early goddesses
from a site near Buto, was Neith
of Sais. Both sites- were closely
associated in the mortuary tradi-
tions of the Old Kingdom. The
funeral barge of the deceased
king visited both Sais and Buto.
The site of Sais was denoted by
the shrine of the goddess Neith
fronted by two flagpoles with
triangular pennants. Buto was
represented by a row of vaulted
27
shrines interspersed with palm trees. Neith was a goddess of many attri-
butes. She was often associated with warfare and represented by bows and
arrows. She was also identified with the waters of creation and occasionally
cross-identified with Nut. On Narmer's Macehead (Fig. 44), where Nekhbet
appears to hover over the king, the representation of a cow and a calf may be
a representation of Neith of Sais within an enclosure overlying the figure of a
woman or a goddess. -
Cattle keepers and cow cults
The prevalence of the imagery of cows in association with goddesses Nut,
Hathor, Isis and Neith, among others suggests that the symbolism of the cow
is a fundamental religious icon. Recent archaeological investigations in the
Egyptian Sahara at Nabta Playa and Bir Kisseiba, 28 south-west of Aswan,
reveal that cattle were domesticated there before they were introduced into the
Nile Valley. The domestication of cattle dates back to as early as 7000 BC.
However, cattle were apparently venerated even before that time. As early as
10,000 BC horn cores of cows were placed on burials in Tushka in Nubia, sug-
gesting that cattle were associated with mortuary religious beliefs and rituals.
By 6000 BC, elaborate burials of cows and bulls in the Egyptian Sahara at
Nabta Playa 29 suggest that bovids were an integral element of religious
The Earliest Goddesses 0f Egypt 105
Fig. 44. The Narmer Macehead showing the `king' in a shrine involved in some form of
ceremony. Found at Hierakonpolis. Terminal Predynastic to First Dynasty c. 3000 BC.
sentiments and beliefs. In association with the burials were megaliths arranged
in such a way as to suggest attention to astronomical events.
As I have suggested in my article 'Primeval goddess to divine king', it is very
likely that the concept of a cow-goddess in Dynastic Egypt is a continuation of
a much older tradition of a primordial cow goddess or goddesses that emerged
in the context of Neolithic cattle-herding in the Egyptian Sahara. 30 It is also
likely that, in response to frequent droughts, the earliest `domestication' of
cattle in the south-eastern corner of the western desert of Egypt consisted of
keeping calves around the homestead or in the company of women.
The desert communities, well before the rise of Egyptian civilization,
depended on hunting gazelle and hare. They lived around the edges of tran-
sient desert lakes that expanded and shrank depending on the variable amount
of rain. As droughts took their toll on cattle and people, the Egyptians of the
Sahara began to keep calves in their homesteads, providing them with protection
and water. Cattle cannot survive without drinking regularly. As water vanished
from the desert lakes when the droughts hit, the early Egyptian cattle keepers
dug wells deep into the silt of the lake bottom down to the water table in order
to -supply cattle with the source of life: water. As males ventured beyond the
homestead searching for wild animal game, women protected cows, providing
them with food and drink.
Both cow and woman gave milk. Both were the source of generation and life.
Droughts not only enfeebled cattle and people, but also wrought starvation and
death. In the desert, the birthplace of Egyptian theology, life and death are
paramount. Water, cattle, milk, and women were the source of regeneration
and nourishment. Without water or milk there was nothing but sickness and
death. These mental associations were of deep psychological significance.
Together they laid the foundation of the fundamental notions of Egyptian
religion: birth, death, and resurrection. -
106 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Wet-nurses and heavenly bodies
The association between women and cows is often depicted in the role of the
cow as a mother nursing a calf, a pictorial representation common in both
Predynastic and Dynastic art (Fig. 45). In addition to scenes of cows nursing
calves in Predynastic art, there are also figurines and scenes depicting female
figures with arms raised in a fashion resembling the horns of a cow (Fig. 46).
Narmer's palette, as just mentioned, shows a personage with cow ears at the
top. An ivory engraving of a recumbent cow from the reign of King Zer (First
Dynasty, c. 3000 BC) bears the words, 'Hathor in the marshes of King Zer's city,
of Dep', i.e. Buto. 31 Hathor also appears in the tombs of Djer and Merpabia of
the First Dynasty. 32 Unless textually identified, the identification of Hathor
may be uncertain since other goddesses such as Bat, Mehetweret, and Ihet were
similarly represented. 33
Hathor was also a celestial or a cosmic cow. She was closely linked to the
sky. 34 This may have been related to her role in nourishing the souls of the
deceased in Heaven. The `souls', likened to birds, belong to the sky. This would
explain why the figurines with raised arms (cow horns) also display bird faces
dominated by a beak.
The role of Isis and Hathor remained prominent throughout Egyptian his-
tory. During the Sed Festival, an occasion for the renewal of kingly potency,
the initial proceedings were presided over by the cow-goddess Sekhat-Hor, who
suckled the god-king. The festival was also an occasion to reaffirm the divine
descent of the king and thus confirm his right to the throne.
The legacy of the Goddess
The emergence of kingship in Egypt followed severe droughts from 6000 to
5000 BC that finally forced cattle keepers to settle along the banks of the Nile,
to adopt the Asiatic wheat and barley and to begin a new course of life as
farmers. However, the deep religious beliefs developed in the Sahara were not
forgotten. They became a field of mythological thought and rituals that com-
bined cattle imagery with the regenerative power of Nile water and vegetation.
It is perhaps in the light of this desert inheritance and the powerful hold of
Fig. 45. Cow
and calf rock
drawing from
Nag Kolordona
in Upper
Egypt.
Predynastic,
Naqada II,
3650-3300 BC.
The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 107
Fig. 46. Predynastic terracotta female figurine
with bird-like head, long -neck, narrow waist,
large hips and a peg-like form instead of legs,
although a groove indicates the legs' separation.
Found at El Ma'mariya by Henri de Morgan in
1906-7. Naqada II, 3650-3300 BC. x. to top of
hands 29.3 cm.
-
figurative images of gods and goddesses, that
we can understand why the Egyptians did not
conceive the Nile as a god of the same status
as Isis, Hathor, Osiris, Re, or Amun. Even when
the inundation is deified as 'Hapi' it is often
portrayed as a man with pendulous breasts
signifying the female principle of regeneration
and sustenance.
Every year, the Egyptians watched the coming
of the summer floods and, a few months later, life
emerged on the prominent embankments (leves)
and hillocks of the floodplain as the floodwater
receded. This furnished the Egyptians with an
image of creation. In the beginning water-- limitless,
lightless water was everywhere. This primeval water
was personified as Nun, `the Father of Gods'. The
references in the Coffin texts of the Middle Kingdom
(2040-1640 BC) describe this primeval condition as
four pairs of male and female deities. Nun, as a male
deity, contained male and female complementary
identities necessary for the generative/creative act. 35
In the Heliopolitan creation myth, the god Atum appears spontaneously in
the waters of Nun. He is represented as an anthropomorphic male, who grasps
his phallus in his hand recalling the image of Min of Coptos (Fig. 47) and
masturbates. He swallows his own semen and spits it out as the gods Shu and
Tefnut. Manifestly male, Atum embodies the female principle. His hand is
symbolically his female consort. 36 By swallowing his semen he also develops
the uterine function of the mother.
Connections between creation, rebirth and death, on one hand, and the
seasonality of Nile floods and the agricultural cycle, on the other, are homol-
ogous. Flood water gives birth (to life). Subsequently, the water recedes leaving
the land thirsty and `dead' until the return of the fertilizing water of the flood.
The Egyptians negated death by denying it. Physical death was only
a re-birth. Women, - who give physical birth, were also symbolically the mothers
who brought the deceased back to life. The tomb was a maternal womb. Buried
in a contracted fetal position, interred in a an oval pit with food and water
 The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 109
108 ANCIENT GODDESSES

(feminine substances), the deceased in the early Predynastic cemeteries were lethal scorpion ready to strike on her head, watches over the king as he sits on
positioned for rebirth. the throne. 38
In the Nile Valley, the terminal Predynastic (3500 BC) witnessed the emer- Goddesses were an integral element of royal cosmogony. They gave birth to
gence of regional states. The kingdoms developed local deities, personified in kings, nursed and protected them, defended them against their mortal enemies
some districts by animals such as the falcon, ibis, or jackal/dog. Some of the in the underworld, and ensured the integrity of their bodies and their health.
states were ruled by warrior kings. The success, power, and reputation of the In addition to the prominent goddesses mentioned above, others share in these
Horus-cult apparently led to the adoption of the falcon in several districts, basic functions. The king and the sun-god Re sailed on the heavenly waterway
both in the Delta and southern (Upper) Egypt. The earliest kings of a unified that is Mehet-Weret, the Great Flood. Nephthys, though primarily a funerary
Egypt identified themselves with the God Horus. We know virtually nothing goddess, suckles the king who is her menstrual blood. Shesmetet, a lioness
about the ideology of early kingship in goddess, gave birth to the king. Meskhenet, figuratively represented by the
Egypt before the written texts that bricks upon which Egyptian women squatted to give birth, was also marked by
provide a sophisticated and elaborate a sign for the bicornuate uterus of a heifer. She assisted in the birth of the
narrative of divine kingship. In this kings of the Fifth Dynasty and assured each infant of kingship. Another
narrative, Isis figures prominently. goddess of birth is Heket, a frog goddess, who also enables the king to ascend
The association between goddesses into the sky. Ipy, later Tawert, a hippopotamus goddess who protected women
and royalty is cardinal to the notion of in labour, is addressed by the king in the Pyramid Texts as his mother, to
Egyptian kingship. Females have a power suckle him with her divine milk. Hesat is also a milk goddess who gave birth to
that stems from their generative and the king as a golden calf in her form as a cow. In addition one of the key cere-
regenerative functions. 37 The role is monies, `The Opening of the Mouth', by which the deceased was revived, was
physically manifest in pregnancy and a ritual of rebirth. 39 The knife used in the ceremony, the pss-kf, as well as the
nursing. Male deities, such as Atum, incantations involved in that ceremony, mimic the cutting of the umbilical
operated within the context of the cord of a new-born baby.
female principle. Creation was an act Mut, whose name is from the same root as the Egyptian word for mother
that required the agency of the female. was, like Isis and Hathor, the mother of the king. Her headdress was a vulture
Amaunet, the Hidden One, comple- recalling the goddess Nekhbet. But she was also identified with leonine attrib-
mented Amun (equally the Hidden utes, thus becoming later a counterpart of the lioness goddess Sekhmet and a
One). Both, together with three other complement to the cat goddess Bastet. The lioness goddess Sekhmet and the
couples, personified the primordial vulture goddess Wadjet were joined by Mafdet, a panther goddess, whose claws
dark, infinite, inert water of creation; were the barbs of the king's harpoon, and who in the underworld decapitated
Naunet and Nun (inertness), Kauket the king's enemies. Wadjet (as the king's uraeus) was also joined by
and Kuk (darkness), Hauhet and Huh Renenutet, 40 a cobra goddess, in protecting the king. Spewing fiery flames
(endlessness). Satet was associated with from her mouth she destroyed the enemies of the king; her gaze transfixed- his
the fertilizing water of the annual flood. opponents. Satet, goddess of Nubia, fatally shot the enemies of the king by her
Nebethetepet was the hand of Atum by piercing arrows. Goddesses were thus conceived perhaps as protective mothers.
which he masturbated to bring forth the In death, Isis, Nephthys, and Serket played a key role. Nephthys, as a funer-
first gods. Osiris in his function as an ary goddess, accompanies Isis in protecting the king and escorting him into the
agricultural deity was joined by underworld. As a kite she hovers over the funerary bed of Osiris and joins
Renenutet who nurtured the crops and other tutelary goddesses in guarding the mummified organs of the king.
ensured good harvests. Serket, with a Serket, `Lady of the Beautiful House' signifying the embalmer's kiosk, is also
one of the tutelary goddesses who guard the canopic jars containing the king's
mummified organs.
Fig. 47. A colossus of the ithyphallic god Min,
One of the main domestic functions of women in ancient Egypt was weav-
sadly lacking his phallus. From Koptos. First
Dynasty, c. 3000 BC. ing. Linen was extensively used in huge quantities for wrapping mummies.

ANCIENT GODDESSES

The Earliest Goddesses of Egypt 111
110

Tayet, a goddess of weaving, provided the required linen bandages. Renenutet

is also entrusted with furnishing mummy linen bandages.
The goddesses transcended their maternal and regenerative functions as
manifestations and icons of protection, knowledge, justice, and order. Seshat,
'Foremost-in-the-Library' and goddess of writing, recorded the booty of cattle,
sheep, goats, and donkeys from foreign lands, and assisted, in the case of King
Khasekemwy of the Second Dynasty (2770-2645 BC), in the ceremony of
`stretching the cord', an important temple ritual. As a goddess of writing, her
headdress holds a stem with a seven-pointed sta r or rosette (Seflchet-Abwy is a '

later goddess of writing). The star, Sirius (Sothis) is personified as Sopdet.

Since the star signals the annual summer flood appearing bright in the sky at
dawn in the month of July, Sopdet represented with a star on her head-crown
is the `Bringer of the New Year and the Nile Flood.' Sopdet, like Sah, the
constellation of Orion, is thus linked with the agricultural prosperity produced
by the flood. The link between Orion and the 'cow-
goddess' is clearly indicated by the palette
of Gerzeh (Fig. 48). An astral cult
might have thus existed since
Predynastic times. In the Pyramid
texts the king unites with his sister Fig. 49. Maat the goddess of truth and justice in her winged form, wearing her symbolic
feather headdress. Tomb of Nefertari (QV66), Thebes. New Kingdom, 1290-1224 BC,
Sopdet who gives birth to the
XIXth Dynasty.
Morning star.
Righteousness, justice, and
order are the attributes of Maat of hope in a life after death grounded in the metaphors of birth and the vital
(Fig. 49), who symbolizes the eter- forces of water and milk. They are also guardians of life. Their identities as
nal virtues of the good society. 41 conveyed to us in the Pyramid Texts, manifestly a royal discourse, are closely
She is, in essence, the 'constitu- linked with kingship. The goddess gives birth, nurses, and protects the king.
tional' principles by which monar- She ensures his well-being in the afterlife, makes certain that he claims his
chy is legitimated as a social rightful position, and assists him in ascending to the sky to join Re, the sun-
practice of a deep, fundamental, god. Egyptian religion was not exclusively uterine. Gods and goddesses
and essential cosmic order. On her complemented each other. However, the role of the female goddess, and the
headdress is the upright feather of presence of a female aspect to male deities, cannot be ignored. There was no
an ostrich. Ostriches, represented evidence of Bachofen's once celebrated Mutterrecht (the notion that women
together with cows on Predynastic were rulers before men became kings by the right of their function as mothers)
pottery, were overshadowed by bovine in early Egypt. Egypt was ruled primarily by male kings, even with a prominent
iconography in later Egyptian depic- role of the mother queen and the mother goddess. There is also no evidence for
tions of deities. The lightness of the a matriarchy (with mothers as the head of the family or tribe) or matrilineali-
feather, its movement with the breeze, ty (descent reckoned in the female line). Nevertheless, the status of women in
Fig. 48. Obverse of the Gerzean or Predynastic societies was equal to that of men, as an investigation of funerary
the breath of life, is perhaps captured
Hathor Palette with cow's head and stars
by the feather of Maat, who was also goods by Shelly Smith has revealed. 42 Their symbolic domains were different,
on it, found at Gerzeh; the reverse shows
the 'Lady of the West'. but the size and wealth of tombs were comparable. Men and women were com-
traces of malachite, which was mixed with
Early Egyptian goddesses are icons water or oil and used to spread over the plementary opposites. The milk of the goddess was the semen of the god, the
of metaphysical beliefs and a theology eyes as make-up. 3600 t 3300 BC. menstrual blood of Nephtys was Horus, the hand of Atum was feminine, the
112 ANCIENT GODDESSES
birth-giving attributes of the goddess were matched by the erect phallus of
Min and Ptah. Sexuality, as far as we know within the religious context, was not
fornication but fructification. Nevertheless, sexuality as in the contending of
Seth and Horus was also entangled with power and rivalry, as Horus struggled
to avenge his father and reclaim the throne of Egypt.
The legacy of goddesses has survived the collapse of Egyptian civilization,
and the social transformations that have institutionalized and codified gender
inequalities in law and religion. The return of the `Goddess' at a time when
women are claiming equal opportunities underscores the potency of this icon.
Although such revivalist movements can be dismissed because of exaggera-
tions, falsifications, and fabrications, one cannot dismiss the psychological
urgency and need for a `mothering' icon. The laments of Isis over the violent
death of Osiris and the torments of evil and injustice were in essence an out-
cry against the discontent of civilization: power leading to rivalry and violence,
competition, conflict and potentially chaos. Isis reasserts love and continuity.
She aids in the birth of right and justice, and nurtures hope in the marshes of
the Delta until Horus grows up to vanquish Seth and his followers and reasserts
rule by the righteousness of Maat.
Further reading
R.E. Witt, Isis in the Ancient World (Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore, 1997).
F.A. Hassan, Primeva1 goddess to divine king: the mythogenesis of power in the early
Egyptian state, in R. Friedman and B. Adams (eds), The Followers of Horus: Studies
Dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman (Oxbow Books: Oxford, 1992) 307-21.
E. Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many (Cornell
University Press: Ithaca, 1982).
B.E. Shafer (ed.), Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice
(Cornell University Press: Ithaca, 1991).
L. Troy, Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian Myth and History. Boreas 14 (Acta
Universitatis Upsaliensis: Uppsala, 1986).
R.H. Wilkinson, Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art (Thames, and Hudson: London,
1994).
6 Beyond the
r
'9reat Mother' The sacred world of the Minoans
Lucy Goodison and Christine Morris
hen Sir Arthur Evans suggested that 'a Minoan priest-king may have sat
W upon the throne at Knossos, the adopted Son on earth of the Great
Mother of its island mysteries', he put the spotlight on Crete, and by extension
prehistoric Greece, as a prime site for Goddess worship.'
Evans' excavations earlier this century at Knossos, the largest of the Bronze
Age Cretan palaces, brought to light evidence of a brilliant civilization. He also
created the words for describing it, from the term `Minoan' and the dating sys-
tem dividing the Bronze Age (c. 3000-1050 BC) into 'Early', 'Middle' and 'Late'
Minoan, through to the view of its religion as centred on a Great Goddess
attended by a dying and rising god who symbolized the agricultural cycle.
Evans cited the work of Sir James Frazer, 2 which argued that this was a uni-
versal theme in ancient religion. Bronze Age scholars since then have either
developed Evans' ideas or reacted to them. Axel Persson, for example, wrote of
a Great Minoan Nature Goddess linked with cults of tree and stone, and found
in Minoan art scenes suggesting magical seasonal rituals. Jacquetta Hawkes'
popularizing work Dawn of the Gods affirmed that `in the lands and islands of
the Aegean the goddess and her worship were introduced with the earliest
farming.' More recently, Peter Warren has been a strong voice for the impor-
tance of female divinity. 3
Another strand of scholarship has long argued that the Minoans like their
Near Eastern and Egyptian neighbours were polytheistic, worshipping a
number of gods and goddesses. The Swedish scholar Martin Nilsson in his
major study, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, argued that there were sever-
al distinct goddesses, as well as significant male gods. This view is currently
favoured by several archaeologists who reject the idea of a `Goddess' and argue
for developed polytheism as found in later Classical Greece. 4
The evidence about life in prehistoric Crete is prolific: ruins, pottery, fig-
urines, tools, engraved seals. But there aie no translatable words until the latter
part of the Bronze Age. Without words, we must rely here on objects and pictures.
Beginnings
For many people the search for the roots of Cretan religion, long before the
palaces, starts in the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion'. Plucked from their
archaeological context and corralled into glass cases, here lurk some little
114 ANClENT GODDESSES Beyond the `Great Mother' 115
anthropomorphic figurines made by the earliest, Neolithic inhabitants (c.
7000-3000 BC). These people colonized the island bringing a way of life char-
acterized by agriculture, animal husbandry, and permanent settlement; they
also made tools and fired pottery. Neolithic figurines from Crete and Greece,
made mostly from clay, stone or marble, take very different shapes. Some are
stylized, some naturalistic. Some are clothed, some naked. Some are fat, some
thin. Evans linked such `Mother idols' from Neolithic Crete back to
Palaeolithic times. 5 But what is there, really, to suggest or prove divinity for
these figurines? How might one recognize a prehistoric Goddess?
Certain criteria come to mind. She might be big; if she is a `Mother
Goddess', she might be expected to have a child. If she is `the Goddess', there
will be one of her. She might have been found in a location suitable for ritual.
Better still would be evidence from a picture showing her being worshipped.
Studying the mute objects, what do we find? Certainly no mother with child.
That image does not appear until the Late Bronze Age, and even then rarely.
Many of the figurines are extraordinarily beautiful and look to our eyes cele-
bratory of the female. But although female figurines predominate, they are
mixed with male, unsexed and animal figurines; and there is no evidence to
suggest that we should single out the female figurines as divine. Nor is there
any pictorial art to show these figures at the centre of a religious scene, or
being worshipped. Nor do the find contexts necessarily imply divinity.
Take, for example, the figurines from the deepest strata at Knossos, from
the remains of the communities who lived on the low hill long before the
palace was built. Neolithic Knossos, as excavated by Arthur Evans and more
recently John Evans, yielded the usual mix of gendered, ungendered and
animals figurines (Fig. 50 a-c). No figurine dug by John Evans was found in
position in a house; they were mostly from habitation debris, and only one was
Fig. 50 a-c) Neolithic terracotta female, male and unsexed figurines from Knossos.
The male seated figure (c) was originally ithyphallic. a) H. 9.2 cm; b) (Left) H. 4.25 cm,
(Right) H. 6.25 cm; c) H. 5.2 cm. d) (Opposite) Neolithic terracotta female figurine.
From Kato Chorio, Ierapetra. H. 14.7 cm. All in Heraklion Museum.
from a possible religious context. As for the emphasis on sexuality and fertility,
although some of the Knossos figurines (e.g. Fig. 50b, left) resemble the
steatopygous (fat-hipped) forms found in Crete (Fig. 50d) and elsewhere in
Greece, they are not all curvaceous. Saul Weinberg has observed that the
steatopygous type is a rarity among Neolithic Greek figurines. Peter Ucko, one
. of the first critics of the `Goddess' theory, pointed out that anthropomorphic
figurines were altogether a rare feature of early mainland Greek sites; indeed,
from a sample he took of 300 figurines, only twenty-five were from houses and
only three from a special context. 6 - -
In his influential volume on prehistoric anthropomorphic figurines, Ucko
discussed other possible uses for them, such as personal charms, dolls, spirit
figures, initiation objects, twin figures, concubines or vehicles for sympathetic
magic. The variety of forms might reflect a variety of functions, : possibly
changing over time. While some might have been seen as divine, we are far
from a static unitarian picture of a `Goddess'. The evidence about life in these
early communities is too sparse to give further clues about the meanings the
figurines may have had for the people who used them. The predominance of
female forms is striking, but perhaps to keep asking `Do they represent the
Goddess?' blocks out other questions which might lead to new and surprizing
ideas about the role and significance of women in Neolithic Greek society.
A view from the tombs
C
The succeeding Early Minoan (c. 3000-2000 BC) and Middle Minoan (c. 2000-
1600 BC) periods offer more evidence to see figurines in context. First, the find
spot: nothing like our picture of a church or temple existed; religious activities
seem to have taken place inside settlements, at tombs, and at mountain peak
sanctuaries.? From this period on the Greek mainland there are hardly any
figurines, but on Crete and the Cycladic islands there are many
candidates for the image of a Goddess.
Take the tiny female figurine (Fig. 51a) found at the ceme-
tery of Koumasa beside the Mesara plain in south Crete. The
stylized shapes now made familiar by modern art; the folded
arms; the tapering legs; the schematic pubic triangle; the flat
head and enigmatic tilted face, suggesting sleep or some
beatific state; all tfiese features are characteristic of the
well-known figurines made during the Early Bronze Age
in the nearby Cyclades (Fig. 5lb). Fig. 51a seems to be
a locally-produced Cretan version of that type. The
holes at the neck show that the figurine was broken
and mended before being placed in the tomb. To the
Greek excavator S tephanos Xanthoudides, this
d repair proved `the importance attached to these

116 ANCIENT GODDESSES Beyond the `Great Mother' 117

Fig. 51 a) Marble "- suggested that they were used horizontally, perhaps in a tray. Again, the occa-
Cycladic-type figurine sional breakages in Crete have sometimes been interpreted as reflecting
from Koumasa cemetery.
deliberate breakage during funeral ritual. Some are a double entity (Fig. 5lc).
Heraklion Museum.
None of this fits a `Goddess'. Scholars debate whether these Cycladic figurines
H. 15.5 cm.
might represent votaries, priestesses, or perhaps a being more closely connected
b) Marble Cycladic to the deceased, like a guardian angel, spirit companion or representative. In
figurine. Early Cycladic
Crete the Cycladic type is only one among many forms whose significance
II (c. 2500 Bc). British
remains a mystery. 9
Museum. H. 50 cm.
What can we learn from the other objects found near Fig. 5la at the
c) Paired steatite Koumasa cemetery? The site had three circular 'tholos' tombs, and one rec-
figurines of Cycladic
tangular tomb (Fig. 52a). The 'tholos' tombs of the Mesara were used over
type, `from Tekke', Crete.
Early Minoan III-Middle
many generations, mostly from the Early to Middle Bronze Age. They were
Minoan IA (c. 2300-1900 collective graves; each perhaps served one clan or extended family unit living
BC). Heraklion Museum. in a nearby settlement and farming the land. 10 The Koumasa tombs contained
a mixture of practical and ritual objects: 'tweezers', tools, small double axes,
d) Double bell-shaped
figurines (`sheep-bells') stone and ivory seals bearing intriguing designs, stone `amulets' in the shapes
from Tylissos, Crete. of body parts, clay vases, stone offering vessels, jewellery and copper daggers,
MMIA (c. 2100-1900 BC). all mixed in with the jumbled bones of the dead. As well as Cycladic-type
Heraklion Museum. figurines one of them apparently pregnant Koumasa yielded female
figurines with a bell-shaped skirt, some figurines without clear sex, vessels in
the shape of the female body, and vessels in the shapes of birds and animals
some with a touch of humour. A bull with two humans clinging to his horns is
the earliest evidence suggesting bull-games (Fig. 52 b-d)."
Peter Warren has drawn special attention to the female-shaped vessels (Fig.
52b). Linking them to similar objects from other sites, especially to a vessel
from a platform in a domestic shrine at Fournou Korifi, he argues that such
objects variously represent the `Household Goddess' and `Mistress of Animals
and Nature or Fertility Goddess', terms applied to later Minoan deities. This
would, however, again make a special case for the female vessels while leaving
out other comparable non-female material such as the animal vessels which
could equally be taken as divine. The small platform at -Fournou Korifi does
d
not seem strong enough grounds for interpreting this class of objects as god-
desses, although their jugs or pierced breasts do seem significant, suggesting
the importance of liquids and rituals of pouring. 12 Overall the finds from
sacred objects, and suggests they were used over and over again'. 8 But is she a Koumasa point towards a variety of religious concerns and ritual acts, but none
Goddess? of them indicate an overriding concern with a female deity.
To answer this question we need to look at how such figurines were used. In Perhaps the most important Mesara material is not the artefacts but the bones.
the Cyclades their treatment does not seem appropriate for a deity. In graves, There is evidence that they were touched, cut, shifted around and some bones
they are often placed underneath things. Sometimes there are two in a grave, removed, suggesting a ritual interest in them, perhaps some kind of ancestor
sometimes fourteen, sometimes none: there seems to be a great diversity in cult. 13 And at Koumasa, the low ruins of all three circular tombs still standing on
practice and belief. A very few look pregnant but none carries an infant, so the hillside seem to have a story of their own to tell. Archaeologists commented
mothering is not prominent. They are displayed upright in museums, but the long ago on the remarkable fact that the doorways of the Mesara tombs almost
downward pointing feet would not equip them to stand; some scholars have all face to the east, indicating a possible link with the sunrise. 14 Lucy Goodison

118
Fig. 52 a) Plan of Koumasa cemetery.
b) Terracotta female vessel-figurine with snake from Koumasa.
Minoan II (c. 2900-2300 BC). Heraklion Museum.
e) Steatite female figurine with bell-shaped skirt from Koumasa. H. 5.3 cm. Heraklion
Museum.
d) Terracotta vessels in the shape of a bird and a bull from Koumasa. HTs. 12 cm (bird),
15 cm (bull). Heraklion Museum.
e) (Opposite) Sunrise through doorway of Koumasa Tomb A.
Beyond the `Great Mother' 119
ANClENT GODDESSES
has suggested elsewhere that in this they are part of a large body of evidence
indicating that early Cretan religion may have included a cult of the sun, appar-
ently practised by women. This evidence had traditionally been overlooked,
perhaps because it jarred with preconceptions about the origins - of Aegean
religion, and conventional ideas about male-sun, female-moon symbolism.l 5
A visitor who takes the trouble to arrive at Koumasa in the very early morn-
ing can witness what the tombs' orientation means in practice. All three tombs
face east, but their different positions in relation to the steep mountain
H. 14.45 cm. Early slope mean that they catch the rising sun at different times of year. Sitting
inside on the right day at dawn reveals the living experience made possible by
the architecture of the dead. A long cold wait under a slowly lightening sky is
eventually rewarded: at that time of year, and only then, the tomb mouth can
catch the first rays of the rising sun spilling through the centre of the narrow
doorway onto the bones of the ancestors (Fig. 52e). The construction of the
tomb was apparently geared towards and the needs of community and ances-
tors were perhaps believed to be served by not the worship of a personified
deity, but alignment to the cycles of the natural world. The twentieth century's
preoccupation with human and emotional affairs may have overfed the search
for anthropomorphic divinity. 16 Even the idea of `Nature' as a unified force is,
as Raymond Williams has pointed out, an abstraction which is a cultural con-
struct We may have been missing evidence of a very different experience and
very different concerns, ones to do with bones and heat, life and the dead, ani-
mals and plants, the weather and the passing of time. It is hard now to re-enter
the physical experience of people living so long ago, but that is one starting
point for understanding what might have been their spiritual concerns.

120 ANCIENT GODDESSES Beyond the `Great Mother' 121

A glimpse at society and religion

Is there evidence from the wider social context to fill out the picture? The well-
excavated site of Fournou Korifi in south Crete reveals an Early Minoan
community growing barley, wheat and grapevines, and cultivating olive trees.
They kept livestock, made pots, spun and wove. Imported materials bronze
for metalwork and obsidian for tools show contacts with the outside' world.
Farther from the Mesara the evidence varies, but Fournou Korifi is considered
a collective settlement or a grouping of nuclear families, without conclusive
signs of social hierarchy. 18
John Bintliff has charted how in archaeologists' views of this period the
`romantic and idealistic vision of an innocent, strifeless, fair society' was
supplanted by research into 'the origins of inequality, the rise of elites and
modes of coercion, the "punch behind the priest" and so on'. 19 Although Marx
himself did not think it applicable to pre-capitalist societies, Marxism has pro-
vided a vocabulary to explore issues of class, power and exploitation, and some
have argued by analogy with other societies that the minority of precious or
imported objects in the Mesara tombs must have been acquired by an elite. 2 o
Clear internal evidence from the tombs is, however, lacking, especially since in
secondary burial bones and objects were all mixed together. If ownership of
Fig. 53 a - f) Early and Middle Minoan sealstones and clay sea1 impressions:
special objects was important and exclusive in life, it certainly was not seen as
such in death, and the very fact of collective burial might be taken to suggest a) Steatite bead sea1 with design described by Evans as 'long-robed women ... adoring a
rayed solar symbol'. Ashmolean Museum. -
social values and organization different from contemporary Western culture. 21
b) Steatite bead seal with seated figure touching goat's head. Ashmolean Museum.
The broader evidence for religious activity during Early and Middle Minoan
c) Clay sea1 impression showing bird-headed figures with foliage. From Phaistos.
confirms the picture given by the tomb contents, of interests more diverse Heraklion Museum.
than the focus on a monotheistic, anthropomorphic deity. Keith Branigan sug- d) Steatite sea1 with jumping figure.
gests that the paved areas in front of the tombs (Fig. 52a) may have provided a e) Steatite bead sea1 showing bird-headed figure with branch. British Museum.
public place for ritual. 22 Who or what might have been contacted or supplicated f) Three-sided steatite sea1 with figure dancing over animal head. Heraklion Museum.
or celebrated from these pavements, with what actions or words, remains g) Skull found in clay vessel at cemetery of Archanes, Crete.
hidden from us. But when we do start to find pictures on engraved sealstones
which look like ritual in progress, the object of reverence is not a personified In the first palace at Phaistos, two clay objects were unearthed which carry
divinity. Nor is there clear evidence of hierarchy in these activities. Females intriguing designs (Fig. 54). One is a decorated, circular pedestal-table stand-
are important, but the focus of attention seems to be the natural world: sun, ing about half a metre high; the other is a bowl with a picture inside it. There
animals and plants. Ritual activities (Fig. 53) apparently included dance, ani- was a shrine in this early palace, but these objects were found in other rooms. 26
mal and bird disguise, touching parts of dead animals, carrying vegetation, Is the pedestal-table a ritual `offering table' showing `a goddess'? 26 The
concern-with bones and possible sun worship. 23 design (Fig. 54 a-c), as heavily reconstructed from fragments, shows three
female dancing figures with bell skirts. The central figure is holding up flow-
ers. Around the base of the table are more female dancers with arms akimbo,
A spring ritual at Phaistos? and around the rim are rows of female figures, all bending down to the ground.
The Middle Minoan period saw the building, at sites like Knossos, Mallia and The size of the object, and the effort and skill involved in producing it, all
Phaistos, of the first Cretan palaces (from c. 1900 BC), linked with a shift to suggest that it was no ordinary secular object carrying trivial decoration.
more centralized, hierarchical forms of social organization. 24 There is also Several features of the design itself also suggest more than an everyday scene
ambiguous but interesting evidence for changing religious practices and beliefs. of people dancing. The all-female cast suggests a special dance performed by a

122 ANCIENT GODDESSES
c
a Fig. 54 a-c) Clay Kamares ware
(polychrome) pedesta]-table from
Phaistos. DIAIIVI: 30 cm.
a) Detail showing reconstructed
design on top.
b) Sketch of reconstructed design
on top.
c) Genera1 view.
d) Copy of design inside clay
Kamares ware bowl. From Phaistos.
DIAM.: 18.4 cm.
b First palace period (c. 1900-1700
BC). Both in Heraklion Museum.
Beyond the `Great Mother' 123
particular group. The repeated bending gesture around the rim shows no prac-
tical purpose; since repetition can be a defining features of ritual action, this
repeated gesture may be symbolic. 27 Moreover, the heads of the figures seem
to have beaks like birds a feature noticeable in other Cretan designs, perhaps
indicating a bird-mask or some other ritual headgear. Lastly, the gesture of the
central figure, with two arms raised, is one which in later images usually
indicates a goddess. Here there is nothing to mark this figure out conclusively
as divine. She is central and larger, but otherwise not different from the figures
around her; and they seem to be dancing, not holding their hands in a gesture
of worship towards her. Whether she is a priestess or a goddess, the scene
seems clearly focused both on her and on what she is holding up in her hands:
two pieces of vegetation in flower.
Perhaps the dance is celebrating the growth or flowering of a particular
plant at a certain time of year (spring?). The bending figures on the rim might
be performing a gesture of picking the plant or touching the earth. The
portable table may have been carried out from storage at the appropriate time.
If the flowers reflect the setting, perhaps it was taken outdoors. On these
questions we can only wonder. But what seems clear is that the plant is central,
at least as important as the anthropomorphic figure.
The bowl from Phaistos (Fig. 54d) shows another dance with 'beak-faced'
figures in similar dresses using similar gestures, and a flower blooming next to
the central figure. Here, however, the central figure is different: she has no feet
or arms, is grounded on the edge of the bowl (while the other figures `float'),
and stands in an all-encompassing robe or cone-shaped structure with only her
head visible at the top. The loops down her sides have prompted some archae-
ologists to call her a `snake goddess', 28 but the loops are regular with no heads
or tails. Her two companions gesture towards her, but again it is a gesture
usually interpreted as dance, not worship. Though not indisputably divine, she
is clearly important and here takes centre-stage with the plant beside, at her
feet. Her limbless tent-shaped attire makes her look non-human. Perhaps she
represents a stage of transition from the earlier representations focusing
clearly on plants, animals and natural phenomena to later designs which show
anthropomorphic forms becoming more central and elevated, in the art of the
Late Bronze Age.
Uncoiling images: Minoan `Snake Goddesses'?
The exquisite faience `Snake Goddesses' (Fig. 55) from Knossos have become
one of the icons of the Goddess movement. They are well-known but are they
well understood? The figurines were among many precious objects placed in
two stone-lined cists, known as the `Temple Repositories' in central rooms of
the west wing of the palace at Knossos. 29 These rooms, which include the
`Throne Room' complex, open onto the central court and were apparently a

ANCIENT GODDESSES
124
Fig. 55. Faience figurines known as the `Snake Goddesses'. From the Temple Repositories,
palace of Knossos. a) H. 34.2 cm; b) H. 29.5 cm. Middle Minoan IIIB, c. 1600 BC.
major focus for palatial ritual activity. Other finds from the cists include stone
offering tables and an impressive array of faience vases and objects; these are
interpreted as a collection of ritual equipment or offerings. It is clear that these
important objects were deliberately and permanently buried since the cists
were sealed under the floor of the new, second palace, perhaps as a ritual foun-
dation offering (following the earthquake destruction of the first palace).
The first of the figurines (Fig. 55a) wears a tall cylindrical hat, a bodice
fitted tightly under her breasts, and a flaring skirt with an apron over it. Two
snakes are entwined around her body framing her bodice and knotted at the
waist, while the head of one coils around and over her hat. A third snake twists
along her arms and shoulders, its head resting in one hand, the tail in the other.
The second figure (Fig 55b) is a few centimetres smaller and her head and face
are reconstructed. She too wears a bodice which exposes the breasts, but her
Beyond the `Great Mother' 125
aproned skirt is flounced, and her flat headdress topped by a feline. She holds
aloft two small snakes. Largely forgotten is a third figurine, closely similar to
the first: only fragments survive part of a skirt and apron and an arm along
which a snake winds. 3 o
Given Evans' perception of a single Minoan `Mother Goddess' it is perhaps
not surprising that he chose to identify only the first figurine as a 'Goddess'
while relegating the two others to the supporting cast. He argued that the
second figurine's gesture of holding out two snakes was more appropriate to a
votary or attendant. Gesture is culturally constructed and therefore a complex
and difficult area of study. However, the votary interpretation is undermined
by the observation that none of the `Snake Goddesses' are depicted in one of
the poses widely accepted as Minoan `worship gestures' from votary to deity, 31
and all three may therefore be understood as images of a deity. 32
In support of a `Mother Goddess' whose exposed breasts symbolized her
nurturing role, Evans appealed to the `matronly proportions' of the first fig-
urine. However, bared breasts are not in themselves a defining marker of divin-
ity in the Minoan world. Rather, the 'Snake Goddesses' in their tight bodices
and flaring or flounced skirts are dressed in the height of palatial fashion. Nor
do bared breasts self-evidently signal a `fertility goddess' as many have supposed;
generally we look in vain in Minoan art for the images well-known in neigh-
bouring lands of females suckling their young, holding their own breasts in
the manner of `Astarte figures', or with bellies rounded in pregnancy. However,
other finds buried with the `Snake Goddesses' may in fact lend support to
Evans' idea of a reference to nurturing. Faience relief plaques show goats and
cows suckling their young, thus offering an explicit reference through animal
imagery to the mother providing life-giving sustenance to her young.
Beyond the nurturing referent, other faience objects in the Temple
Repositories indicate at least two other strong symbolic frames of reference.
The marine environment is represented by flying fish, rock-work and thou-
sands of painted real sea-shells. This contributes to the picture of a deity
strongly involved in the domains which make up the `natural world', as
expressed through the snakes, animals, flowers and the sea. A series of faience
'votive' robes and girdles decorated with crocuses indicate a different kind of
reference, to a specific type of ritual performance widely known in many reli-
gions, the act of offering a robe to or actually robing a deity. 33
As well as exploring what the figurines are images of, it is important to ask
what they are images for. An image of a deity may serve a variety of functions,
such as 1) an actual cult image, i.e., a focal point of veneration in a shrine;
2) an image presented or revealed as part of a ritual; 3) images which in
themselves represent or 'permanently enact' a ritual (e.g. dressing a deity
or handling snakes). Without either direct evidence for usage or other
comparable figurines, 34 a definitive answer to what they were images for
remains out of reach.

126 ANCIENT GODDESSES Beyond the `Great Mother' 127

Painted ladies from Thera: the domains of the `Goddess'

Artistic and technical skills reached new heights in the second palace period
(c. 1700-1450 BC), and the complex imagery on frescoes, gold rings and
sealstones provides abundant evidence for how the Minoans envisioned and
depicted divinity, and for the nature of ritual action. The social context of
these artefacts, as the products and preserve of palatial elites, is also important,
for as well as depicting divinity they are depicting themselves and their own
palatial world thus the greater emphasis on elaborate religious architectural
settings, and on specialized cult personnel. 35
`Reading' ancient art is no easy task; images are not an artistic code which,
once deciphered, will neatly reveal all their secrets. Almost all art is capable of
carrying multiple, sometimes (deliberately) ambiguous, messages; meanings
are dynamically created by relationships with other symbols, and they may
have been read differently at different times or by different groups. Complex
artistic images are interactive and dynamic: thus the divinity of individual
figures may be signalled by the relationships between elements in the scene.
In this way, association with fierce, exotic or supernatural creatures, such as
lionesses and griffins, distinguishes figure as existing beyond the real, every-
Fig. 56. Fresco from Building
day world. A fine example of this is observable on a fresco from Akrotiri on `Xeste 3', Akrotiri, on the
the Cycladic island of Thera. Detailed analysis of these frescoes is beyond our Cycladic island of Thera.
scope here, 36 but in brief there are two frescoes, one directly above the other, Room 3a (upper floor). Late
on the ground and upper floors respectively. They are significantly positioned Minoan IA (c. 1600-1500 BC).
above a lustral basin', a sunken area approached by steps and strongly associ- a) Drawing of scenes on the
north and east walls showing
ated with ritual. 37
seated goddess and crocus
The two scenes are linked by the repeated imagery of crocus flowers. Here
gatherers.
we are concerned only with the upper scene (Fig. 56). It depicts five women, b) Detail of north wall
who are involved in the collection and offering of the stamens of the saffron showing centra1 seated figure
crocus. The status of the seated female as the focus of the scene is clear from with her exotic and
her physically elevated position, elaborate hair and jewellery, and her accep- supernatura1 attendants.
tance of the crocus stamens picked by the others. Her actual divinity is also b Slightly reconstructed drawing.
clearly signalled: she sits on a tripartite platform and is flanked by a griffin and
by a monkey, who offers her the stamens. The exotic and supernatural crea- belonging only to `nature', framing them within what we perceive of as their
tures mark her off from the human participants, and through their mediating natural biological domain of fertility? The unifying theme within the fresco is
role both human and divine spheres can be depicted simultaneously. 38 the crocs saffron stamens are collected and brought to the goddess, and the
All the figures wear jewellery, but only the goddess has necklaces in the form background is 'wall-papered' with crocus clumps. The short sleeves of - the
of animals ducks and dragonflies further stressing her links with the nat- goddess's bodice are edged with crocus flowers, but it is the harvested stamens
ural world. In addition, Christos Doumas has made the intriguing suggestion which are scattered over her bodice and mark (perhaps tattoo?) her cheek.
that the elaborate lock of hair, uniquely edged with red dots, which runs from Interpretations of the Xeste 3 frescoes have focused on the likely ritual dimen-
the crown of her head and down her shoulder and back, is in fact a snake. 39 sions, such as female rites of passage and the cycle of renewal and growth. 4 o
The crocus imagery throughout the fresco can also be 'read' in this way: togeth- But the economic importance of saffron, valued for its medicinal (pain-
er the animals and plants represent the domains of a 'Minoan goddess of relieving), culinary and dyeing properties has also been noted. 41 Given the
Nature'. But is this the whole story? Or have we essentialized female deities as explicit focus on the stamens, perhaps our `nature goddess' is here presiding

128 ANCIENT GODDESSES Beyond the `Great Mother' 129

not only over a ritual, but also over an economic activity, the harvesting of a
highly valuable commodity the transformation of `nature' to `culture'.

Rituals on rings: goddesses and gods in gold

The presence of a divine figure in art may also be suggested by interaction
expressed through respectful gestures of worship. Important here are the
Minoan gold signet rings engraved with finely-detailed ritual scenes during the
fifteenth century BC. They can be broadly grouped into scenes of processions,
epiphany, and rituals involving tree-shaking and baetyl-hugging. 42 The scenes
are open to varied, sometimes conflicting, interpretations but they are crucial
for our understanding of how the Minoans envisaged and engaged with the
transcendent.
Epiphany (a manifestation of the divine) has long been recognized as a key
part of Minoan religion. 43 Robin Hgg has suggested that the rings show
different kinds of epiphany, distinguishing between enacted and visionary
epiphany. 44 In the former, worshippers with offerings approach and interact
with a seated deity, whose role may have been acted by a human priestess. 45 In
contrast, a ring from Isopata near Knossos (Fig. 57a) illustrates visionary
epiphany. The key feature is a small, hovering or descending figure who
appears to the participants in the ritual through an ecstatic vision, perhaps
induced by special dance movements here vividly represented in the graceful
curves of the women's bodies and their distinctive gestures. The outdoor
setting is indicated by lilies, and we may note that floral settings and offerings
are the exclusive preserve of females; males are depicted with fauna but never
flora. The Isopata ring also typifies the interpretative ambiguity of such
scenes. For some scholars all four large female figures are adorants or priest-
esses; others, however, see the uppermost large figure as a later stage in the
manifestation of the deity; if so, the artist has collapsed different points in
time into a single, synoptic image. 46
A figure in a similar posture appears in the centre of another Minoan ritual
on a gold ring from Archanes 47 (Fig. 57b). On the left, a male figure pulls or Fig. 57. Minoan gold rings or sealings from
rings with ritua1 scenes. c. 1500-1400 BC.
shakes a tree set within a built tripartite structure, while on the right a second
a) Knossos, Isopata Tomb 1. Heraklion
male kneels and embraces an oval object, probably a baetyl (sacred stone). 48
Museum.
Is the central figure a priestess supervising the ritual activities or is she the b) Archanes, Tholos tomb A. Found on the
visionary appearance of a goddess in response to them? The answer may lie in chest of a female burial. Heraklion Museum.
the continued study of the rich language of Minoan gesture, still only c) Knossos, now in the Ashmolean Museum.
partially understood. d) Ring impression (`Master impression').
The presence of the male figures on gold rings shows that although females From Chania. Chania Museum.
predominate, both sexes participated in these rituals. The gold rings (together e) Ring impression (`Mother of the
Mountains'), palace of Knossos. Heraklion
with seals) also provide evidence that in the second palace period the Minoans
Museum.
had male and female deities. Early writers regularly described these male f) Sellopoulo tomb, Knossos. Heraklion
images as a 'son-lover' or 'consort' of the `Mother Goddess' in scenes where an Museum.

Beyond the `Great Mother' 131
130 ANCIENT GODDESSES

equivalent female figure would readily have been labelled a `goddess', for exam- Fig. 58. Terracotta goddess-with-
upraised arms wearing a
ple, where an epiphanic image of an airborne male appears holding out a staff
poppy-head tiara. One of five
(Fig. 57c). figures from the Gazi shrine near
A more recent discovery from Chania, a clay impression from a large gold Knossos. H. 79 cm. 13th century
ring (Fig. 57d), shows a male figure in a similar pose. 49 He stands on the highest BC. Heraklion Museum.
part of a structure so complex that it can only represent a palace or town. His
pose corresponds exactly to that of the female figure on another sealing (Fig.
57e), although her divine status is more explicitly signalled through her inter- axes, snakes, plants all fam-
action with other figures the flanking lions and the respectfully gesturing iliar from earlier periods now
male who stands before and below her. The Chania sealing has been widely appear, not as independent
accepted as a god: so male images seem to have been liberated from purely images or objects, but as attrib-
supporting roles as `consorts' in the divine sphere, and indeed a new wave of utes used to individualize the
scholarly polytheism has been sweeping Minoan studies. 5 Is there, however, goddess figures, notably as
perhaps a hint of modern sexual asymmetry in interpretations which now admit attachments to the tiara.S 5 At
males to the world of divine power, but still exclude females from temporal Gazi the attachments are birds,
power, distancing them in the realm of the transcendent as goddesses or priest- horned objects and poppy-
esses? In the absence of recognizable `ruler iconography' in Minoan Crete the heads (Fig. 58). The poppy-
question of who held authority in the temporal sphere remains unresolved. 51 heads recall the recurrent
In Late Minoan art, anthropomorphic actors frequently take centre stage. imagery connecting goddesses
Some images, however, indicate that in epiphany a divine presence could be and flowers; the vertically-slit
envisioned in non-anthropomorphic form, since birds or butterflies also appear capsules indicate the extraction
in response to ritual actions such as baetyl hugging (Fig. 57f). The prominence of juice for opium, probably for
of objects like stones and trees in art and in the archaeological record 52 sug- its visionary or medicinal
gests that as well as being a vehicle for summoning a divine presence, they properties. 56
might be thought of as embodying the divine. As Nicolas Coldstream has The presence of multiple
phrased it, `a Minoan Goddess may dwell in a tree, a pillar, or in a shapeless figures individualized within their groups is widely taken as evidence for a plu-
lump of stone'. 53 rality of separate deities in this period. Further clear evidence for polytheism
in Postpalatial Crete is furnished by the Linear B tablets, mainly from Knossos,
now probably under Mycenaean rule. These economic records list recipients of
Minoan deities beyond palatial collapse offerings, including many names of later Greek deities. They seem to represent
The end of the second palace period is marked by the destruction of the an amalgam of Mycenaean Greek and local Minoan deities. 57 Alongside the
palaces. The Postpalatial period (c. 1450-1050 BC) is characterized by greater familiar (e.g. Poseidon, Zeus, Eileithyia) are many unfamiliar names and titles;
regional diversity and striking changes in religious expression. In contrast to these strongly indicate that the path from Bronze Age to Classical deities is
the earlier focus on palatial and rural sanctuaries, the location of shrines framed as much by discontinuity and transformation as continuity. The
within settlements is new, as are the finds. The focal point of the shrines, Knossos tablets also contain titles, such as `Priestess of the Winds' which
typically bench-sanctuaries, is the large clay figures, termed 'goddesses-with- suggest the continued importance of aspects of the natural world. Yet text and
upraised-arms' from their distinctive gesture (Fig. 58). images do not tell the same story. The Linear B records from Knossos demon-
The shrine at Gazi in north-central Crete, for example, contained five strate the existence of a pantheon of male and female deities. However, this
goddesses-with-upraised-arms together with tubular offering vessels, usually mixed pantheon with more goddesses than gods, shows a mismatch with the
termed `snake tubes'. The identical clay and/or paint used for each pair of plentiful archaeological evidence where the terracotta images from shrines, as
figures and vessels indicates that they were made to be used as a `set', 54 offerings discussed above, are all female.
being placed in the vessel before the goddess figure. Another distinctive change
is in the use of Minoan religious symbols: birds, horns-of-corisecration, double
132 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Conclusions
As implicit in our title, our aim has been not to dethrone the Minoan Goddess
but to contextualize the evidence for female divinity, and to emphasize that
within the rich tapestry of the Minoan sacred world there is still much to
discover. The nature of divinity in the earliest Neolithic period remains ill-
defined, but the modern focus on female figurines has created a narrative of
exclusion, closing off consideration of other figurines male, ungendered,
animal and of how we might recognize locations and criteria for Neolithic
ritual activity. 58 We stress the evidence for diversity in the earlier part of the
Bronze Age, as expressed through the importance of the cycles of the sun in
relation to the Mesara tombs, and through the ritual focus on bones, plants and
animals.
Since religion is an active constituent of society, the rise of palatial civiliza-
tion with its elite structures provides the context for a greater emphasis on
anthropomorphic deities and an apparent shift from immanence to transcen-
dence. Palatial artefacts vividly depict imagery of female divinity which is
embedded in the many domains of the natural world (hence modern titles,
`Mistress of the Animals', `Nature Goddess'). We suggest, however, that the
shaping of the goddess exclusively in terms of 'nature' and 'fertility' may
mask exploration of other 'non-biological' functions. The repeated and insis-
tent message of these artistic images, and of Postpalatial figurines and texts,
is that there are gods as well as goddesses, and they are many not one. The
multifaceted image of the Minoan goddess grasping snakes, flanked by fierce
creatures, summoned by her worshippers is one of enduring beauty and
power, but she is not alone.
Further reading
K. Branigan, The Tombs of Mesara: A Study 0f Funerary Architecture and Ritual in
-
Southern Crete, 2800-1700 BC (Duckworth: London, 1970).
A.J. Evans, The Palace of Minos at Knossos I-IV (Macmillan: London, 1921-1935).
G.C. Gesell, Town, Palace and House Cult in Minoan Crete (Paul Astrms Frlag:
Gteborg, 1985).
L. Goodison, Death, Women and the Sun: Symbolism of Regeneration in Early Aegean
Religion. Bulletin Supplement 53 (Institute of Classica1 Studies: London, 1989).
R. Hgg and N. Marinatos (eds), Sanctuaries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age (Paul
Astrms Frlag: Stockholm, 1981).
M.P. Nilsson, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion
(C.W.K. Gleerup: Lund, 1950).
C. Renfrew, The Cycladic Spirit (Thames and Hudson: London, 1991).
P.M. Warren, Minoan Religion as Ritual Action (Gothenburg University: Gteborg,
1988).
'k-rom Athena An A-Z Guide to the Origins of Greek
to Zeus Goddesses
Mary E. Voyatzis
his chapter examines the goddesses of Archaic and Classical Greece and
1 considers their possible derivation from earlier Bronze Age female deities.
From the eighth century BC on, there is considerable documentation for an
array of goddesses, such as Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hera, and Aphrodite,
who seem to possess a variety of functions. Some scholars believe that these
Greek goddesses were derived directly from a universal 'Mother Goddess' of
prehistory. A closer look at these deities in context and the evidence for their
origins follows.
The descriptions in the late eighth-century BC poems of Homer and Hesiod
are helpful in defining the roles of all the divinities. Indeed, much of what we
know about Greek deities comes from ancient literature with additional infor-
mation coming from artistic images. Another major source is the remains from
excavated sanctuary sites, where archaeologists have uncovered evidence for
local cult activity, spanning several centuries, and offering clues to the nature
of the divinity worshipped in context.
When looking at the gods as described in myth and legend, there is a clear
sense of an Olympian pantheon, to which at least twelve deities belong: Zeus
as Father of gods and men, Hera as his consort, Athena, Demeter, Artemis,
Aphrodite, Hestia, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Dionysos, and Ares. Each deity
was generally depicted with a basic nature, or essence, which was more-or-less
constant throughout - the Greek world (i.e. Athena, protectress of the city;
Hera, goddess of marriage). When deities are examined in their archaeological
contexts, however, there is a greater opportunity to see the local manifestations
and variations of each divinity; this often reveals a quite different picture from
that suggested by the literary texts. Indeed, we see considerable local variation
from site to site in terms of the attributes these deities possessed. Moreover, we
have evidence for some cults, which go back to the so-called `Dark Age', before
the time of Homer and Hesiod; the deities worshipped from this time do not
always conform to the image presented by the poets in later periods.
From at least the eighth century onwards, we have much evidence from
excavated sanctuary sites: architectural remains, masses of pottery and votive
offerings.' This material may contain clues to the nature of the deity
worshipped at a given site and to any vestiges of prehellenic religion preserved
in the cult. These sites may thus illuminate early aspects of divinities, whose
identities may have been later modified to conform to a Panhellenic image.
 134 ANCIENT GODDESSES From
Because of the vast scope of this subject, this chapter focuses on one site;
the sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea, located in Arcadia (Fig. 59), in the
heart of the Peloponnese, where I have been involved in an excavation for many
years. This site provides a case study which may highlight some of the relevant
problems and issues. We therefore examine the evidence and attempt to deter-
mine the nature of the cult of Athena Alea as it evolved over time. The cult is
then more briefly examined within an Arcadian context and finally within the
larger Greek framework.
This analysis highlights the following points about the complex origins of
Greek deities. Gods and goddesses should be analysed in their proper contexts
and care must be taken to avoid conflating a Panhellenic image with a local
identity. Female deities were more frequently honoured with the establishment
of great sanctuaries than were male deities, and some of their earliest votive
offerings indicate that they shared common traits as `nurturers'. The promi-
nence of female deities with common traits in the eighth century BC could be
Petrovouni
Gortsouli
Alpheira Gortys Tripo\is (
.Andritsaina
Bassa Cretea Asea Tegea 1
Phigaleia
. umental temple was built, this time largely of marble; this survived till the
^.."' Megalopolis Mavriki
Lykosaura --
SEA
SEA OF
MIRTOS
Sanctuary sites
Modern villages/towns
Fig. 59. Map of the Peloponnese, showing locations of sites in Arcadia.
Athena to Zeus 135
a legacy from the preceding Mycenaean period. The collapse of Mycenaean
society and the onset of the `Dark Ages' resulted in regional and idiosyncratic
developments in Greek religion. One must therefore guard against the assump-
tion that similarities in deities' attributes and iconography between periods or
between cultures imply that we are dealing with the same deity. Cults were
shaped by the needs of the worshipping groups, whose circumstances and
conditions changed over time. The identities of Greek deities were thus fl uid,
not static, especially at local levels. Finally, I conclude that the evidence does
not support the case for deriving Greek goddesses from a universal, prehistoric
`Mother Goddess', but rather that some divine names and certain elements of
ritual, cult, and iconography may have survived from the Bronze Age through-
out Greece.
Evidence from the sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea
The site of Athena Alea at Tegea was first excavated at the turn of the centu-
ry by the Germans, the French and, briefly, by the Greeks. Since 1990 an inter-
national team has been investigating the site under the auspices of the
Norwegian Institute in Athens. The bulk of the material associated with
the temple ranges in date from Late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece (c. four-
teenth century BC) through to the fourth century BC. This includes the height
of Mycenaean palatial civilization and its collapse (c. 1190 BC), the subsequent
`Dark Age' (Protogeometric and Geometric: c. 1100-800 BC), the eighth cen-
tury Geometric `Greek Renaissance', Orientalizing (700-600 BC), Archaic (600-
480 BC) and Classical (480-330 BC) periods. The evidence indicates a flourish-
ing cult in the eighth century BC, with at least two simple, consecutive, apsidal
temples of wattle-and-daub. In front of the temples, and contemporary with
them, are the remains of a simple metal workshop. There is also evidence for
earlier cult activity from c. 900 BC, based on material found inside a bothros
(pit) below the metal workshop.
The latest eighth century temple seems to continue in use into the early
seventh century, when it was destroyed. In the late seventh century, a new, mon-
fourth century, when it was burnt. The famous mid-fourth century temple,
designed by Skopas, was then erected; it was considered the most beautiful in
the Peloponnese (see Pausanias 8.45.5). 2
The Norwegian campaign also investigated an area north of the temple,
where an ancient sacred fountain was situated. Abundant remains of Archaic
cult activity were deposited in this area, presumably originally from the tem-
ple area. The remnants of Archaic structures were also found as well as a large
number of Archaic offerings (especially terracotta and lead figurines).
There is evidence for prehistoric activity at the site, including fragments of
Mycenaean pottery, found both inside the eighth-century BC temples and in the

136 ANCIENT GODDESSES
bothros, Mycenaean figurines, possible Middle Helladic sherds, and Neolithic
sherds and tools. Although none of the prehistoric material was found in
context, its existence is suggestive of earlier activity in this area. 3
Unfortunately, we do not yet know what this signifies: it could represent either
settlement or previous cult activity.
The earliest stratified material from the Tegea sanctuary is dated securely to
c. 900 BC and consists of a mixture of `Laconian Dark Age' pottery and Early
Geometric sherds (with some Late Mycenaean and Protogeometric sherds also
mixed in). This material was unearthed in the lowest strata reached inside the
pit, below the metal working area. As well as pottery there were some small
metal and terracotta objects and animal bones (including many piglet bones),
mixed with carbon and other evidence of burning. Since the bottom of the pit
was not reached, the evidence probably goes back even earlier, to at least the
tenth or eleventh centuries BC, to judge from the Protogeometric sherds. The
latest remains in this pit can be dated to c. 730 BC when it was sealed. These
remains show without doubt that we are dealing with a strong, early cult, and
possibly a chthonic one. This may be indicated by the early bothros and is also
suggested by the proximity to an ancient spring. 4
A noticeable increase in activity is seen beginning in the eighth century BC
but the biggest increase is from the mid-eighth century onwards, when we have
abundant pottery and votive offerings. The votives are made from bronze, iron,
lead, gold, iron, terracotta, bone, and glass.
Votive offerings
The majority of votive offerings found at Tegea were of bronze. Many eighth-
to early seventh-century BC statuettes were found; they depict human, animal
and bird figurines. Among the bronze dedications were also a great variety of
pendants, loomweights, jewellery, miniature
arms, vessels, and other miscellaneous objects
(Figs 64-65). Of particular note are a Laconian
bronze horse on a pierced base-plate and a
bronze hare on a solid base-plate (Fig. 60),
both uncovered in the northern area. There are
unusual bronzes such as a bird-shield pendant,
double protome pendants (antithetical heads
of horses or birds), and pomegranate pen-
dants (Fig. 67). The existence of the bronze
workshop at the site from at least the eighth
century BC may account for the abundance
and diversity of bronze dedications.
Some lead objects, including mould-made Fig. 60. Geometric bronze hare.
wreaths, rings, plaques, ornamental discs, and Tegea Museum. H. 3.51 cm.
From Athena to Zeus 137
Fig. 61. Head fragment from a Mycenaean terracotta
figurine from Tegea. Tegea Museum. H. 4.4 cm.
Fig. 62. Female torso from a Geometric terracotta
figurine from Tegea. Tegea Museum. H. 5.3 cm.
a number of male and female figures, have
been discovered, almost exclusively from the
northern area. A small amount of gold
includes an earring, rolled wires, beads, sheets
and a plaque depicting a potnia theron
(`Mistress of Animals'). 5 Large quantities of
iron were also unearthed; most pieces are very
corroded and appear to be nails, spits or pins.
A large variety of terracotta objects are
represented at Tegea. Amongst the earliest
pieces are three Mycenaean figurines (Fig. 61),
a Geometric nude female (Fig. 62), wreaths
and horse figurines. Many Archaic, mould-
made, female figurines in various poses were
also found, especially in the northern area.
Such Archaic female figurines in terracotta are
common at many other sanctuaries, especially
those dedicated to female deities. 6 Other terra-
cotta votives include wreaths, loomweights
and a shield. Many bone and ivory dedications
were unearthed, mostly from inside the temple. They include double axes,
pinheads, seals, arrowheads, beads, pendants, plaques and reclining rams of
the late eighth and early seventh century BC. They have many parallels from
Sparta and Perachora in the Peloponnese. Pierced glass beads of various sizes
and colours may have originally been strung into necklaces.
In addition an enormous amount of pottery was found. Within the temple,
this material ranges in date from Mycenaean through to the seventh century
BC. In the northern area, the ceramic evidence dates primarily from the sev-
enth century BC through to the Byzantine period. Most of the pottery found in
the temple area consisted of finely-decorated wares of open shape. The
ceramics from the northern area also contained coarse and unpainted pottery.
Many miniature pots, both painted and unpainted, were found in both areas.
This diverse and rich collection of objects reflects a strong and active cult
over a long period of time with a concentration in the eighth and seventh cen-
turies BC. Some of the types of votives may assist us in understanding the
nature of the deity worshipped at this site.

138 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Identifying the nature of the early deity
There is disagreement about whether attributes or aspects of a deity can be
determined from the votive offerings dedicated to them. Many scholars believe
that it is rare to find types of votives associated with particular deities, and
they argue that dedications are more likely to reflect the interests and circum-
stances of the dedicator than the deity.? Others hold that some votive offerings
may reflect the identity or particular aspects of the receiving deity. 8 Franois
de Polignac takes yet another approach. He notes that Athena, Apollo, Hera
and Artemis are the deities most involved in the establishment of early
sanctuaries in the eighth century and that a lack of differentiation seems to
characterize the choice of offerings made to them. He argues that their votives
do not distinguish the attributes of each deity separately but rather (because
they all seem to receive the same types of votives), the offerings emphasize
their unity. 9 For instance he observes that figurines of animals (including wild
ones) were dedicated to all four deities, not just to Artemis. He further suggests
that these early deities were all kourotrophoi (nurturers), especially the female
divinities, but, surprisingly, also Apollo. He argues that they all had roles as
protectors of agrarian space, fertility, the young, and generally of the groups
of peoples who honoured them. 10 In essence, he believes that the votives do
indeed reflect the attributes of the deity but that
these attributes were common to early divinities at
most Greek sanctuary sites.
Another scholar, Jonathan Hall, likewise sees
some correlation between votive types, the dedi-
cating group, and the divinity honoured. He
suggests that it is fair to assume that the choice of
divinity to whom dedications were made was sel-
dom accidental. It follows from this that the sorts
of objects dedicated were ultimately determined
by the composition of the dedicating group."
The votives found at the sanctuary of Athena
Alea at Tegea include many objects which are
typical at most early Greek sites, such as bronze
horses, bronze birds and terracotta animals. These
may reveal something about Athena Alea's rela-
tion to animals, but, as we saw above, other early
deities also seem to have this association. There
are a number of unusual offerings, however, which
may betray additional clues about the nature of
Fig. 63. Bronze female figurine from Tegea.
12th century BC. Tegea Museum. H. 10.4 cm.
From Athena to Zeus 139
Fig. 64. Geometric bronze
pin from Tegea. L. 11.3 cm.
Fig. 65. Geometric bronze
shield from Tegea. w. 8.2 cm.
Both Tegea Museum.
the deity worshipped
here. A bronze figurine
of a female nude with
her hands to her breasts,
apparently of twelfth
century BC date (Fig.
63), may be significant.
It appears to be an
import from Cyprus and
may represent an Eastern goddess type who later became associated with
Aphrodite. 12 Other notable bronze objects of eighth to seventh century date
include a small disc incised with the figure of a nearly nude female standing
on a quadruped, holding a poppy and watched by a giant bird (Fig. 68). The
female figure has Eastern counterparts but the bird and poppy recall Minoan-
Mycenaean iconography. 13 Another bronze votive from Tegea, a statuette of a
nude female seated side-saddle on a horse, is of a type with relatively limited
distribution at only a few sanctuary sites of Hera and Artemis, and with
iconographic parallels from the Bronze Age. 14 Other bronzes include a figure
separating two animals, a bear-headed figure, a nude water-carrier, deer
figurines, a turtle pendant and many pomegranate pendants (Fig. 67). In other
materials, significant offerings include the recently found terracotta fragment
of a female nude (Fig. 62) and a variety of lead figurines of winged females.
Finally, the enormous amount of jewellery, mostly bronze (Fig. 64), but also
gold, iron, lead, and glass may reflect the concerns of women who invoked the
goddess by offering personal jewellery at times of transition in their lives, such
as marriage or childbirth. 15 All these offerings seem to reflect a goddess of
marriage and fertility as well as a `Mistress of Animals'. 16
Different aspects of the deity are reflected in other early votives from Tegea,
such as the helmeted warriors, the bronze arrowheads, a bronze sword, and the
bronze miniature Dipylon shields (Fig. 65). A later sixth-century bronze figure
of an armed Athena certainly accords with the traditional image of the god-
dess (Fig. 66). These objects can be seen to reflect the more usual image of
Athena as a warrior goddess and protectress of the town. 1 7
Two groups of bronze pendants may reveal more about the early cult. They
consist of about 115 stamp pendants and pomegranate pendants, both types
with suspension loops (Fig. 67). These pendants (especially the bronze pome-
granates) have a very limited distribution outside of Tegea and may have had

140 ANClENT GODDESSES
Fig. 66. Bronze Athena from Tegea. Late 6th century BC.
National Archaeologica1 Museum, Athens. H. 14 cm.
Fig. 67. (Below) Geometric bronze pomegranate pendant from
Tegea. Tripolis Archaeologica1 Museum. H. 6.9 cm.
special relevance to the cult. The stamp pendants are
now thought to be seals, although their original identi-
fication as loomweights may have been correct, since
some of them do resemble terracotta loomweights.
The offering of loomweights would be in keeping
with an important aspect of Athena's cult, her
connection with weaving. 18 Such votives may
express the concern of local women to be
skilled at weaving. Since this basic household
skill was essential for the success of the household,
every new bride needed it; the goddess may thus have
been invoked at marriage to help ensure a flourishing
household. The pomegranate pendants may be espe-
cially revealing since they symbolize fertility and life)
after death; they are usually associated with Demeter
and, in the eighth century BC, are strongly connected
with Hera too. Loomweights in the shape of pome-
granates could thus reflect an ancient connection
between weaving and fertility that was preserved in the
cult at Tegea and expressed in the dedication of these
bronze pendants. 19
This mixture of votives suggests that the deity wor-
shipped at Tegea had a variety of aspects, some of which
accord with the Panhellenic image of Athena (her asso-
ciation with weaving and her traits as a warrior goddess),
and others which reilect connections with fertility,
fecundity, and traits of a `Mistress of Animals'. In any
case, the resulting deity seems to reveal an agglomera-
tion of attributes that apparently changed in emphasis
over time, according to the needs of the -worshipping
group. We can see that the early image of Athena Alea
at this site was far from being the masculine, aegis-clad
deity known from Athens. Particularly striking are
aspects which embrace the concerns of women.
Alea may well have been the name of the early deity
at the site, and she may be an old local goddess. There
are two etymologies for the name Alea: it can mean
either a place of refuge or can refer to-heat (of the sun).
141
From Athena to Zeus
Fig. 68.
Geometric
bronze disc
from Tegea.
DIAM. 7.1 cm.
N
A good case can be made for the connection of the name Alea with her func-
tion as a protectress of the community. 20 Although we cannot prove cult activ'
ity at the site much before 900 BC, a reasonable case could be made for religious
practices taking place from the Mycenaean period, if not earlier. The location
of the site, on a high plain, near a sacred fountain, is unusual for Athena, who
tended to be worshipped on a city's acropolis. The local Tegean deity, however,
probably did not come to be associated with Athena until the late seventh or
early sixth century BC, presumably because of some common traits, although,
as we have seen, Alea had many other important functions not normally
associated with Athena, especially in the eighth and seventh centuries BC.
Goddesses and gods in Arcadia
Arcadia is defined geographically by enclosing mountain ranges, and linguisti-
cally by the preservation of an older dialectof Greek called Arcado-Cypriot,
which is different from the neighbouring north-west Greek or Doric dialects.
Arcado-Cypriot has the closest affinities of all Greek dialects to Linear B, the
syllabic script used in Mycenaean times. 21 A brief look at some sanctuaries in
this region may help to contextualize the Tegean sanctuary. It is the richest of
all the known, excavated sites in Arcadia. This may be partly because the site
has been more thoroughly excavated than others in the region; and partly
because of its location in a fertile plain, at the crossroads of Laconia and the
Argolid. Tegea is, likewise, the only sanctuary site in Arcadia that has produced
any Mycenaean evidence of note.
There are about ten other excavated sanctuary sites in Arcadia with evidence
for early cult activity (c. 800-700 BC), and many more that have produced later
remains (Fig. 59). 22 The most abundant early remains come from eastern
Arcadia. There are a number of sites in Arcadia, especially in the south-west,
where there is no early evidence but considerable amounts of interesting later
material: Lykosoura, where Despoina (Mistress) was worshipped, and Mt.
Lykaion, where Zeus Lykaios was honoured. The nature of the evidence
suggests that ancient cult practices were observed at these sites. The absence of
142 ANClENT GODDESSES
early remains from Arcadian sanctuaries does not necessarily mean a late estab-
lishment of cult activity since some of these sites were remote and virtually
unexposed to the standard artistic, religious, and political conventions known
elsewhere.
In addition to Tegea, Athena was known to have been worshipped at
Alipheira, in south-west Arcadia. Her cult there appears to go back to the
eighth century BC on the evidence of a small number of Geometric 'bronze
pins, fibulae, beads and a votive shield found there. A temple was built in her
honour c. 480 BC. Another site where Athena was worshipped (together with
Poseidon) was at Asea, in south-eastern Arcadia, where a small number of
seventh-century BC votives and a late seventh-century BC temple were uncov-
ered. In Arcadia, Athena was usually worshipped in towns and high plains.
Madeleine Jost suggests that although Athena was not indigenous to the region,
she was easily assimilated to the local religious systems. 23
Three early Arcadian sanctuary sites (Psili Korfi above Mavriki, Gortsouli
and Lousoi) were dedicated to Artemis. In general, Artemis was worshipped
widely throughout Arcadia, in the mountains or near water. Her essential char-
acter here seems to be similar to her Panhellenic image in the rest of Greece. 24
Apollo had sanctuaries at Cretea and at Bassai, both in south-west Arcadia,
though only the remains from Bassai are substantial enough to allow for con-
clusions to be drawn about the nature of the early cult, which seems to be
unusual. 25 Apollo was worshipped generally in Arcadia as a pastoral and agrar-
ian god, though not necessarily as frequently as Hermes, Pan or Asklepios. 26
It is likely that Poseidon Hippios (of the Horse) was honoured at Petrovouni
in central Arcadia. Poseidon also shared a sanctuary with Athena at Asea and
possibly at Orchomenos in eastern Arcadia. Poseidon was the pre-eminent
male deity in Arcadia, and in Arcadian myth and legend, he appears to have
had a very ancient connection with Demeter and horses. 27
Jost has studied the evidence, both literary and archaeological, for all the
cult places and deities worshipped in Arcadia. She assigns an ancient heritage
to the cult of Poseidon Hippios, who some believe may have been derived from
a Bronze Age deity named Hippios. According to the ancient stories, Poseidon,
in the form of a horse, mated with Demeter. In Arcadian cults, Poseidon and
Demeter are linked (Demeter is not connected with Zeus, as in the Eleusinian
version of the myth). Jost suggests further that Demeter's cult in Arcadia may
be ancestral to the Eleusinian cult in Attica and may be connected to the name
Erinys, mentioned in the Bronze Age Linear B tablets, and to the Arcadian
goddess, Demeter Erinys. 28
In addition to Demeter, other female deities also popular in Arcadia are
Kore (a local name for Persephone), Despoina (the daughter of Demeter in
local legend), and Artemis, all of whom Jost sees as nature goddesses. She
believes the Eleusinian version of the Demeter myth was manifested late
in Arcadia (fifth-fourth century BC), and that earlier aspects of the cult were
;
From Athena to Zeus 143
preserved in a number of different ways in Arcadia, such as at Phigaleia,
Thelpousa, and Lykosoura. We know from Pausanias that Demeter's cult
image at Phigaleia had a horse's head and that the union of Demeter and
Poseidon was celebrated at Thelpousa as mare and stallion. At Lykosoura, a
-
famous late sanctuary of Despoina, fourth-century BC terracotta human
figurines with animals' heads were found. Although Panhellenic influence can
be detected, it is only superficial. It is suggested that this cult involved an
ancient practice, the wearing of animal masks. 29
Jost concludes that most of the deities worshipped in Arcadia are protectors
of nature in some form. Fertility was represented by Demeter, Dionysos, Pan
(an Arcadian pastoral god), as well as Artemis, Athena, Hera and Aphrodite.
Another function of deities in this region was to protect pastoral life the
breeding of animals and the hunt. Poseidon Hippios, Pan, Hermes and
Artemis all functioned in this domain. 30 Jost stresses also that one cannot
speak of a preponderance of female divinities in Arcadia; in fact, male deities
had strong and ancient roles in Arcadian religion, especially Zeus Lykaios,
Poseidon Hippios, and Hermes. 31 When considering early Arcadian sanctuaries,
however, the sites of female deities reveal much more early activity, especially
those of Athena and Artemis, particularly on the eastern frontier.
The picture which emerges from early Arcadian sanctuaries is of the wor-
ship of a very diverse group of male and female deities. There are many local
Manifestations of deities revealing varying degrees of proximity to Panhellenic
models. Early sanctuary building and polis (city-state) formation were rela-
tively slow in Arcadia (especially in the west). Some of the cults appear to be
very ancient (Erinys, Hippios and Alea), despite the sparse prehistoric
evidence from any sanctuary site except Tegea. Bronze Age remains from
settlements and tombs, however, are known in the region. 32 In the main,
various aspects of Arcadian cults (e.g. masks, ithyphallic figures) may reflect
the preservation of ancient practices.
Beyond Arcadia: deities in other regions of Greece
What has emerged so far is that a high degree of local variation existed in the
natures of the deities worshipped. This archaeological evidence does not
coincide with the tidy picture of the Greek pantheon presented by early poets.
The situation, in Arcadia at least, appears to be much more complex.
It seems that the names of many deities survived from the Mycenaean
period as recorded in the Linear B texts. The attempt to classify these gods by
Homer and Hesiod does not disguise the rich and complex nature of the
religious world inherited by the eighth century BC Greeks. 33 It is a great
challenge, however, to distinguish between elements of cult surviving from
the preceding periods and later introductions. It is even more difficult to
show that any one of these deities continued to be worshipped essentially
144 ANCIENT GODDESSES, From Athena to Zeus 145
unchanged in the same place from the Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age.
We should remember events in the Greek world during this period. Around
1200 BC there was considerable destruction at the Mycenaean palaces, followed
by desertion, migrations of peoples (to Cyprus, the Dodecanese, etc) and the
collapse of palatial administration of cult practices. In some cases, evidence
for cult activity is lost after this time, though at other sites, religious activity
begins, or continues into the twelfth century BC. 34 During the next three cen-
turies, the `Dark Age', the evidence suggests that communities were relatively
isolated and had a more inward-looking character, with local petty chiefs
responsible for the cults. This resulted in variations in the religious develop-
ments of different communities. In addition, there is evidence that newcomers
appeared in Greece during this period (including speakers of a north-west
Greek or Doric dialect), bringing new religious concepts and practices. Such a
series of occurrences make continuous cult activity from the Bronze Age diffi-
cult to track. At best we can surmise that some older elements of cult may have
been preserved a different sites.
By the eighth century BC, we see a quickening of pace in all spheres of life
Anthony Snodgrass has shown that this acceleration is characterized by an
increase in prosperity, rapid population growth, increasing contacts with the
outside world, renewed interest in the Mycenaean past, the development of the
Greek alphabet, the epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod, greater activity at
Greek sanctuary sites, and especially by the rise of the Greek polis. Both
Snodgrass and de Polignac note the important connection between the rise of
the polis and the establishment of Greek sanctuary sites. De Polignac states
that the eighth century BC polis constituted a formal expression of a religious
cohesion centred on cults that not only protected its integrity and growth but
welded together into a single community people living in different groups. In the
early stages of polis formation, de Polignac suggests that the city's inhabitants
were more varied than in the Classical period, when women, children, foreigners,
and slaves were excluded from city life. This prosperity and openness in the
eighth century BC is also reflected in the remains from early Greek sanctuaries
(in particular those dedicated to Athena, Hera, Artemis and Apollo). 35
There are very few sites, however, which reveal evidence for continuous cult
activity from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. 36 Nowhere do we have
an established Late Bronze Age cult place with a building and cult parapher-
nalia that continue in use during the `Dark Age' and into the eighth century,
with the same divinity worshipped throughout. At most there is a gap in the
evidence or-indications of intermittent usage at the site and, often, a change of
deity during the Dark Age. Frequently, however, Early Iron Age sanctuaries
were built on or near Bronze Age remains (sacred or profane), indicating a
deliberate desire to be linked with the Bronze Age ancestors. 37
Athena's name may appear in the Linear B tablets and many believe that she
began as a Bronze Age goddess, derived from the Minoan goddess with snakes
(conventionally termed a `household goddess'), and later became a goddess
associated with the Mycenaean palaces. Her function as protectress of the polis
may be seen as an extension of her Bronze Age function as protectress of the
household. Bronze Age depictions of the household goddess with birds and
snakes are paralleled in the historic period, when Athena is portrayed with owls
and snakes. 38 There is no evidence that she was armed in Minoan art but a case
could be made for the existence of an armed goddess in the Mycenaean peri-
od. 39 Some argue that she is an ancient, indigenous goddess, connected with
weaving, whom the Indo-European Greek-speaking peoples encountered when
, they came into the Greek peninsula. It is unclear whether the city of Athens
was named after the goddess, or if Athena took her name from the city, though
the latter is more likely. 40 In either case, her name must have come into promi-
nence during the Mycenaean period in Athens.
In Athena's Panhellenic image, her role as armed protectress of the city is
paramount clearly more important than other significant attributes, such as
a goddess of crafts, technology, wisdom, and fertility of the olive. In myth,
Athena is depicted as a virgin goddess, born from her father's head; she is
generally perceived to be very masculine in her traits. In cult, however, the
evidence from some sites, such as at Tegea and Gortyn on Crete, indicates she
also was a fertility goddess and a `Mistress of Animals', and that she was
especially important to her female worshippers. It is interesting to note that in
Athens, Athena's masculine traits became increasingly emphasized over time;
it is argued that such a male image of the goddess was deliberately expressed
in the sculptural programme of the Parthenon, in order to justify having a
female as Athens' paramount deity. 41
It is notable that some of the earliest temples known in the Greek world
were dedicated to Hera on the island of Samos and at Perachora. 42 In the
Argolid, the most powerful region of Mycenaean Bronze Age culture, the cult
of Hera is pre-eminent. 43 Her functions here seem to involve agriculture,
pastoral fecundity, marriage, adolescent transitions and war, as well as the
annual renewal of her virginity; in the Homeric poems, as the jealous wife of
Zeus and goddess of marriage, she is given a far more restricted role. Like
Hera, Artemis' name appears on the Linear B tablets and some believe that she
was a descendant of the Minoan goddess often termed the `Mistress of
Animals'. Most of her main sanctuaries do not, however, reveal particularly
early evidence. 44 At the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta the votives from
the eighth century BC onwards reflect the deity's Panhellenic images as
`Mistress of Animals' and goddess of childbirth, but also indicate a role in
fertility and marriage. The quantities of jewellery offered to her at all sites may
underline her importance to women in the transitional rituals of marriage and
childbirth. In myth she is portrayed as a virgin, but the archaeological evidence
suggests she possessed a broader spectrum of traits, especially in the earliest
phases at local cult sites.45
146 ANCIENT GODDESSES , From Athena t0 Zeus 147
Demeter does not appear to play a large role at Early Iron Age sanctuaries.
Her most important sanctuary was at Eleusis, where excavation has revealed
evidence of a Mycenaean building, followed by remains from the Geometric
through to the Classical period, including the Telesterion, where the famous
mysteries were performed.4 6 In mythology, she was portrayed as a fertility god-
dess of the earth, especially of corn. She may originally derive from a Bronze
Age deity, though it is debated whether the Mycenaean building at Eleusis was
religious or if cult began in the eighth century BC and incorporated the Bronze
Age remains. Her cult in Arcadia, as discussed above, takes on different forms
and may pre-date the Eleusinian cult.
As far as male deities go, the evidence suggests that Apollo was the most
popular god in the eighth and seventh century BC especially, with cult places in
Delphi, Delos, Amyclae, Eretria, Thermon and Corinth. 47 His Panhellenic
persona is usually defined as a god of youth, music, prophecy, archery and
healing. But at many early shrines, he receives offerings similar to those dedi-
cated to the female deities. Therefore, de Polignac maintains that Apollo, like
Artemis, Hera and Athena, was a kourotrophos (nurturer). On the basis of his
study of the literary texts, Jon Solomon likewise concludes that Apollo
absorbed the cults and functions of the earth goddess (or vegetation deity) at
Delphi, Delos and Amyclae. In terms of jewellery offerings, however, it is my
observation that Apollo received only a tiny fraction of the amount offered to
his female counterparts. 48 In any case, the early diffusion and popularity of
Apollo's cults throughout the Greek world is both remarkable and mysterious.
Other male deities, such as Zeus, appear to play a surprisingly limited role
in the early establishment of sanctuaries. It is possible that Poseidon's cult at
Isthmia goes back to the eleventh century BC but it appears to be a modest local
cult until the seventh century BC. 49 Like Zeus and Poseidon, Dionysos' name is
attested on the Linear B tablets, yet material evidence for early cult activity is
relatively limited. 5 o
Conclusions
It is clear that the origins of both the goddesses and gods in the ancient Greek
world are complex. The evidence from any given eighth-century BC sanctuary
site permits an obscured glimpse of the divinity at a particular stage in his or
her evolution at that site. The deities continued to evolve through the Archaic
and Classical periods according to the needs of the particular worshipping
groups and as a result of external influences from Panhellenic models and
elsewhere. Our detailed examination of the goddess at Tegea attests to this
highly regional development.
Although most deities were honoured with the erection of great sanctuaries
in the eighth century BC, those of the female divinities were more numerous
and prominent. Apollo was the only male deity to play an especially important
role at the Early lron Age sites, and the evidence suggests that he often took
over the cults and attributes of female divinities. We may thus conclude that
female deities originally played a more prominent role in Greek religious life of
the eighth century than is reflected in Homer or Hesiod. Some of the earliest
votives, moreover, indicate that these early deities shared a number of common
traits, such as being kourotrophoi. It is conceivable that the prominence of
female deities and the sharing of some common traits could be legacies from
the preceding Mycenaean period.
Athena Alea at Tegea and most other Greek goddesses reveal some attributes
and iconographic elements which are similar to those of deities from earlier
periods, despite the absence of concrete proof for continuity of cult at any
site. But the similarities do not imply that we are dealing with manifestations
of precisely the same deity (or deities) from one period to another. Religious
cults were clearly shaped by the composition and needs of the communities'
worshipping groups, which in turn were affected by the ever-changing social
and political conditions of the times. Of particular note is the growing concern,
from the eighth century BC on, to define and protect the emerging polis in
terms of its power and identity. As the polis became more strictly defined in
the Archaic and Classical periods, with the exclusion of certain groups, such as
women, slaves and foreigners, it appears that male deities gained in prominence
(with the exception of Athena, who had become the increasingly masculinized,
virgin city-goddess par excellence). But female divinities continued to play an
important role in cult throughout antiquity. In terms of continuity from earlier
times one can argue, at most, for the survival into the Iron Age of relevant
aspects of ritual and cult, certain divine names, and iconographic representa-
tions, in varying degrees throughout the Greek world. These elements were
shaped and transformed in different ways and eventually developed into the
array of Classical deities so familiar to us from Greek art and literature.
Further reading
S. Alcock and R. Osborne (eds), Placing the Gods: Sanctuaries and Sacred Space in
Ancient Greece (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1994).
W. Burkert, Greek Religion (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Mass., 1985).
J.N. Coldstream, Deities Before and After the Dark Age (Bedford College: London, 1977).
R. Hgg and N. Marinatos (eds), Greek Sanctuaries: New Approaches (Routledge: London,
1993) .
F. de Polignac, Cults, Territory and the Origins of the Greek City-State (Chicago
University Press: Chicago, 1995).
A.M. Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (Dent: London, 1980).
M. Voyatzis, The Early Sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea (Paul Astrms Frlag:
Gteborg, 1990).
 God or Goddess 149

S Sod or Tyrrhennian Sea CALABRIA

Fig. 69.
Location map

9octciess
of Malta.
The Temple Art of Ancient Malta

Caroline Malone

Introduction: the `Goddess' problem in prehistory

A rchaeological data have many shortcomings, and these are well appreciat-
ed by those who have tried to extract more than material remains from
the earth in an attempt to explain the past. Aspects such as economy and
technology are considered relatively simple to investigate, but aspects of social
organization and religious belief remain almost inaccessible to archaeology,
as defined by Hawkes in his Ladder of Inference,' and these limitations are

rarely understood by scholars from historical fields. Most scholars working islands have few natural resources, other than cultivable land and building
on past societies normally rely on a fair bulk of written information, whether stone. They were exploited by settlers from about 5000 BC, and Maltese
literary, religious or historical. Such documents provide the important 'miss- civilization culminated in the construction of the famous temples of Tarxien,
ing link' in the cognitive understanding of otherwise dead and unrecorded Ggantija and Mnajdra, and the fantastically carved hypogeum of Hal Saflieni
societies. Without these `factual' embellishments, archaeological exploration of (Figs 70-71).
religious or cult activity appears almost impenetrable. In resolution of this Archaeological context (the exact situation in which an object is found) is an
problem, the well-known prehistorian Colin Renfrew has listed eighteen ele- extremely important factor in the attempt to extract meaning from prehistoric
ments (such as evidence for sacrifice and concepts of pollution/cleanliness) objects, but much of the material from Malta can be assigned to sites and no
which may signify ritual or cult in archaeological contexts, 2 and which congre- more. Our recent research at the Xaghra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo 4 (in col-
gate around the focus of attention, liminality, the transcendent, offering and laboration with the National Museum and University of Malta), has revealed
participation. important contextual information on the use and possible role of figurines in
The islands of Malta are especially important for the Neolithic religious or Neolithic cult activity; this new data will be examined here, in comparison with
cult buildings that typify the period 3200-2500 BC. Nowhere else in the the older material.
Mediterranean or western European Neolithic has structures of comparable The discussion of the
sophistication, apparently devoted to cult activity. The `temples' have long `Goddess' in prehistoric Malta
been the focus of research and interpretation, though almost entirely without has been ongoing for about
fresh fieldwork or survey. The same is true of study of the `Goddess'. Malta-has eighty or ninety years since
produced plenty of figurines and statues which have fired a remarkable range the major discoveries early
of interpretations, some verging on the fantastic and extreme. Lacking reliable this century at Hal Saflieni,
archaeological information, the `Goddess' idea has not been properly examined the hypogeum, and the
KEY
or, where appropriate, refuted. Indeed, for many students of ancient religion Tarxien Temples. The term
`Goddess' having once been o Single Temples
and gender, Malta epitomizes the land of the great 'Mother Goddess'. 3
The islands of Malta represent one of the smallest habitable archipelagos in coined by Zaminit 5 has rarely o 2 Temples
the Mediterranean (Fig. 69). They cover a mere 316 km square, Malta itself been defined or discussed,
3 or more Temples
extending a maximum of 27 km, and they lie 93 km south of Sicily and 300
km north of Libya. They are some of the most remote islands in the Fig. 70. Map of Maltese islands,
Mediterranean. Rocky and dry, with a mainly limestone and; clay geology, the showing temple groups.
 God or Goddess 151

and the figurative art of Neolithic Malta has been assumed to represent a
female deity. To date, no systematic study has ever been undertaken where the
material has been examined in detail. Some of the objects excavated decades
ago were cleaned of their original archaeological dirt only in the last two years
and unexpected detail became apparent in two instances. 6 Elsewhere I have
pointed out that the traditional `Fat Lady' or goddess figurine, that is, the
classic image of prehistoric Malta, is in fact no more female than it is male. The
excessive obesity (especially buttocks and thighs) has been used as the princi-
ple identifier for female gender, in spite of the missing detail of genitalia or
breasts which would normally be depicted, or the often ignored fact that
Mediterranean males are frequently as obese as females!
Recent discussion by G. and R. Haaland of the 'Great Goddess' concept 7 has
demonstrated convincingly that many assumptions made are quite simply
cd, inadequate. The data and the means by which they have been interpreted and
expanded have been grossly overemphasized, especially by Marija Gimbutas in
her many papers and books on the subject. For her, and her many adherents,
the idea of the goddess of ancient Malta (as elsewhere) is intimately tied up
i with temples and burials, with concepts of life and death, fertility, regenera-
3 n tion and the Great Earth Mother. She claims: - -

cn The origin of the temples of Malta are egg-shaped underground tombs. Even
during their apogee in the fourth millennium BC, and during the beginning
a
of the third millennium, these temples were not formed like houses, as were
those of south-eastern Europe, but were actually expressions of the regener- -

ating body of the Goddess with enormous egg-shaped buttocks. This image
is repeated in numerous stone sculptures of the goddess. 8

. 0 For Gimbutas, temples, tombs and figurative art conveniently converge to

symbolize a Great Goddess figure. However, the very existence of a `Mother
Goddess' in ancient Malta is still hotly debated. Temples, tombs, art and
remarkable anthropomorphic figurines are evident in abundance, but their
relationships and their individual functions may be rather more complex than
the simple interpretation of a fertility deity.

Research in Maltese prehistory and the emergence of `the

Goddess'
After their first recognition in the eighteenth century, the Maltese temples were
`cleared' out in the course of the nineteenth, presenting the first view of the
structures and their contents. The most significant contribution came from the
work of Themistocles Zammit, who carried out the salvage work on the already
cleared Hypogeum at Hal Saflieni (1907-11), 9 and then proceeded to excavate
the Tarxien Temples from 1915-18, recording the finds and structures in the first
properly recorded excavation on the islands. It was Zammit who first pondered
152 ANCIENT GODDESSES God or Goddess 153

on the remarkable statuary' from the prehistoric sites and suggested that the The background archaeology of early Malta. -

obese representations might be symbolic of power, wealth and fertility. His lead
was soon followed by others who developed further the ideas of the symbolism . The colonization of Malta by Neolithic farmers is dated to approximately 5000
of obesity and prosperity," suggesting that the figures could have been inspired BC. There seems little doubt that the colonizers came from Sicily, and were the
by actual living examples where obesity had special, symbolic or magical powers. first archaeologically confirmed settlers on the islands. A viable population
The second half of the twentieth century saw work focused on sequence and required a comparatively well developed and intensive agriculture in order to
date, especially by John Evans from 1952, at several temple sites as published in sustain settled life on Malta in the absence of rich natural resources or space. 15
his comprehensive book, The Prehistoric Antiquities of the Maltese Islands. 12 For some fifteen hundred years, close cultural and economic links were main-
The most significant new work was the excavation at Skorba. by David Trump tained with Sicily and Italy first in the form of the Ghar Dalam impressed pot-
(1961-3), 13 which obtained radiocarbon dates; these rocked the established view tery Neolithic, then the Grey and Red Skorba phases. Skorba (c. 4500-4100 BC)
of European megalith building cultures, by showing that Malta was much was a pre-temple, probably socially egalitarian period, suggesting the begin-
earlier and more complex than many other Mediterranean civilizations. The only nings of restrained religious activity. This was expressed in the form of a
large-scale research on the temple period since Skorba has been the work at house-shrine containing five terracotta female figurines, a goat skull and cattle
the Xaghra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo 14 (1987-94), which was conceived _ bones. Obsidian, imported hard rock, pottery, domesticates and other cultural
specifically to tackle outstanding problems of Maltese prehistory, including baggage were brought to Malta, and there is considerable parallelism between
settlement, environment, human populations and details of the Temple Period the cultures of the two islands.' 6
sequence. What began for us as an investigative `rescue' -excavation developed In the fourth millennium BC the Sicilian links seem to weaken, perhaps as
into a major Anglo-Maltese project which unearthed unprecedented material, the population of Malta became larger and more autonomous. Ceramic styles
and also provided a highly detailed chronological control on the Zebbug and the became highly individual, and the unique development of ritual architecture
Tarxien parts of the sequence (see Table 1). Human bone, especially, was a major temples and hypogea - has no parallel in Sicily or other parts of the
discovery, providing a chance to examine the ancient population of Malta. Mediterranean. In the florescence of what is undoubtedly a remarkable
episode of cultural development, religious and symbolic paraphernalia took
TABLE 1: Prehistoric sequence on Malta showing cultura1 features. the form of figurative art, in modelled, carved and painted -media. The
sequence is complex, and is best summarized by Table 1.
PHAsE DATE TEMPLE/ TOMBS FlGURATIVE ART EXAMPLEs OTHER OBJECTs The Zebbug phase (c. 4100-3800 BC) was still pre-temple, but simple
sHRINE structures were built, including rock-cut tombs for family burial and probably
Ghar c. 5000 Caves, pot/obsidian/ the first excavations at Hal Saflieni hypogeum. One double-chambered tomb
Dalam open sites flint was found at the Xaghra Brochtorff circle, located just outside the main
Skorba c. 4500 domestic clay figures Skorba pot/flint/ burial caves, containing over sixty fragmentary individuals buried collectively
shrine obsidian
in a total area of under 6 m2. Grave goods included a stone statue menhir with a
Zebbug c. 4000 collective statue menhirs, Zebbug, ochre, bone/shell
crudely carved face, bone pendants of anthropomorphic form, beads, flint, -
rock cut scratched figures Xemxjja, pendants,
on pot Xaghra greenstone axes obsidian, shells and polished axe-amulets. Other contemporary sites are known,
Mgarr Skorba hut pot although with fewer human remains or associated finds. 17 There are ceramic
Ggantija 3600 simple collective stone heads, - Ggantija, Kordin, pot, obsidian, phases (e.g. Mgarr) that follow the Zebbug phase, but they are little known and
temples rock cut snakes drilled Ta Hagrat, flint, greenstone, have not been found at Xaghra. The Ggantija phase was of some significance
and pitted stone Skorba ochre at the Brochtorff Circle since it lies within 500 m of the eponymous temple
decoration Hagar Qim site, and there was burial activity contemporary with the temple's early phases.
Saflieni ?3000 complex hypogea figurines, friezes Hal Saflieni greenstone, More general evidence for the Ggantija phase (3600-3000 BC) suggests it saw the
temples Skorba ochre, altars,
shrines, charms
beginning of temple-building activity and organized ceremonial behaviour. It
Tarxien, Xaghra altars, shrines,
is culturally distinctive with fine pottery forms and decoration, architecture,
Tarxien 2500 final hypogea figurines, statues,
temples phalli, painted, Mnajdra, ochre, charms carved stonework with snakes and heads included in the repertoire of motifs.
pitted, drilled Hagar Qim, It is questionable whether figurines of the goddess-type were being made during
decoration Ggantija this period, however, since none have been found in reliable strata on any site.
 God or Goddess 155

included more rooms, passages, priest-holes and decoration during the Tarxien
phases. Culturally, the Maltese islands may have been isolated, quite different
from neighbouring regions in the M editerranean. This isolation is reflected in
the funerary sphere with a mass of curious carved figures and small figurines
(male priests, female, asexual, animal, bird, fish) and depictions which include
phalli-shrines, model temples, couches, friezes and exuberant decoration. The
art and architecture of third millennium BC Malta reached a level of sophisti-
n Globigerina Megaliths
Ceramic Figurine cation not seen west of the Aegean, and this is perhaps explained through its


Stone Figurine/Sculpture
Axe Amulet
physical isolation, ecological and population stress, and rapid social changes.
* Flint Blade Cache Earlier excavations discovered about one hundred figurine fragments from
Possible Access Routes
temples and the Hypogeum. The Xaghra Brochtorff Circle work has increased
the sample by a third, with seventeen near-complete terracotta figurines, eigh-
I _ _ teen fragments and heads, a snail seated stone figure, a larger seated pair on a
Tarxiea Burial Pit o
Approximate
bed, six stick figures and three other stone images.
Location
of
The corpulence of Maltese figures has been much discussed, and in the
Megalithic -<
Entranceway
Megalithic
Threshold I Uprights funerary context there is a curious dichotomy between the extremely rotund
figures and the corpses of the dead with which they rest at the Xaghra
Brochtorff Circle and the Hypogeum. It is possible to interpret these sharp
contrasts between the idealized image and the physical reality of dead bones as
symbolizing an ideal afterlife in the face of population, ecological or religious
stress. Research on the subject is fraught with problems, with little reliable
i .xiz .
published fieldwork and too much space devoted to highly speculative discus-
Rock - cut - Tomb

-- \ .x16
-^
1 100 '105 - - 1110
10 metres
Fig. 72. Plan of the Xaghra Brochtorff Circle, Gozo. 1987-94.
The Saflieni phase (c. 3000 BC) coincides with the construction of the
hypogeum enlargement at the Saflieni site, where Zebbug(s) were expanded
steadily until the Tarxien phase, forming the complex of passages, rooms, and
successive floors that make up this unique `temple for the dead'. The Saflieni
material includes particularly fine pottery, the use of figurines, decorated
friezes in architecture and a variety of charms and carved objects. The Tarxien
phase that follows is the best known, mainly because it is the final episode of
construction and deposition on sites that may have been in almost continuous
use for over a millennium. Dates suggest a span from c. 3000-2500 BC, and
whilst period subdivisions are not clear, temples were elaborated and extended
in all cases. The lobed temple forms became deeper, more inaccessible, and
sion of 'mother goddesses' 18 and `male priests'. 19
As the sequence developed, figurative art became more and more significant
in the religious life of ancient Malta. The temple sequence, studied in detail,
but still only partially understood, became similarly complex, and material
culture corresponds with the increasingly naturalistic art and sculpture.
Figurines developed over 2,000 years, with considerable breaks in the sequence,
and culminated in the Tarxien phase figures. These range from very small, inti-
mate clay, bone or stone figures in seated or squatting postures, to larger and
more visible figures, often wearing skirts, some standing, others seated, and in
rare examples, lying or seated on beds or couches. The largest category
includes large standing figures, ranging from 50 cm to 2 m in height (Fig. 76a).
This crude division according to size (Table 2) may help to isolate some of
the principal characteristics. The small figures are invariably of clay. They
required a minimum of time investment, and were often placed with the dead
in the two hypogea that are known (Fig. 77 a, e-g).-Similar figurines have come
from the Tarxien temple, but are relatively rare. The small size suggests that
this category was for intimate, private items, and not for public display. The
second category could be described as both private and public in function, with
examples of these figures found in temples (Fig. 76 c-d) and in tombs (Fig.
76f). However, the objects are mostly of stone, display fine workmanship, and
were found, where records exist, in contexts that can be interpreted as ritual,

157
156 ANCIENT GODDESSES God or Goddess

Table 2: Table showing principal features of Maltese figurines The contextual relationships of the objects are well known only from
Xaghra, where groups of small figurines the Type 1 are found clustered
FIGURE sIZE MATERIAL POsTURE CLOTHEs/ GENDER CONTEXT with burials of all ages and both sexes. The finer, public stone figures (Types
HAIR 2 and 3) were found associated with structural elements, not buried individ-
Small clay or stone seated or unclothed, usually temples uals, and these figures displayed ornate hairstyles, detailed clothing, and were
3-10 cm squatting hair short asexual, and buria\s associated as groups. In one case a group statue (the twinned figures, Fig. 73)
rare females
was associated with megalithic structures, a stone bowl and a ceramic strainer.
Medium stone or clay seated, squatting skirted with asexual, clothed temples In another instance, a cache of nine figures (Figs 74, 75) was associated with
10-20 cm or composite or lying or seated elaborate figures, and burials
on a bed/couch, hair, or interpreted
the collapse of the burial caves. These objects are an unprecedented form fea-
stick figures naked as priests turing finely carved heads, detailed costume and no arms, legs, hands or other
Large stone standing, seated, skirted, asexual temple body part. They are a complete contrast to the rotund figures. The large, stand-
20 cm-2 m on a stand rarely naked and burials ing or seated skirted figures form yet another type asexual, rounded but

Pendants bone, terracotta, varied and hair, none temples not as obese as the seated/squatting naked figures, and they display details of
and charms tooth, stone unrealistic, headdresses, and burials costume and often are attached to a rectangular stand. There are three from

animals faces
Saflieni, one from Xaghra, three from Hagar Qim, one standing (Fig. 76c) and
suggesting that the objects were used or displayed in various cult activities, four seated from Tarxien. The seated form are headless, and appear to have
such as burial. The largest figures are generally in stone, were large enough to had moveable and interchangeable heads. The clothed and standing figures are
be visible over some distance, and appear to be intended for public display and generally interpreted as priests. Their association,- like all the human forms in
veneration. The 2 m high figure at Tarxien (Fig. 76a) is the culmination of this Maltese art, is with either tomb or temple context.
class, but smaller stone or terracotta figures have been found in all the major The emphasis on the figurines has distorted research and popular know-
temples (Fig. 76 b, c, d). Quite where they were located, or in association with ledge, obscuring the much wider range of curious and important structures of
what, is not clear. Many of the figures are standing and wear skirts, suggestive contemporary prehistoric Malta, and the social behaviour that took place. Our
of office or status. The repetition of the familiar, corpulent image throughout
the size range is considered suggestive of cult use. Repetition of an icon or
image is found in many religions 20 (e.g. crucifixion images in Christianity) and
is seen as one mechanism to focus attention and provide continuity of action.
Of concern here is the attribution of the figures as female. Few figures actu-
ally have specific features, such as breasts or pubic triangles, and the rarities,
such as the sleeping lady of Hal Saflieni (Fig. 76f), the Venus figures from
Mnajdra and Hagar Qim (Fig. 76b), and the 'torso' pendants (Xaghra Circle)
(Fig. 77 h-j, o), are the only obviously female images. The rounded shapes of
the figurines, their generous buttocks and thighs, non-existent or diminutive
heads, feet, legs and arms, have been readily interpreted as female symbols, but
obese men have equally rotund forms, and we need to be careful not to over-
interpret the images. Interestingly, symbols of male genitalia are far more
explicit in ancient Malta. These are the shrine-like carvings of lines of 'phalli'
from Tarxien 21 (Fig 76e) and the friezes at Tarxien showing male animals in
Room l, directly opposite the giant figure in Room 2 who stands beside the
sacrificial altar 22 which was filled with sheep and goat bones and a flint knife.
The Altar frieze and threshold between Rooms 9 and 14 also shows stylized
testes, arranged in spirals. 23 However, in spite of the explicit nature of some of Fig. 73. The seated pair
the figurative art, much of it is genderless, and should be accepted as such, from Xaghra Brochtorff
without sound evidence to suggest otherwise. Circle.
 God or Goddess 159

work at the Xaghra Brochtorff Circle has reminded us forcefully of other ritual
and cognitive behaviour, and instead we now regard the figurines as just one
part of a rich and diverse set of material culture. For example, the treatment
of the body in death has become a supremely important focus in the burial
hypogea, not simply for the objects buried with the collective remains of the
dead. 24 The use of red ochre and the body-parts of animals (such as a boar's
head with a male burial, a puppy with two children, and sheep's jaws with some
females) and specific types of grave offering are far more suggestive of rituals
than the figurines alone. Animal body-parts could be interpreted as totemic
symbols, associated with individual identities or group sodalities. The treatment
of the human body also indicates a wide range of processes, including de-
fleshing of some, binding of others, the removal of heads and long-bones after
C)
U
flesh removal, the stacking-up of skulls at the cave entrance, and the covering
of some bodies and/or skulls with red ochre. Generally, communal collective
LfJ

burial took place in discrete areas, zoned off with stone constructions, walls,
C" pits, alcoves and megalithic settings, which resulted in separate heaps and stack
of bones and complete inhumations. Some individuals were buried supine,
O -
other flexed or squeezed into pits in the floor, and children and females were
grouped together. A superficial pit beside the megalithic entrance to the caves
was filled with selected male body-parts, which covered a complete mature
male, without grave goods. Intact burials of women and children were some-
times associated with miniature bowls, polished greenstone amulets, or beads,
and many were arranged around the large stone bowl and its enclosing mega-
lithic structures (Fig. 72). Adjoining this area, a natural depression was filled
with disarticulated burials, many associated with Type 1 terracotta figurines
and little else, except the smashed fragments of a stone Type 3 standing figure.
The smashing of the large 60-80 cm high beautifully carved figure appears to
have been deliberate, since small fragments were scattered and trampled
I
throughout the burial deposit. The conclusions drawn from our research, which
is still under study, is that the burial ritual focused in subterranean `temples'
I for the dead, and was symbolic on several levels detectable in the archaeological
record. Symbolism included the treatment of the human body, its subsequent
handling and disposal, its location in the caves, its association with other
burials of particular age, sex or category, and its association with other grave
offerings, be they food, natural or man -made. Individuals do not stand out
clearly, because collective and successive burial has destroyed details of specific
events or individual funerals. Only the broad patterns emerge, but these are
nonetheless significant. They tell us of the collective identity of the temple
builders, where individuals are not marked out through identifiable graves or
grave-goods. Instead the group identity is emphasized, and the figurative sculp-
ture appears to reinforce this, with some objects carved for group veneration
and ritual focus in the case of Type 2 and 3 figures, and perhaps for individual
charms in the case of Type 1. The latter include `individual' charm-like

160 ANCIENT GODDESSES God or Goddess 161

pendants (Fig. 77 a-c, e-g, 1) and curiously symbolic objects such as `torso-like'
pendants (Fig. 77 h, o). A summary examination of the various classes of arte-
facts from the temple period suggest that whilst the figurines are found in both
temple and tomb, other classes such the phalli are only found in the temples,
and figures on couches in the tombs.
In spite of the range of figurative art in prehistoric Malta, a very definite
style is recognizable. It is a style confined, however, to ritual buildings and
tombs, whereas the contemporary domestic sites 25 (Skorba, ancillary struc-
tures at Tarxien and Hagar Qim, Ghajnsielem Road on Gozo and Tac-Cawla)
reveal flimsy structures of stone and plaster/mud-brick walls and plastered
floors, without embellishment or the presence of figurative images.

Social conditions in prehistoric Malta: development and

b
some ideas about social structure
The complexity of the cultural milieu of Neolithic Malta is still seen as
unprecedented, . with no near parallels of development in the western
Mediterranean. Many arguments have been put forward to explain why temple
architecture and figurative art should have flourished as it did. Since the 1950s
extreme ideas have been replaced by more scientific and sociological explana-
tions, focused on Malta's environment and social and economic development.
The archaeological evidence is sadly inconclusive for most of the most
pressing questions, such as environmental change and ecological stress.
Evidence to inform on these matters appears to be almost unobtainable such
has been the erosion and intensity of land use on the islands. However, it is this
0

15cm very point that emphasizes the key to early Malta so small is the habitable
space, that intensity of all aspects of human existence has been magnified.
Economic and social pressure is considered to be an important trigger for
0 15cm
religious, artistic and political developments and also for the `decline' of cul-
0 20cm
c e I
tures in marginal places. 26 Population pressure and its concomitant effects can
Fig. 76. Sketches of large, medium
conveniently be used to explain many archaeological conundrums. This is
and small figures and figures from excusable in the case of small islands, where other data simply does not exist.
Maltese sites. However, there has to be more to the problem than population pressure alone.
Although uncertainties remain, we can identify a cluster of socially-related
a) remaining lower half of 2 m high
stone figure at Tarxien temple. attributes for the Maltese islands:
b) The Hagar Qim 'Venus' figurine i) an unbroken sequence of occupation and development from the first
in terracotta. occupation of Malta to the zenith of the Temple Culture;
c) Tarxien `Priest' figure in terra- ii) population increase indirectly shown by the numbers of sites over time
cotta. and the numbers of people buried in collective tombs;
d) Hagar Qim stone figure on plinth iii) increasingly larger, more complex and labour-intensive sites;
e) Carved stone `phalli' shrine from
iv) increased segregation, specialization, expansion, elaboration and decora-
Tarxien.
0 5cm tion over time of the internal organization of ceremonial structures and
f f) The `Sleeping Lady' from Ha1
Saflieni. increasingly realistic, complex and culturally specific figurative art.
 God 0r Goddess? 163

Taken together these observations suggest that temple period Malta was a
densely populated, socially stratified place, with considerable emphasis on the
building and use of ceremonial centres. The emergence of chiefdoms, and
with them the competitive and highly formalized social behaviour that charac-
terizes such societies, could fit well with the Maltese evidence. Researchers
such as Timothy-Earle 27 explain the emergence of chiefdoms in terms of nec-
essarily high population levels, ceremonial behaviour, and intense competition,
which invariably result in large, communal, co-operatively built monuments,
bi) which emerge from the centralized organizing hierarchy of the chief. Central
places are also characteristic of chiefly hierarchy, and the Maltese temples
could be interpreted as representing just those central places of political and
ceremonial influence. Mortuary behaviour is often seen as an important direct
source of information on social status and wealth differentiation. The Maltese
evidence is more difficult here since the collective nature of the burial practice
revealed at the two sites known from the temple period fail to identify differ-
ential status in individual burials, even though the whole group could be seen
to be `wealthy'. In the context of our present discussion, chiefly societies tend
to be patrilineal and males tend to have a more powerful political role than
females. The assertions made by Gimbutas 2 8 and others that ancient Malta was
a matrilineal society, dominated by a matristic, goddess civilization, becomes
increasingly difficult to sustain in view of a chiefly social organization which
provides a much better fit to the existing evidence.
Returning to the image of the `Goddess', the anthropomorphic figures of
Malta form the `classic' view, although in reality they probably represent only
about half of the figurative art known, and few of them are actually explicitly
female. There is still little firm evidence about the role of the figures in ritual
or domestic life in ancient Malta, and little likelihood of much new material
coming to light. Further conclusions rely on new comparative evidence, and an
understanding of domestic and ritual economies. This question highlights the
very real problem of Maltese prehistory, the lack of settlement data that could
inform on the daily life of the ancient Maltese, its economy, population size
and density, and the means to investigate the social complexity perceived from
the ceremonial architecture. Such data, elusive though they still remain, are
needed if Maltese religion and art is to be placed in a secure social context.

cs
Further reading
C. Malone, S. Stoddart and D. Trump, A house for the Temple Builders: recent
investigations on Gozo, Malta, Antiquity 62, 235 (1988) 297-301
ai
> C Malone and S. Stoddart, Representations of death discoveries at the Xaghra Stone
-o .^ o N c
Q Cir le, Gozo, in A. Pace (ed.), Maltese Prehistoric Art 5000-2500 BC (Fondazzjoni
a -$ . -,7; Patrimonju Malti and the Nationa1 Museum of Archaeology: Valletta, 1996) 45-52.
an x _ `" m -5 cd
4,-) S. StoddartA. Bonnano, T. Gouder, and C. Malone, Cult in an island society: prehistoric
N H -o o - .;. a Malta in the Tarxien period, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3(1) (1993) 3-19.
. os ^
bi) E ^..' ; n HO
^ bA 08 N Z. Ha OJ n
,--1c) n '.D.

A `Mother Goddess' in north-west Europe? 165

9 91 `Mother 9oddess' in
North-West Turope c. 4200-2500 BC?
Elizabeth Shee Twohig

The builders of megalithic tombs were `... imbued by a religious faith, [and]
were devotees of a goddess whose face glares out from pot and phalange idol
and the dark shadows of the tomb walls, whose image is twisted into the
geometry of Portuguese schist plaques and the rich carvings of Gavrinnis
and New Grange'. l

M ost of those searching for evidence of a Goddess figure in the Neolithic

period in north-west Europe will have been greatly encouraged in their
quest by Glyn Daniel, the distinguished Cambridge prehistorian who wrote
these words in 1958.
What led Daniel to this interpretation? Was it typical of the archaeologists
of his time? To what extent have views changed in the past forty years amongst
those working in the subject? In this paper I will examine the emergence of the
`Goddess' interpretation in France, Ireland and Britain, and demonstrate how
some aspects of the interpretation have come to be rejected by most scholars.
I will then deal more fully with the data from northern France, since the rec-
ognizably female representations from that area can be comparatively well
dated to the later Neolithic period there (i.e. after 3000 BC).
Most of the carvings in north-west Europe for which claims have been made
regarding 'Mother Goddess' portrayal occur in megalithic tombs or related sites
such as rock-cut tombs, which were built between the late fifth and the third
millennium BC for use as burial places and for ceremonies associated with
ancestors (Fig. 78). These monuments were built by people who had just begun
to practise farming in combination with hunting and gathering. Their houses
were generally smaller than their tombs, and built of organic materials which
can only be partially recovered through excavation, in contrast with their
funerary monuments which were built to last. Several types of megalithic tombs
are known in Ireland, but only one type - the passage tomb has carvings. The
decorated examples are concentrated in the east, at Newgrange, Knowth and
Dowth in the Boyne valley and at Loughcrew, and are dated to the later fourth
millennium BC. The carvings comprise geometric designs such as circles,
spirals, cupmarks and angular motifs (including lozenges and zig-zags) and the
present consensus among expert academics is that there is no evidence for a
mother goddess figure.
Interpretation of the carvings in French megalithic tombs as female figures
,
began at the end of the nineteenth century with publication on the subject of
PARIS BASIN
12 14
13 Rock cut Tombs
9 10
BRlTTANY
Gallery Graves
Passage tombs and 11
Gallery Graves
Fig. 78. Map of regional groups of megalithic art and some principa1 sites:
1. Knockmany and Sesskilgreen; 2. Loughcrew; 3. Boyne Valley: Newgrange, Knowth and
Dowth; 4. Fourknocks; 5. Ctel and St. Martin's, Guernsey; 6. Ile Guennoc; 7. Barnenez;
8. Crec'h Quill, Prajou- Menhir and Kergntuil; 9. Mougau Bihan; 10. Tress;
11. Locmariaquer: La Table des Marchands, Gavrinis, Les Pierres Plates; 12, Epne;
13. Maisse; 14. Coizard.
the carvings in some of the rock-cut tombs and gallery graves around the Paris
Basin. 2 Figurines found on excavations in the Aegean and Near East were also
originally referred to as `mother goddesses' at this period. 3 Luquet soon pro-
posed anthropomorphic interpretations for much of the Breton art, and these
were accepted by Dechelette, who also extended the theory to some of the
carvings at Newgrange, although the term `mother goddess' appears only
towards the end of his paper. 4
In 1920 Abbe Henri Breuil visited Ireland in the company of Miles Burkitt
of Cambridge and R.A.S. Macalister, then Professor of Archaeology at
University College, Dublin, and each subsequently wrote about the carvings
they had seen. Breuil's notes were translated by Macalister for publication in
Ireland. They describe the art in terms of chronology and techniques, with no
mention of anthropomorphic interpretation other than in a footnote by

166 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Fig. 79. A carved stone from Loughcrew as
represented by:
a) George Coffey in 1897; b) Henri Breuil in 1934;
e) Elizabeth Shee in 1972. Note Breuil's addition
of facia1 features.
Macalister. 5 However, Macalister developed
this idea further: in 1926 he described
what he believed to be carvings of human
faces and figures as well as animal figures
and he followed Dechelette in interpreting
the circles and spirals of Irish megalithic
art as the eyes of the mother goddess by
analogy with French material. 6 In his
Presidential Address to the Prehistoric
Society of East Anglia in 1934 which was
accompanied by some very dubious illus-
trations (Fig. 79) Breuil reported on the
occurrence of `Faces' but not 'Mother
Goddesses' throughout Irish megalithic
art. He developed this idea further for the
Breton material in 1938 and again in 1959. 7
Dechelette, although soon followed by
Macalister, was the first to introduce the
interpretation of megalithic art in terms of
human figures to Ireland, although most
later authors refer rather to Breuil's 1934
paper. Adolf Mahr was the leading prehis-
torian in Ireland in the 193Os. In his Presi-
dential Address to the Prehistoric Society in
1937 he described Breuil's 1934 paper as
`... a real landmark in Irish Prehistory', although he also proposed in fluences
from the decorated plaques and pottery found in Iberian megalithic tombs. 8
During the following years most writers on Irish megalithic art were content
to summarize Breuil's classification and interpretation and to use Breuil's very
personalized records of the carvings. They would then add a paragraph or two
of parallel chasing, comparing Irish motifs with designs from various tombs in
Atlantic Europe, following the belief current at that time that ideas diffused
outwards from a point of origin to more peripheral regions. This approach can
be seen, for example, in Stuart Piggott's very influential Neolithic Cultures of
the British Isles. 9 The introduction of the term `The Eye Goddess' in 1957 by
senior English archaeologist O.G.S. Crawford brought together much of the
167
A 'Mother Goddess' in north west Europe?
- -
material on European and Near Eastern 'Goddess' representations.' For
Ireland, Crawford records that he could not find the `Faces' reported by Breuil,
only `Eyes', and he notes tellingly that Breuil `... sometimes appears to see
faces where others cannot'. Crawford believed the faces had gradually disinte-
grated as they came westwards `... from a higher ([more] civilized) culture'. In
the foreword he said he felt sure his colleagues would wish to disassociate them-
selves frin the opinions expressed in the book. The absence of reviews in
academic journals at the time suggests that this was indeed the case. Amongst
the designs claimed as eyes by Crawford were those from Newgrange (Fig. 8Oa),
Knockmany (Fig. 8Ob) and Fourknocks (Fig. 80 c, d).
The following year Glyn Daniel affirmed the goddess for western Europe
(as quoted above), though it is interesting that in 1960 his more academic
publication, The Chambered Tombs of France, barely mentioned the idea. The
goddess, however, was still very much in evidence in 1964, when Daniel, in
searching for parallels for the face motif, used all of the following terms in the
course of only three pages: Earth-Mother Goddess, Funerary Deity, eye god-
dess, Mother Goddess, Funerary Goddess and goddess figure."
In 1974 Michael Herity presented `an alphabet' of -Irish passage tomb
designs, but again this was based ultimately on Breuil's scheme. He noted that
the `symbols' were mainly either abstract or decorative, but that they could be
combined to produce an anthropomorphic effect. Herity's interpretation of
the design of concentric circles and arcs at Sesskilgreen (Fig. 8Oe) which had
been described by Breuil as a `big bestial human face', included the statement
`... its curves are frankly feminine, almost steatopygous, in the style of the
Gravettian Venuses of central Europe; is it face or vulva that is represented?' 12
Herity also followed Breuil in describing the design on a stone at Sesskilgreen
(Fig. 8Of) as a horned god.
In 1969 Andrew Fleming's paper `The Myth of the Mother Goddess'
persuaded most of us writing on megalithic art to be more circumspect in our
interpretations. Fleming demonstrated that the early and middle Neolithic art
(see below) showed no evidence of a mother goddess. 13 He did, however, accept
the likelihood of her existence in the gallery graves and rock-cut tombs of late
Neolithic France. Fleming, although recognizing the special pleading of many
early writers, still favoured a matriarchal and religious interpretation for later
Neolithic carvings.
In 1973 Claire O'Kelly pointed out that the `Mother Goddess' interpretations
were `... a legacy of the alleged impact of the Aegean and the Near East on the
structure and decoration of West European tombs.' 14 We both classified the
Irish art into a dozen or so motifs, although, despite arguing in 1981- against
anthropomorphic interpretations for the Irish material, I also suggested that
`... one cannot deny categorically that these carvings were meant tobe anthropo-
morphic, for to some observers they have this appearance ...' and some writers
still see anthropomorphs at Newgrange, Fourknocks and Knowth.15 -

168 ANClENT GODDESSES A `Mother Goddess' in,north-west Europe? 169

Menhirs and passage tombs, Brittany, c. 4200-3500 BC

Some of the earliest carvings in western Europe have been identified in
Brittany on standing stones and in association with megalithic tombs. In the
late fifth millennium BC anthropomorphic stelae (stone slabs) were placed in
three of the passage tombs at Ile Guennoc on the north-west coast (Fig. 81).
Each of the stones was shaped slightly to produce an anthropomorphic appear-
ance: the dressing back of the top corners formed a slight `head and shoulders'
effect. Each stela was then positioned just where those coming into a tomb
chamber from its passage would encounter it, a guardian figure for the remains
of the ancestors placed in the chamber.
It is now known, as a result of relatively recent discoveries in southern
Brittany, that there was a contemporary practice of setting up tall standing
stones (`menhirs'), many of which were similar to the Ile Guennoc stones in
shape. They were frequently re-used in the passage tombs that were built soon
after 4000 BC, particularly as capstones or as chamber paving stones. In other
passage tombs throughout Brittany it seems that stones of their shape, or at
least with a pointed top, were specially chosen for incorporation in the
a structure. Several were carved with a limited range of symbols (Fig. 82). At
Locmariaquer a large (20 m high) menhir (Le Grand Menhir) was erected at the

Fig. 81. Ile Guennoc, stela in the chamber.

Fig. 80. Carvings at Irish passage tombs variously interpreted as anthropomorphic:

a) Newgrange, L19; b) Knockmany; c, d) Fourknocks; e, f) Sesskilgreen.

In Ireland we have reached a stage in which there is little acceptance of the

`Mother Goddess' theme amongst most archaeologists. Attention has instead
turned to the designs themselves and their positions in the tomb. 16 The pro-
posal has also been made that the carvings may have been created during states
of altered consciousness, a situation which can be found in association with
shamanistic practices in other regions.I 7
In northern France, however, as has already been noted, there does appear
to be clear evidence of representations of females, but only in the later phases
of megalithic art in the region.

170 ANCIENT GODDESSES
Fig. 82. Characteristic designs from Breton passage tombs. a) 'Axe', Le Grand Menhir;
b) Axe, La Table des Marchands; c) 'Axe', Gavrinis; d) Crooks, Kermarquer; e) Bouclier/
anthropomorph; Ile Longue; f) Bow, Gavrinis; g) Axe and crooks, Barnenez; h) Ox,
Gavrinis; i) `Yokes', Ile Guennoc IIC; j) Horns, La Table des Marchands.
end of a row of at least nineteen standing stones. It was carved with a design
of a rectangle with haft and loop (Fig. 82a) which is usually interpreted as an
axe figure (this reading is not entirely convincing). Another-tall menhir from
the row was broken into three pieces. One part was used to roof the chamber
of the nearby passage tomb of La Table des Marchands and another piece was
A 'Mother Goddess' in north west Europe?
- - 171
transported 3 km to roof the chamber of the elaborately carved tomb of
Gavrinis. The carvings on this stone show items which were of importance to
the builders who were among the earliest farmers in the peninsula. The images
include cattle (Fig. 82h) and the axe (Fig. 82b) which would have been used in
cutting trees to clear land for cultivation. 18
The outlines of what seem to be anthropomorphic figures were also carved
on the structural stones of the tombs. These basic outlines are roughly square
or triangular, and some of them feature a small protuberance at the top,
lateral rings, or a series of radiating lines rising from the top of the shape
(Fig. 82e). The idol/goddess interpretation for this motif was first proposed at
the beginning of this century and is still generally accepted. An alternative
interpretation, identifying the motif as an cousson or bouclier (shield), dev-
eloped in the archaeological literature in the 1920s and is favoured by some
scholars. There is absolutely no indication of gender on either the stelae or the
carved designs. However, the notion of a goddess still underlies most explana-
tions. L'Helgouac'h, for example, writes of the '... <idole nolithique>,
reprsentation d'une puissance incontestable, divinit probable que protge le
monde des morts' [a `Neolithic idol', representing an indisputable authority, a
probable deity which protects the world of the dead] 19 while elsewhere it has
been stated that the crosse [crook] symbol associates tombs to `... la divinit
elle-mme ou son reprsentant terrestre' [the divinity herself or to her earth-
ly representative]. 20
The bouclier/anthropomorph motif has recently been described by Le
Roux as signifying `... the great Neolithic mother goddess'. He also identified
a series of carvings, previously called `yoke' motifs, as horns, tracing them
back to the bull symbolism of the Mediterranean world. The horns were not
only carved on tomb orthostats but were also incised on pottery. It is further
suggested that they are represented by the large three-dimensional single horns
which have been found at three or four sites in southern Brittany. These Breton
`horns' may have been displayed on the cairns enclosing the tomb structures. 21
Axes are frequently portrayed in carvings at these Breton tombs (Fig. 82 a-
c, g; Fig. 83). Actual axes were placed inside the tombs, together with pottery
and some ornaments such as necklaces or pendants. Axes have been seen as
phallic symbols, interchangeable with standing stones as signs of masculinity
and power. The alignment of an axe, stone ring and two small pebbles at Mane
er Hrock is interpreted as showing 'sexual symbolism'. 22 Males would also be
associated with the bows, carved representations of which were found in three
passage tombs (e.g. Fig. 82f). At Barnenez the image is positioned as though to
guard access to the chamber.
Recent discussion by archaeologists working in Brittany on the subject of
possible sexual elements in the symbols in Breton megalithic art has empha-
sized male as well as female elements in the carvings and the secular/power
elements rather than the religious, while accepting the feminine connotation of

A `Mother Goddess' in north-west Europe? 173
172 ANClENT GODDESSES

Fig. 83. Gavrinis arcs and paired axes. Fig. 84. Carvings on angled passage tombs in
PO
southern Brittany. a, d) Le Rocher; b, e)
m Gorem, Givres; c, f) Les Pierres Plates.
the `great goddess/Neolithic ido1'. 23 Snake- f ---.

like motifs are seen as a type of phallic

symbol and the crosse/crook (Fig. 82d), axe
and horns/U/yoke (Fig. 82 i, j) are taken to
I iii \
1

A
signify maleness. The axe wielded by 1
men then allegedly represents domination a
of men over women and also relates to
biological reproduction.
The carvings in Brittany cannot all be
interpreted, many not even in general terms.
A large number consist of curvilinear or
angular designs, rayed circles, wavy lines or
other geometric motifs. In some cases these
incorporate the `bouclier/anthropomorph'
mentioned above or another recognizable
design. At the elaborately carved tomb of
Gavrinis a series of carvings of axes, crooks, bouclier/anthopomorphs and a bow
(Fig. 82f) was subsequently encased in a multitude of curves and arcs (Fig. 83). 24
Excavations of contemporary settlement sites in other regions of France
have produced a number of statuettes (mostly female) made of fired clay.
Montjardin and Roger, in listing these recently, regard them as translations of
the mother goddesses of Italy, 'Old Europe' and ultimately the Near East. A
small stone figure with breasts from Capdenac-le-Haut, Lot, seems to be with-
out parallel in western Europe except perhaps for the wooden hermaphrodite
from the excavations of a Neolithic wooden trackway on the Somerset Levels
in England. This exceptional survivor serves as a reminder that the loss of pre-
historic wooden and other organic artefacts is norma1. 25

Late Neolithic Brittany and the Paris Basin c. 3250-2500 BC

(i) Figures in Breton angled passage tombs, c. 3250-3000 BC
In the later Neolithic period about a dozen passage tombs of distinctive form
were built in southern Brittany (Fig. 84a). A relatively high proportion of these
'angled passage tombs' have carvings on the stones forming the tomb, particu-
larly in the inner (chamber) section of the monument.
The carvings nearly all follow a common theme, showing a broadly rectan-
gular shape (Fig. 84 b-f) which is derived from the bouclier/anthropomorphe
of the earlier menhirs and passage tombs. One stone shows a.rectangle with
pointed central knob on top (Fig 84f) but the remainder have an indented top
line, and the design is usually symmetrical about the vertical axis. The
interior of the design varies and a diverse selection of interpretations has been
proposed including, for example, by analogy with Minoan pottery, the octopus.
I accept the general proposition that a figure is represented but I find it diffi-
cult to agree with a recent reading of the carvings at Les Pierres Plates which
takes the lined figures to represent rib cages and the circles to represent breasts
and suggests that the images thus show a transformative process affecting the
174 ANClENT GODDESSES

human body which involves movement from a fleshed to an unfleshed state and
back again to a fleshed state. 26 Human remains are only very rarely recovered
during the excavation of Breton megalithic tombs due to the high acidity of
the soil and so very little is known of the specific mortuary practices associat-
ed with these monuments.

(ii) Statue menhirs and other later Neolithic carvings, early third
millennium BC
The first clearly recognizable depictions of females were produced in northern
France during the period c. 3000-2500 BC. They were carved in varying forms
in Brittany and in the region of the Paris Basin and there are a number of links
between the various figures. The main groups comprise:
(a) statue menhirs in Brittany and Guernsey; (b) carvings in later Neolithic
tombs in Brittany; (c) carvings in gallery graves in the Paris Basin;
(d) carvings in rock-cut tombs in the Marne region.

a) Statue menhirs in Brittany and Guernsey

Four statue menhirs, two found in Brittany (Kermen and Le Trevoux) and
two from Guernsey (Ctel and St Martin's Cemetery), were all carved to a
broadly similar design (Fig. 85). None show facial features but all have breasts.
Some show arms and/or necklaces and/or a belt. They form part of a wider
tradition of statue menhir carving, and contemporary examples are known in
southern France, the Alpine areas, Corsica and Sardinia, though not all of
these have female attributes.

b) Carvings in later Neolithic tombs in Brittany

Anyone entering the `lateral entry' tomb of Crec'h Quille in northern Brittany
would encounter a stone resembling a statue menhir facing down the passage
(Fig. 86e). Like the statue menhirs it is carved with breasts and a necklace, but
the stone itself is not shaped to an anthropomorphic form. The carvings in the
later Neolithic- tombs are known mainly from about seven gallery graves in
various parts of Brittany, for by this period there was considerable settlement
in the interior of the peninsula. These tombs are long and narrow and were
entered from one end (Fig. 86a) rather than from the middle as was the case in
the lateral entry tombs. The female depictions take the form of breasts in
relief, the area around the breasts being picked back in a cartouche. A few boss-
es (?single breasts) are also known, but for the most part the breasts occur in
pairs, in two cases with single strand beaded necklaces below them (Fig. 86e).
In three instances two pairs of breasts are carved side by side, and on two
stones at Tresse the pairs of breasts to the observer's right are larger and have

Fig. 85. Statue menhir from Ctel, Guernsey.


176 ANCIENT GODDESSES
g, h
Fig. 86. Late Neolithic carvings in gallery graves and hypoges.
a, h) Tress; c) Crec'h Quill; d) Prajou Menhir; e) Kergntuil; f) Epne; g, h) Coizard.
a small necklace in relief underneath (Fig. 86b), suggested by some as repre-
senting the `goddess mother' and `goddess daughter'. The breasts were carved
in the ante-chamber at four of the sites. At Prajou Menhir gallery grave one of
the orthostats has carvings of square panels usually interpreted as being
derived from the bouclier/anthropomorph of the earlier passage tombs (Fig.
86d). Each square has a slightly different emblem projecting from its top edge.
The only other designs found in the gallery graves are relief carvings of hafted
A `Mother Goddess' in north-west Europe? 177
Fig. 87. Chalk cylinders from Folkton, Yorkshire. The outer two show the `face' motif.
axes and a series of puzzling motifs which have been called daggers or tanged
points but whose true meaning is not understood (Fig. 86d). Squares sur-
mounted by hafted axes were also carved on at least three menhirs in Brittany.
c) Carvings in gallery graves in the Paris Basin
These feature a series of nine carvings that are similar in many respects to the
Breton examples, particularly in the depiction of breasts in relief. The carvings
are always found in the ante-chamber of the gallery, but no more than one set
of breasts was carved on each stone. Seven of the depictions include necklaces
and these are always shown over the breasts rather than under them as was the
practice in Brittany. A face was depicted on one of the jamb stones of the
Epne tomb (Fig. 86f) with axes on the opposite side. Two similar faces, togeth-
er with axe-like designs, occur on a large stone re-used in a cist with late
Neolithic burials at Maisse, and a bearded face may be seen on the underside
of a capstone at Le Dehus in Guernsey. Further faces of this type appear in
England on two of the three small chalk cylinders recovered from a burial at
Folkton in northern England (Fig. 87). 27
In addition to the female representations discussed above, some other Paris
Basin gallery graves have carvings like those in Brittany: an axe and `dagger' at
one site, a square `idol' and axe at another and a crosse/crescent at a third. 28
d) Carvings in rock cut tombs in the Marne region
-
Some of the many tombs (hypoges) cut in the chalk of the Marne region east
of Paris have figures carved in the entrance area and hafted axes (Fig. 86g)
carved inside the chamber or in the inner entrance. Four figures are known,
two with breasts (Fig. 86h) and two without, while necklaces and simple facial
features are also shown. It has been argued that those without breasts are male
and that these are associated with axes, a male symbol. 29 The three figures
from Coizard are very similar to the statue menhirs in southern France where
again not only male and female, but also asexual statues are known.

178 ANCIENT GODDESSES
These later Neolithic carvings have long been considered to portray a god-
dess figure, particularly since Octobon's major study was published in 1931. 30
They also figure in more general works such as Erich Neumann's The Great
Mother. 31 As discussed earlier, Fleming's 1969 paper, although beginning with
a criticism of the goddess interpretations for the earlier megalithic tombs,
went on to accept the later carvings as portrayals of females and concluded as
follows: `Thus in France there is a northern mother-goddess in Brittany, the
Channel Islands and the Paris Basin and a southern one in the Collorgues
groups of statue menhirs ...' 32 A recent study by Jean L'Helgouac'h also refers
to the late Neolithic Breton carvings as showing 'le culte d'une divinit, cette
fois nettement feminine', [the cult of a divinity, this time definitely female]
that is, in contrast with the art of the passage tombs and menhirs. 33 In my own
study The Megalithic Art of Western Europe in 1981, I was careful to avoid
reference to goddesses, although `cult' was mentioned: `... there is undeniable
evidence of some sort of cult of a figure in the late Neolithic of western
Europe, and that figure was usually female.' 34
The scholars promoting a more secular approach have recently claimed to
have detected evidence of deliberate order in the carvings and deposits in the
Paris Basin tombs, while admitting the lack of well-excavated sites. lan
Hodder, in his book The Domestication of Europe, claimed that depictions of
women, pottery and child burials occur in the entrance area or outer part of
the tomb, while male symbols such as the axe are found in the inner section,
either as deposits or depictions. 35
A non-religious interpretation was likewise proposed for the Breton art by
Thomas and Tilley who interpreted the gallery grave `daggers' as representations
of the human sternum. They stated that `These tombs celebrate the female
body, or rather the most important part of that body the torso with its breasts,
the ribs and the sternum that support the breasts and divide them ... It is not
the individual female body that is being depicted here, but the social body o f
the tomb-using group linking together the living, the dead and the ancestors'. 36
Conclusions
The development of the interpretation of the female/goddess figures of
French and Irish megalithic art began in France around the beginning of this
century. The interpretations were grounded within the ex oriente lux approach
to cultural diffusionism which viewed the Orient as the source of European
culture. These ideas were subsequently widely disseminated by Marija
Gimbutas, particularly through her creation of an elaborate classification of
the goddesses of Europe and by interpreting many of the motifs and even the
megalithic tomb plan itself in terms of female sexuality and reproduction. 37
Consideration of all evidence available shows that the `Mother Goddess'
interpretation cannot be sustained in either the early/middle Neolithic art
A `Mother Goddess' in north west Europe?
- 179
on the passage tombs and menhirs in Brittany or in the slightly later Irish
passage tomb art. However, there is general agreement on the presence of a
figure of some sort in Brittany, seen both in the shaping of stelae and in the
bouclier/anthropomorph carvings. The terms 'great goddess', `mother god-
dess' and `funerary goddess' are still frequently used by Breton archaeologists,
but they are usually placed in inverted commas, as if implying a certain reti-
cence about such interpretations. There are suggestions that some associated
carvings are symbols of male sexuality and authority.
At the later Neolithic sites in northern France there was obviously a strong
interest on the part of the carvers in the representation of females, but these
are now being read by some archaeologists as women rather than goddesses.
The tendency towards explanations either in terms of male power and author-
ity or in binary opposition of men and women is currently prevalent in mega-
lithic tomb studies. Is this a result of the increasingly secular nature of society?
Does it reflect the writers' own world view and perspectives? To adapt the words
of Jacquetta Hawkes, 38 does every age get the goddesses it deserves or desires?
Acknowledgements
This paper has benefitted greatly from Roland Budd's amendments. I would also like to thank
Richard Bradley for reading the tekt and Jean L'Helgouac'h and Jacques Tarrte for information
on recent work in France. - - -
Further reading
J. Briard and A. Duva1 (eds) Les Reprsentations Humaines du Nolithique l'Age du
Fer. Actes du 115e Congrs Nationa1 des Socits Savantes, 1990 (1993).
O.G.S. Crawford, The Eye Goddess (Phoenix: London, 1957) -
G. E. Daniel, The Megalith Builders of Western Europe (Hutchinson: London, 1958)
.
G. Eogan, Knowth, and the Passage Tombs of Ireland (Thames and Hudson: London,
1986). -
A. Fleming, The myth of the Mother Goddess, World Archaeology 1 (1969) 247-61.
C.-T. Le Roux (ed.), Paysans et Btisseurs. Revue Archologique de l'Ouest, Supplment
5 (1992).
J. L'Helgouach, C.-T. Le Roux and J. Lecornec (eds), Art et Symboles du Mgalithisme
Europen. Revue Archologique de l'Ouest, Supplment 8 (1997).
M.J. O'Kelly, Newgrange: Archaeology, Art and Legend (Thames and Hudson: London,
1982).
E. Shee Twohig, The Megalithic Art of Western Europe (Clarendon Press: Oxford,
1981). -

zo Some 9allo-"Iritisui
9oddesses Iconography & Meaning
Miranda J. Green
T he paper I was originally asked to contribute to this volume was on the
subject of `Celtic' goddesses. However, there is lively current archaeologi-
cal debate about the validity of using this label to describe the material culture
of the European Iron Agel and I have therefore decided to avoid the term
`Celtic' and, instead, to use purely geographical nomenclature.
The pagan myths of Ireland, which were for the most part compiled
within the context of the early medieval Christian monasteries, present a vivid,
kaleidoscopic picture of multifarious and numerous female divinities. These
goddesses were concerned particularly with war, fertility, sovereignty and
death. Whilst, in the Irish mythic tradition, such supernatural beings were
presented unequivocally as goddesses, the picture in the contemporary and
comparable Welsh texts is less clear: here, we are introduced to women who
certainly possess supernatural characteristics but whose identity as deities is
muted and less easily discernible. Thus, there is an enormous contrast between
say the Irish Medbh or the Morrign, in the Ulster Cycle, on the one hand,
and the ambiguous image of the Welsh heroine Rhiannon, in the Pedeir Keinc
y Mabinogi, on the other.? These myths have aroused much interest amongst
both feminists and others who have cited them as evidence for a strong goddess
cult in a Celtic past. Such a view is illustrated, for example, by Jean Markale's
Women of the Celts and Moyra Caldecott's Women in Celtic Myth. 3
Both mythic traditions, although written down in the medieval period, have
a sufficiently strong pagan focus for many scholars to believe that they may have
had their genesis in the much earlier cult-systems of pre-Christian Britain and
non-Mediterranean Europe. Such systems are first identifiable in the archaeo-
logical record for the last few centuries BC in western and central Europe (whose
material culture, during this period, is often known as `La Tne', after a Swiss
type-site) but appear in their most fully developed form in the lands of Gaul and
Britain during the Roman occupation (mid-first century BC in Gaul, mid-first
century AD in Britain). There are certain resemblances between ritual practice
as presented in the material culture of the later first millennium BC to the
earlier first millennium AD and elements contained within the Irish and Welsh
mythic tradition: the significance of triads, the symbolic importance of the
human head and the prominence accorded to animals in cult are but three of
many examples. However, it is important to bear in mind that such apparent
resonances of paganism in the earliest Irish and Welsh literature may have
Some Gallo British Goddesses
- 181
found their way into the mythic tradition because the storytellers who created
the tales actually travelled or talked to people who had travelled in areas of
Britain or Europe and who had seen cult-images belonging to the pagan period.
In this manner, ideas arising from the observance of ancient iconography could
have been woven into episodes within the medieval mythic texts.
This paper is not primarily concerned with medieval literary references to
western European goddesses partly because, as I have already suggested, the
written myths are unreliable as uncontaminated evidence for pagan religion
and worship during the pre-Roman and Roman periods. Neither will I focus,
except in passing, on the classical literary allusions to Gaulish and British reli-
gion, as contained within the texts of such authors as Julius Caesar (De Bello
Gallico), Strabo (Geographia) and Lucan (Pharsalia). Again, these texts are
biased, their testimony distorted by `barbarian' stereotyping, misunderstand-
ing, literary convention and subjective agenda. Instead, I intend to examine the
evidence of material culture and, in particular, iconography pertaining to the
Iron Age and Roman periods in Gaul and Britain and, in so doing, considera-
tion will be given to whether it is possible to make valid links between the
archaeological and mythic records. Some of the issues about which there is
controversy concern the identity of the goddesses: whether the images that
exist from the pre-Christian Iron Age and Roman horizon in Britain and Gaul
are of goddesses, priestesses or worshippers, 4 and whether we are, in fact, deal-
ing with a multiplicity of female deities or with one multifaceted divine entity.
It is my intention to explore these problems, together with other questions
raised by the examination of expressions of divinity in material culture dur-
ing the four or five centuries before and after the birth of Christ.
The tribal chiefdoms of Iron Age Europe, with their warrior aristocracies
and skilled artisans, subsisted from crops and livestock and have left evidence
of farmsteads, villages, defended hilltop settlements, fine metalwork and
lavish burials. The archaeological evidence for religion and ritual in Iron Age
and Romano-Celtic Europe is tantalizingly patchy, but shows us a sacred world
in which natural phenomena sky, storms, the sun, rivers and lakes were all
numinous (possessed of spirits). We are dealing with a polytheistic system in
which a divine presence pervaded all aspects of life and death and in which
goddesses were as important as their male counterparts. We have archaeologi-
cal evidence of rituals involving animal- and sometimes human - sacrifice,
the collection of heads as battle trophies offered up in shrines, and a priest-
hood whom Classical writers called Druids. But only in the Roman period did
anthropomorphic representation of divine beings become customary, allowing
for firmer identification of gods and goddesses, a codification aided consider-
ably by the introduction of the 'epigraphic habit' of writing down dedications
to named deities in durable materials such as stone.

182 ANCIENT GODDESSES
The warrior goddess
The Iron Age iconography of female images associated with warfare illustrates
very clearly the difficulties of deciding whether goddesses or mortals are
represented. An important category of evidence is later Iron Age coins whose
reverse bears the motif of a horsewoman or a female charioteer in an attitude
of aggression, brandishing a weapon, a shield, a branch or a tore or nckring
(torcs appear to have symbolized high status in pre-Roman European society). 5
Two coin-issues minted in the first century BC by the polity of the Redones (a
Breton tribe whose main urban centre was at Rennes) exemplify this type of
imagery. On one, a naked woman sits astride a galloping horse, with what looks
like a shield in her right hand and a sword in her left (Fig. 88). If her attrib-
utes have been correctly identified, then she is holding them in opposite hands
to normal _ that is right-handed fighting practice, in which the sword or
spear would generally be grasped in the right hand and the shield in the left.
Two other curious features of the Breton coin horsewoman are her nakedness
and her position astride her mount. We possess literary testimony from such
ancient writers as Polybius (Histories lI, 28-31) that male Gallic warriors
sometimes went into battle wearing only torcs. But the very limited references,
in the contemporary literature, to female warriors for example by Tacitus
(Annales XIV, 30-35) and Dio Cassius (Roman History LXII, lff) to Queen
Boudica, who ruled the Iceni of East Anglia in the mid first century AD make
no such claims. Indeed, had they witnessed such a practice, it would so have
shocked their conservative and conventional minds that they would surely have
recorded it, as one more appalling instance of `Celtic' barbarism. So the
image of a naked female riding on horseback into battle is, I would argue, more
likely to represent either a deity or a mythic
episode or both. -
The second feature of this coin
horsewoman, her riding position,
is interesting inasmuch as it is at
variance with that adopted by
the main Gallo-Roman horse-
goddess, Epona, who enjoyed
considerable popularity in the
western Roman Empire and
Fig. 88. Gold coin from the Rennes
area of Brittany. First century BC.
Reverse depicts a naked female figure
on horseback, a shield in her right hand,
the hilt of a sword in her left.
DIANE c. 2 cm.
Some Gallo-British Goddesses 183
Fig. 89. Stone relief of the Gallo-
Roman horse-goddess Epona, an
apple in her right hand, seated side-
saddle on a blanket on a high-
stepping horse. Second or third
century AD. From Kastel, near Bonn,
Germany. Max. w. 25 cm.
whose images on horseback
invariably show her seated side-
saddle on a mare. 6 Although
venerated alike by the Roman
army and by civilians, Epona was
depicted as an essentially peace-
ful divinity, whose iconography
associates her above all with fer-
tility and protection rather than
aggression and combat. It is possible
that the contrasting imagery of the Iron Age horsewoman on the coins and
Epona reflects war, on the one hand, and peaceful prosperity, on the other: the
coin-motif depicts a woman astride a stallion; the portrayal of Epona is of a
horsewoman seated side-saddle upon a mare. Keeping one's seat on a charging
war-horse would necessitate an astride position. Epona's mare (Fig. 89) rarely
moves faster than a sedate walking-pace.? It is my contention that, like Epona,
the coin horsewoman is a goddess rather than the depiction of a real ruler. This
identification is implied both by her nakedness and by the reverse position of
the weapons which may reflect the 'otherness' of the supernatural. It may even
be that the coin-rider and Epona are both manifestations of a single horse-
goddess, who took the guise of a warrior during the Iron Age, when warfare
between tribes and later between Gallic tribes and Romans was rife but who,
under the Pax Romana of the Roman Empire, was transformed into a peace-
ful deity of prosperity. This might account for Epona's worship among the
soldiers of the Rhine frontier, many of whom were recruited from the western
provinces. 8
The other relevant Breton coin-issue of the Redones is that which depicts a
female charioteer, driving a two-wheeled vehicle of which the only evidence is
the position of the woman behind the horse and one or two isolated chariot-
wheels (Fig. 90). 9 The unequivocally supernatural nature of the horse is
demonstrated by its frequent appearance as a human-headed beast (not the
Centaur of classical myth since only its head is human rather than its head and
upper torso). Beneath the hooves of the horse a small crustacean or serpent-
like creature is sometimes present: it may attack the horse's underbelly or be

Some Gallo- British Goddesses 185

184 ANClENT GODDESSES

Fig. 90. Reverse of gold coin from the Rennes been a ruler: Dio Cassius' description of Boudica mentions her riding in a
area of Brittany. First century BC. From
chariot. Interestingly, the same writer claims that Boudica and her people wor-
Dinault, Brittany. MAX. DIANI. c. 2 cm.
shipped a savage goddess of Victory, named Andraste; she demanded appease-
ment in the form of human sacrifice (Roman History LXII, 7, 1-3).
trampled under the flailing In the western Roman provinces, certain war-gods were transformed into
hooves. On these coins, too, peaceful divinities whose combative powers were turned away from conven-
elements of the imagery tional conflict towards the fight against such human evils as disease, infertility
betray the mythico-divine and famine. The same thing may have happened to female war-deities: many
identity of the female chario- images of Gaulish divine couples of Roman date depict a woman, with
teer. The horse is unreal and emblems of prosperity or abundance, such as a cornucopia or an offering-dish
`other', as if to acknowledge the of food accompanied by a god bearing a sword or spear. An example from
supernatural status of the scene. Alesia depicts a goddess with a huge cornucopia and her male partner with a
The presence of the small marine spear (Fig. 92). 13 In these instances, it is not the female who carries the accou-
creature is also significant, inasmuch trements of war but her consort. None of the Romano-Celtic representations
as it appears to be an enemy, attacking of women with weapon-bearing companions shows aggression or active combat:
or being subdued by the charioteer.lO the most likely role for the warrior-companions is that of guardianship. The
Apart from the coin-images, there exist few definite Iron Age depictions of male partner either protects the goddess or is present to symbolize the func-
war-goddesses in western Europe. This is in line with the general dearth of tion of both deities as protectors of their devotees.
human images, reflecting the seeming reluctance to portray deities as natural- An important but largely neglected sculpture of Roman date from
istic copies of humankind before Roman influence brought in the tradition of Gloucestershire is a small simply-carved, worn image of a female from
mimesis from the classical world. One striking example is the bronze figurine Lemington near Chedworth. 14 The woman has hair standing out from her head
of a female warrior, also from Brittany, found at Dineault near Rennes (Fig. 91) in radiate lines and wears a long robe (Fig. 93). Her right hand rests upon an
and dated to the first century BC. 11 She wears a sleeveless, full-bodiced tunic, object which resembles a vat or bucket; in her left hand she holds a spear over
belted at the waist, and the position an altar marked with a diagonal cross. On the base of the stone is a roughly
of her arms and hands suggests incised inscription dedicating the stone to `the goddess Riigina' (a version of
that she once controlled a chariot. the Latin `Regina' meaning
Her military identity is shown by r<'^.J n `Queen'). The Lemington stone is
the goose-crested helmet she wears: of interest on several counts: first
the helmet-type owes much to of all, we know from the inscrip-
Classical influence, but the goose is tion that she is a goddess (`dea');
a well-documented La Tene symbol secondly, as is the case with
of aggression, and goose-bones the Breton horsewoman coin
have been found buried in Iron Age described above, she holds her
warrior-graves in the Czech weapon in her left hand; thirdly,
Republic and Slovakia. 12 She is her attributes consist of a spear, a
most likely to have represented a symbol of aggression or combat,
goddess, though she could have and a vat or cauldron, which
(according to Irish and Welsh
Fig. 91. Bronze figurine of a warrior-
goddess, wearing goose-crested helmet; Fig. 92. Stone relief of a divine
her hands are positioned as if she is couple; she holds a pestera and cornu-
driving a chariot. First century BC. From copia, he carries a spear. Gallo -Roman
Dinault, Brittany. Max. H. 70 cm. date. From Alesia, Burgundy. w. 26 cm.

186 ANCIENT GODDESSES Some Gallo -British Goddesses 187

Fig. 93. Stone relief of a goddess with radiate

hair, a spear in her left hand, her right resting
on top of a cylindrica1 vat or bucket. A
dedication to Tea Riigina' is scratched on the
base. From Lemington, near Dorn,
Gloucestershire. H. c. 30 cm.

myth) generally represents plenty or

regeneration.'S The name or title of the
Lemington goddess is also highly signifi-
cant, inasmuch as she is addressed either
as both goddess and queen or as queen of
goddesses. Her emblems and her title
suggest a possible link with Irish myth as
one of the most powerful characters in
the mythic tales is the goddess of sover-
eignty, who is known by various names
including Medbh, the Morrign and
many others. 16 This goddess combines intense sexuality and fertility symbol-
ism with concentrated aggression. She is the guardian of her land and fights to
keep it safe; her sexual activity promotes the prosperity and fecundity of the
land. If the Lemington goddess has similar responsibilities, then her attrib-
utes of vat and spear reflect these dual characteristics. Moreover, Medbh is
described as a queen, even though she was a divinity who was allocated a
spurious historicity by her chroniclers; and the fearsome battle-fury, the
Morrign, was known as the Phantom Queen. Sovereignty, warfare, protection
Fig. 94. Bronze-wheeled platform with a group of bronze figures, including warriors and
and fertility are all encapsulated within the persona of the lrish goddesses, and
attendants at sacrificial stag-hunt and a central, taller figure of a goddess holding a
may equally have belonged to the Lemington deity. Incidentally, the divin e .
cauldron above her head. Seventh century BC. From a male grave at Strettweg, Austria.
partners referred to earlier may also be sovereignty deities. In Irish myth, the H. of goddess c. 22.5 cm.
goddess of sovereignty habitually marries a mortal king and, in doing so,
ratifies his reign. 17 If he is niggardly or dishonourable, she abandons him, if
he is generous and bountiful, the land prospers. might be interpreted as a hunter-goddess was found in a seventh century BC
warrior's cremation-grave at Strettweg in Austria (Fig. 94). The most splendid
item of his tomb furniture consists of a bronze model wagon with four narrow
The ambivalence of the hunter-goddess wheels supporting a platform on which stands a group of figures, including
War and hunting were closely allied in lron Age European societies. Hunting footsoldiers, horsemen, two stags each held by two females and at centre stage
was, like war, an essentially aristocratic pastime and appears to have been a much larger statuette of a woman, naked excep t for a wide girdle, support-
enjoyed both as a noble sport and as battle-practice rather than a necessary ing a great cauldron on her upstretched hands. What appears to be represented
undertaking to provide food. Indeed, there is little evidence for the consumption here is a ritual stag-hunt; the size and central position of the woman with the
of wild animals in the faunal assemblages of Iron Age and Romano-Celtic cauldron suggest that she is the focus of the ceremony. The vessel she holds
Europe.'$ Goddesses associated with hunting appear to have been worshipped may have contained wine, oil or, perhaps more likely, sacrificial blood, maybe
in temperate Europe both before and during the Roman period. from the victims of the hunt. The woman's evident high status relative to the
The most striking example of early Iron Age iconography depicting what rest of the group she dominates implies her divinity, and she bears the cult-
188 ANClENT GODDESSES
vessel as if accepting the blood-gift, which she holds up, as if in triumph.
Goddesses associated with hunting recur in Romano-Celtic Gaul, where they
are associated with particular wild animals. A bronze figurine from the
Ardennes Forest depicts a woman dressed in a short hunting tunic (reminiscent
of the Roman Diana, whose Gaulish counterpart she may be), with a hunting
knife in her hand, riding a huge, bristling boar. She has been identified as
Arduinna, eponymous goddess of the Ardennes, the personification df the
wilderness. 19 Her iconography suggests an ambiguity in her relationship with
her animal companion, which can also be discerned in other hunting iconog-
raphy. Her possession of a knife indicates her hunting role, but she rides the
boar as though it were a horse, and this implies a more intimate, less con-
frontational attitude towards her prey. Similar equivocation is evident on a
stone relief of a hunter-god from the mountain sanctuary at Le Donon in the
Vosges, probably dating to the first century AD. Here, a male deity armed with
a spear and chopper stands next to a fearless stag, his hand resting, in a gesture
of benediction, on one of its antlers. 20 Such an apparent paradox is explicable
if we assume that these hunting deities combined the promotion of the hunt
and protection of the hunter with guardianship of wild nature and its
denizens. The hunting cults of certain other traditional societies notably
those of Japan and the Ossetian Caucasus are associated with two
divinities, one male, one female, of whom the god has responsibility for the
hunter and the goddess for the hunted anima1. 21 In the religious systems of
western European antiquity presently under scrutiny, the two roles appear to
have been combined.
The adoption of a goddess rather than a male divinity to preside over such
a traditionally masculine activi/y as hunting is perhaps not surprising inas-
much as religion need not necessarily reflect the norms of human society in a
straightforward, literal way. Divine imagery may, instead, illustrate symbolic,
metaphoric constructs which may operate according to different parameters
from earthworld societal frameworks. There may have been a specific relevance
of goddesses to hunting in Gallic perception, in that the hunt may have been
associated not just with the chase and with killing but also with nourishment
and renewal. In certain North American indigenous societies, the hunt is per-
ceived as a reciprocal activity wherein atonement has to be made for the theft
of an animal from the domain of the gods by human hunters by means of
specific pre-and post-hunting rituals. 22 For this to work effectively, there has to
be a symbiotic relationship between the hunter and the hunted, involving
mutual respect. Both the apparent paradox in the dual role of the Gaulish
hunting-deities (i.e. protection of the hunter and his prey) and the worship of
female divine hunters might be explained by this notion of reciprocity.
Moreover, it is particularly appropriate that goddesses should be associated with
nourishment and regeneration. There is an interesting and relevant literary
allusion to a `Celtic' hunting-goddess, which implies the need for reciprocity in
Some Gallo British Goddesses
- 189
hunting-ritual. The Greek author Arrian, who wrote during the second century
AD, composed a text called the Cynegetica in which he mentions (XXIlI) that
the Celts (his nomenclature) had a hunting-goddess to whom sacrifice of the
'first-fruits' of the hunt were made on her birthday. This gift served to atone for
the theft of the victims of the hunt from her territory.
Goddesses and torts
Tores (or neckrings) were worn by both males and females of high rank
throughout the pre-Roman Iron Age in Europe. 23 From the fifth to the third
century BC, certain high-status individuals were buried in tombs wearing or
accompanied by precious jewellery which frequently included torts, usually of
gold or bronze. Later in the Iron Age and during the Romano-Celtic period,
divinities were represented wearing tores, probably because the prestige asso-
ciated with such ornaments among humans led to their use as indicators of
high rank in depictions of sacred images.
The torts found in the tombs of certain rich female graves of the fifth and
fourth centuries BC are of especial interest because they were decorated with
motifs-that may themselves represent images of women. The grave of the so-
called `princess' discovered in 1954 at Reinheim in Saarland (Germany) dates
to the late fifth or earlier fourth century BC. 24 The woman had been placed
in an oak-lined chamber with what appear to have been the entire
contents of her jewel-box, about two hundred items. The most
splendid ornaments were a set of gold ring-jewellery, com-
prising two arm-rings and a tore. Both the neck-ornament
and one of the armlets are decorated with images of
women with great birds of prey perched on their heads
(Fig. 95). This is idiosyncratic and unique iconography
which may well have possessed definite meaning:
we Could be observing the enactment of a myth, the
depiction of a goddess, a religious ceremony or a
hawking scene. Alternatively, what might be depicted
is the dead woman herself at the moment of her
apotheosis, her spirit-form represented by the bird.
Because of their power of flight, birds have been per-
ceived, in many belief-systems, as reflective of the free-
dom of the human soul from the body at death. The
choice of a hawk could be a metaphor for the woman's
Fig. 95. Detail of gold armiet depicting female figure, with a
bird of prey perched above her head. From a woman's grave at
Reinheim, Germany. Fourth century BC. DIAM. of armlet
8.1 cm.
190 ANCIENT GODDESsES

Some Gallo-British Goddesses 191

high status, since these birds have been and are, in many societies, associated
with the aristocratic sport of falconry. In the Reinheim imagery, we are faced
with the problem of how to identify this gynaecomorphic motif: is the depic-
tion that of a goddess or a mortal?
An object that clearly demonstrates a link between tores and goddesses is
the late Iron Age silver cauldron from Gundestrup in Jutland, probably dating
to the second or first century BC and found in a peat-bog in the late nineteenth
century. Controversy has long surrounded the origins and affiliations of this
vessel, which is arguably one of the most important pieces of Iron Age repre-
sentational art in existence. The arguments about its origins arise both from
technological and iconographical issues. 25 To my mind, the overwhelming
emphasis of the imagery is Gaulish, 26 and we should not forget that the caul-
dron itself, as a cult-vessel, has a long western European pedigree. 27 Moreover,
the cauldron had been deliberately dismantled and purposely placed on a dry
spot in the middle of a marsh: these are all features of ritual that have good
Fig. 96 a) Gilded silver cauldron decorated
parallels in the pre-Roman European Iron Age. One explanation for the
with mythologica1 and ritua1 scenes. First
presence of a valuable Gaulish cauldron in Denmark could be plunder: we century BC. From the Raevemose Bog,
know from classical literary evidence (Appian Celtica 13; Livy Peroicha LXIlI; Gundestrup, Jutland, Denmark. DIAM. 69 cm.
Caesar De Bello Gallico VIl, 77) that the Danish tribe of the Cimbri period-
b) Detail from two outer plates of the
ically raided areas of Gaul during the later second century BC. According to
Gundestrup cauldron, depicting goddesses
the first century BC/AD Greek geographer Strabo, the Cimbri shared many wearing torcs.
customs with the Gauls and Britons (including the use of sacred cauldrons and
human sacrifice: Gographia VII, 2, 3); they may well have presented the
cream of their booty to their own gods after a successful raid. woman's hair; on another, she is
The cauldron is of relevance to the present enquiry because it bears several accompanied by a small dancing figure
images of females wearing tores. The vessel is constructed of thirteen gilded and a diminutive male wrestling with a
silver plates: five inner, seven outer sheets- and a base-plate, all decorated with lion; on the third outer plate, the cen-
a mixture of repouss-work and engraving (Fig. 96a). The inner plates have tral female is flanked by two smaller figures, one male and bearded, the other
much more complex iconography than the smaller outer ones, and they appear (probably a female) wearing a torc. 28 The main female image is always repre-
to depict narrative scenes, perhaps episodes in a mythological system; the outer sented merely by the head and upper torso, which is very large in proportion
plates are essentially portraits of gods, humans or heroes, with the head as the to the other motifs that accompany her. This is consistent with depictions of
focus. Female figures appear on one of the inner plates and on three outer the central male images on the outer plates.
ones: they are distinguished by the presence of breasts and long, braided hair It is impossible for us even to begin to interpret this complicated iconogra-
and they all wear torts (Fig. 96b), whereas very few of the many male images phy, though some braver than I have made just such an attempt. 29 A complex
have neckrings. The four male figures on the outer plates all wear beards (each mythology, maybe even a theogony, may be represented which, in the absence
one slightly different, as is the case with the arrangement of the hair, suggest- of contemporary western European literature, is necessarily- hidden from us.
ing that four different individuals are depicted). Each female head is adorned But one or two points about the female depictions may be worth making. The
with a diadem and all four bear a striking resemblance one to the other. The invariable presence of the tore seems to be an important element in their
woman on the inner plate is flanked by two small wheels, perhaps belonging to iconography, as is their essential homogeneity. The pattern on the cauldron as
a cart or chariot; she has a strange animal, looking like a cross between an a whole appears to be that status and size are related; some figures are much
elephant and a hyena, on each side of her and beneath her are two griffins larger than others and, in general, it seems reasonable to interpret the bigger
flanking a wolf. On one of the outer plates, the large central female figure is images as those of deities. The cauldron was undoubtedly used for a sacred
attended by two much smaller females, one of whom is braiding the main purpose: its value, its iconography and its manner of deposition allow of no

192 ANClENT GODDESSES
other explanation for its function. The identity of neither the male nor the
female figures can be ascertained, but the homogeneous treatment of the
female depictions, in particular, raises questions of identity. It is possible that
the viewer was meant to see a single goddess, perhaps enacting different parts
of a mythic narrative; alternatively, if the images represent different goddess-
es, their unified depiction may be meant to convey messages about their close
relationship one to another.
Curing and cursing
The great healing cult-establishment dedicated to the British goddess Sulis at
Bath presents a curious and apparently paradoxical aspect of goddess-worship,
in which the same divine entity was both beneficent and maleficent and could
with equal facility help the visitors to her sanctuary and harm those who com-
mitted sacrilege by stealing from her devotees. Although there is some minor
evidence for religious activity at Bath before the Roman period, probably
reflecting the general absence of tangible pre-Roman votive offerings, the site
was transformed under Roman influence. Only about twenty or thirty years
after the invasion of Britain (AD 43) the shrine, with its hot springs producing
about a quarter of a million gallons of mineral-rich water a day, was monu-
mentalized by Roman engineers: a great classical temple and altar were
constructed, together with other buildings, including an elaborate set of baths;
the native goddess, Sulis, was linked or conflated with the Roman goddess
Minerva. 30 The Romans brought with them to the lands they subjugated such
as Gaul and Britain a tradition of carving divine (and secular) images in
stone, naturalistic representation of gods and humans as commonplace, and
the use of epigraphy (inscriptions). This means that permanent and unequiv-
ocal records of how deities were perceived, what their names were and the
nature of their functions are available for study. The identity of non-Classical
gods and goddesses in the pre-Roman Iron Age is a matter of speculation; we
are on surer ground at such sites as Roman Bath. This permanence of record
also had the effect of codifying the nature and function of divinities, thus pre-
scribing the fluidity of identity that was arguably present in the pre-Roman
period. Despite the heavy influence of Roman culture on Sulis' sanctuary, she
was nonetheless an indigenous British goddess, and was acknowledged as
such throughout the nearly four centuries of the shrine's active use. Although
the great gilded bronze cult-statue of the goddess depicted her in entirely
Classical form, the many inscriptions which mention her (with one exception)
put Sulis' name before that of Minerva. 31
Roman Gaul and Britain possessed many healing sanctuaries whose foci
were sacred springs, with either genuine or alleged therapeutic properties.
Many of these shrines that of Sequana at Fontes Sequanae near Dijon in
Burgundy, to name but one 32 were dedicated to goddesses, although other
Some Gallo British Goddesses
- 193
Fig. 97. Lead defixio (curse
tablet) found in 1880 in the
reservoir of the sacred
spring dedicated to the
British goddess Sulis
Minerva at Bath. Romano-
British (probably third or
fourth century AD). The
text reads 'May he who has
stolen Vilbia from me
become as liquid as water
... who has stolen her.
Velvinna, Exsupereus,
Verianus, Severinus,
Augustalis, Comitianus,
Minianus, Catus,
Germanilla, Jovina'.
H. 6.8 cm.
Gaulish curative spring sanctuaries were dedicated to male healer deities, like
Apollo Vindonnus at Essarois or Apollo Moritasgus at Alesia 33 (both in
Burgundy). But the cult of Sulis appears to have been distinctive in that one
category of the votive offerings cast into her sacred spring betrays a negative,
harmful facet of her nature and responsibilities. This group of gifts consists of
130 lead or pewter curse-tablets (defixiones) which were inscribed in a cursive,
formulaic script and tightly rolled up before being deposited in the great reser-
voir formed by the largest of the three main springs 34 (Fig. 97). The curses
convey messages to the goddess, outlining the grievance of the devotee (usually
theft of some personal item from the temple-precinct), and demanding
vengeance. If we bear in mind that Sulis' main function was that of a healer, it
is ironically fitting that the curses should seek retribution in the form of ill-
health, sleeplessness or infertility. A striking feature of the curses is that the
proposed punishment seems unduly harsh compared to the crime: the loss of
a pair of gloves might cost the malefactor his sight; for the theft of a cloak, a
man might forfeit his life:
Docilianus son of Brucerus to the most holy goddess
Sulis. l curse him who has stolen my hooded cloak,
whether man or woman, whether slave or free, that ...the
goddess Sulis inflict death upon ... and not allow him
sleep or children now and in the future, until he has
brought my hooded cloak to the temple of her divinity. 35
194 ANClENT GODDESSES Some Gallo -British Goddesses 195

The nature of the curses ties the punishment closely to the character of Sulis
as a healer: what the goddess could grant she could as easily withhold; she
could give or take away, bless or blight. Presumably the vengeance requested
was especially savage because to the crime of theft was added the much more
serious act of sacrilege. The dual character of Sulis, in some respects, bears a
close resemblance to that of some goddesses of later myth: the Irish battle-
goddesses the Morrign, for instance combined intense sexuality/fertility
with equally concentrated destructive powers. The Morrign enjoyed a close
relationship with the great Ulster hero Cu Chulainn: if he did her bidding she
blessed him, if he spurned her, she attempted to destroy him.
One of the stone images found at Sulis' sanctuary was that of three god
desses, standing side by side. 36 They are usually identified as mother-goddesses,
and there is certainly substantive evidence for a cult of the Matres in the
West Country, perhaps with a centre at Cirencester. 37 Here, they are attested
epigraphically and, moreover, frequently appear in triplicate, accompanied by
children or babies, thus determining their maternal function unequivocally.
There is a great deal of evidence, particularly in Burgundian Gaul, for a close
link between the mother-goddesses and therapeutic spring shrines, probably
because of the very obvious connection between healing, regeneration/rebirth
and fertility. So their presence at Bath would seem entirely fit/ing.
Conclusion
The foregoing discussion has necessarily been both brief and highly selective.
Rather than present an overview of the evidence for ancient goddesses in
Europe during the lron Age and Roman periods, I have explored some avenues
which are both of specific interest to me and which at the same time
exemplify some of the interpretative problems that are intrinsic to a study of
religious iconography, particularly in a pre-literate context.
One feature that appears to be significant, in terms of image-making, is the
`otherness' sometimes clearly suggested in depictions of the supernatural.
In other cases, the ambivalence of certain iconography makes identification
of divine status extremely difficult. We have seen that the central figure on the
Stretweg wagon may be interpreted as a goddess, but could she, instead, have
been a priestess? Similarly, the female images on the tort and arm-ring from
the Reinheim grave may represent a deity or the dead woman herself. It is not
impossible that such apparent ambiguity may have been deliberate. As I
describe more fully in my book, Celtic Art: Reading the Messages, La Tne
art is full of double-meaning and fluidity in interpretation. 38
The recognition of dualism and polarity in the character of the goddesses
is important in trying to understand the belief-system which underpinned
their representation. The Lemington goddess is accompanied by emblems that
suggest opposites: plenty, on the one hand and destruction, on the other. The
persona of Sulis at Bath may reilect just such diametric opposition. Closer
scrutiny of such apparent paradoxes reveals that they resolve themselves,
particularly if we refer to parallel phenomena in the early Irish mythic literature.
Additionally, opposition - and dissonance in the iconography of western
European antiquity has a long history and may be associated with empower-
ment and the energy born of deliberate tensive friction. 39
The iconography of Gallo-British religion in the Iron Age and Roman peri-
ods, of which the goddesses form part (there were at least as many goddesses
as gods in Roman Gaul and Britain), has to be recognized as subtle, sophisti-
cated and full of meaning, just as is true for Iron Age European art as a whole.
But its essential `otherness' must not be underestimated. There may have been
deliberate obscurity, opacity and ambivalence in religious expression, possibly
because an element of secrecy or arcaneness could have been involved, perhaps
dictated by the priests, maybe even the Druids, 40 who were probably consulted,
on occasion, by image-makers or their patrons. Whether or not secrecy was a
relevant factor in cult image-making, it is the very `other' nature of such
iconography that renders it out of our interpretative reach.
Further reading -

Thus, we may infer divinity in respect of the warrior-horsewoman on some

Iron Age coins and on the Lemington goddess image because they hold their
weapons in the reverse hands to common secular practice, and because of their
nakedness.- In addition, the spear or sword held in their left hands could repre-
sent peaceful guardianship rather than actual combat. It is even possible that the
Otherworld of early Welsh and Irish mythic literature, in which after death
human beings dwelled in a supernatural realm that was the mirror-image of the
earthworld, is represented. 'Otherness' is likewise reflected in the presence of
the human-headed horse pulling the chariot driven by a woman on some north
Gaulish coins. Size may also convey the message of supernatural 'otherness': on
the Gundestrup Cauldron, the images of goddesses (and gods) can be inferred
because they are depicted so much bigger than the beings associated with them.
S. Billington and M. Green (eds), The Concept 0f the Goddess (Routledge: London, 1996).
M. Green, Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art (Routledge: London, 1989).
M. Green, Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins and Mothers (British Museum Press:
London, 1995).
M. Green, Celtic Art: Reading the Messages (Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London, 1996)
M. Green, Exploring the World 0f the Druids (Thames and Hudson: London, 1997).
M. Henig & A. King (eds), Pagan Gods and Shrines 0f the Roman Empire (Oxford
University Committee for Archaeology Monograph No. 8, Oxford, 1986).
R. and V. Megaw, Celtic Art: From its Beginnings to the Book of Kells (Thames and
Hudson: London, 1989). -
G. Olmsted, The Gundestrup Cauldron (Latomus: Brussels, 1979).

Notes
Introduction. Exploring
Female Divinity: from Modern
Myths to Ancient Evidence
1 J.J. Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht
(Krais and Hoffmann:
Stuttgart, 1861); in English as
J.J. Bachofen, Myth, Religion,
and Mother Right: Selected
Writings, trans. R. Mannheim
(Princeton University Press:
Princeton, 1973).
2 Bachofen, Myth, Religion
and Mother Right, 69.
3 E:B. Tylor, Primitive Culture
(London, 1871); L.H. Morgan,
Ancient Society (London, 1877);
discussed by J. Bamberger, The
myth of matriarchy: why men
rule in primitive society, in
M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere
(eds), Women, Culture, and
Society (Stanford University
Press: Stanford, 1974) 263-80,
esp 266-7.
4 J.G. Frazer, The Golden
Bough: A Study in Magic and
Religion. (Macmillan: London,
1911-1915).
5 Ronald Hutton has traced
these ideas back beyond Frazer
to Gerhardt, Antiquity 71(271)
(1997) 91-9. Frazer seems to
have been the one who brought
the idea to a wider public.
6 C.G. Jung, Symbols of
Transformation, trans. R.F. C.
Hull (Routledge: London, 1956)
211, 251, 295, 347-8, 355, 424,
442; The Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious, trans.
R.F. C. Hull (Routledge:
London, 1959).
7 E.O. James, The Cult of the
Mother Goddess: An
Archaeological and
Documentary Study (Thames
and Hudson: London, 1959) 11.
8 P.J. Ucko, Anthropomorphic
Figurines of Predynastic
Egypt and Neolithic Crete.
Royal Anthropological
Occasiona1 Paper No. 24
(Andrew Szmidla: London,
1968); A. Fleming, The myth of
the mother-goddess, World
Archaeology 1(2) (1969) 247-61.
9 I. Hodder, Theory and
Practice in Archaeology
(Routledge: London, 1992)
184-5.
10 V.J. Seidler, Man Enough:
Embodying Masculinities
(Sage Publications: London,
1997) 194; see also his
Unreasonable Men:
Masculinity and Social Theory
(Routledge: London, 1993).
11 Hodder, Theory and
Practice in Archaeology, 263-
74; A. Evans, The Palace of
Minos at Knossos III '
(Macmillan: London, 1936) 301
(for Evans' feverish vision of
the Priest King).
12 L. Meskell, The somatization
of archaeology: institutions,
discourses, corporeality,
Norwegian Archaeological
Review 29 (1996) 9.
13 Meskell, Somatization of
archaeology, 6.
14 Merlin Stone's book was
published in Britain under the
title The Paradise Papers: The
Suppression of Women's Rites
(Virago: London, 1976).
15 A. Long, In a Chariot
Drawn by Lions (Women's
Press: London, 1992).
16 E. Gould Davis, The First
Sex (Penguin: Harmondsworth,
1975); E.W. Gadon, The Once
and Future Goddess: A Symbol
for Our Time (Harper and Row:
San Francisco, 1989); R. Eisler,
The Chalice and the Blade: Our
History, Our Future (Harper
and Row: San Francisco, 1989).
17 Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology
(Beacon Press: Boston, 1978).
18 C.P. Christ, The Laughter of
Aphrodite (Harper and Row:
San Francisco, 1987); C.P.
Christ and J. Plaskow (eds),
Womanspirit Rising: A
Feminist Reader in Religion
(Harper and Row: San
Francisco, 1979); R. Ruether,
Womanguides: Readings
toward a Feminist Theology
(Beacon Press: Boston, 1985);
Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A
Rebirth of the Ancient
Religion of the Goddess
(Harper and Row: San Francisco,
1979); Dreaming the Dark:
Magic, Sex and Politics
(Beacon: Boston, 1982). For a
recent discussion of these and
other feminist writers on female
images of the divine, see D.
McCance, Understandings of
`the Goddess' in contemporary
feminist scholarship, in L.W.
Hurtado (ed.), Goddesses in
Religions and Modern Debates
(Scholars Press: Atlanta, 1990)
165-78.
19 L. Hughes-Hallett, review of
A. Baring and J. Cashford, The
Myth of the Goddess (Viking:
London, 1992), The
Independent (4-1-1992).
20 See Tringham and Conkey,
Chapter 1 in this volume; also.
G. Haaland and R. Haaland,
Who speaks the Goddess's
language? Imagination and
method in archaeological
research, Norwegian
Archaeological Review 28(2)
(1995) 105-21.
21 E.g. B. Fagan, A sexist view
of prehistory, Archaeology
45(2) (1992) 14-18.
22 E. Pagels, Adam, Eve and
the Serpent (Random House:
New York, 1988); U. Ranke -
Heinemann, Eunuchs for the
Kingdom of Heaven (Penguin:
Harmondsworth, 1991).
23 M. Grey, Redeeming the
Dream: Feminism, Redemption
and the Christian Tradition.
(Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge: London,
1989) 54-5.
24 Haaland and Haaland, Who
speaks the Goddess's
language?, 112.
25 Hodder, Theory and
Practice in Archaeology, 186-7.
Notes to Introduction, Chapter 1
26 R. Pollack, The Body of the
Goddess (Element: Shaftesbury,
1997) xi.
27 L.E. Talalay, A feminist
boomerang: the Great Goddess
of Greek prehistory, Gender
and History 6 (1994) 165-83.
28 G. Zukav, The Dancing Wu
Li Masters; an Overview of the
New Physics (Hutchinson:
London, 1979) 54; S.J.
Tambiah, Magic, Science,
Religion and the Scope of
Rationality (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge,
1990) 105-10.
29 A. Einstein and E. Infeld,
The Evolution of Physics
(Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, \971) 31.
30 Nor Hall, The Moon and
the Virgin: Reflections on the
Archetypical Feminine (The
Women's Press: London, 1980)
xiii, citing the poet Theodore
Roethke.
31 Juliette Wood's vigorous
criticism of Marija Gimbutas'
us of folklore revolves around
the same issue of
decontextualization; she
describes Gimbutas as 'flitting
from period to period and from
culture to culture with no
indication of context' (J. Wood,
The concept of the Goddess, in
S. Billington and M. Green
(eds), The Concept of the
Goddess (Routledge: London,
1997) 20.
32 Though not writing
specifically about archaeology
but about art in general, S.
Sontag, Against interpretation,
in E. Fernie, Art History and
its Methods (Phaidon: London,
1995) 222.
33 For a recent debate by a
number of archaeologists on
this topic:- Viewpoint: can we
interpret figurines? Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 6(2)
(1996) 281-307.
34 Haaland and Haaland, Who
speaks the Goddess's
language?, 117-18.
35 R. Padel, Between theory
and fiction: reflections on
feminism and classical
scholarship, Gender and
History 1 (1989) 205.
36 J.H. Breasted, The Conquest
of Civilization (Harper and
Brothers: New York and
London, 1938) 105.
37 The violent, aggressive
tendencies of some female
deities is well illustrated in a
number of papers in Billington
and Green (eds), The Concept
of the Goddess.
38 C. Renfrew, The
Archaeology of Cult: The
Sanctuary at Phylakopi
(Thames and Hudson: London,
1985) 11-26, esp. 16.
39 R. Williams, Problems in
Materialism and Culture:
Selected Essays (Verso/New
Left Books: London, 1980) 83-4.
40 L.P. Hartley, The Go-
Between (Heinemann: London,
1953) prologue.
41 Jung, Symbols of
Transformation, 251, 347.
42 D. Dinnerstein, The
Rocking of the Cradle and the
Ruling of the World (The
Women's Press: London, 1987).
43 Fleming, The myth of the
mother-goddess, 259.
44 P. Ucko, Mother, are you
there? Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 6(2)
(1996) 300-304.
45 Padel, Between theory and
fiction, 197-211
46 Hodder, Theory and
Practice in Archaeology, 187.
1 Rethinking Figurines:
A Critical View from
Archaeology of Gimhutas, the
'Goddess' and Popular Culture
1 E.g. in M.Gimbutas, The
Language of the Goddess
(Harper and Row: San Francisco,
1989); E.Gadon, The Once and
Future Goddess (Harper and
Row: San Francisco, 1989).
2 For further discussion of our
scepticism regarding such
'positive' values, see M.Conkey
and R.Tringham, Archaeology
and the Goddess: exploring the
contours of feminist
archaeology, in A. Stewart and
D. Stanton (eds), Feminisms in
the Academy: Rethinking the
197
Disciplines (University of
Michigan Press: Ann Arbor,
1995) 233, n. 13; and M.
diLeonardo, Introduction:
gender, culture and political
economy, feminist anthropology
in historical perspective, in M. -
diLeonardo (ed.), Gender at the
Crossroads of Knowledge:
Feminist Anthropology in the
Post-modern Era (University of
California Press: Berkeley and
Los Angeles, 1991) 26.
3 We would like to thank
Abigail Stewart and Donna
Stanton, the editors of
Feminisms in the Academy:
Rethinking the Disciplines,
and the University of Michigan
Press, for permission to quote
substantial extracts from that
paper, Conkey and Tringham,
Archaeology and the Goddess,
in this article.
4 M. Conkey and J. Gero,
Tensions, pluralities and
engendering archaeology: an
introduction Lo Women and
Prehistory, in J. Gero and M.
Conkey (eds), Engendering
Archaeology: Women and
Prehistory (Basil Blackwell:
Oxford, 1991) 3-30; M. Conkey
and J. Gero, From programme
to practice: Gender and femi-
nism in archaeology, Annual
Review of Anthropology 26
(1997) 411-37; A. Wylie,
Gender theory and the
archaeological record, in Gero
and Conkey (eds), Engendering
Archaeology, 31-56.
5 We use the term, `prehistory',
although we are uncomfortable
with the implication that the
peoples of 'prehistory' - that is,
those without writing systems
and our kinds of historical
record keeping and texts -
therefore had no history/
histories. Further, it is clear that
to most, but not all, authors of
the Goddess movement (cf. E.
Gadon, The Once and Future
Goddess, on India), human pre-
history is synonymous with
European-Mediterranean pre-
history; this is where the bulk
of the Goddess narratives are
set and it is from archaeological

198
contexts in this region that the
primary evidence is marshalled.
We are also uncomfortable
about treating this so-called
prehistory as a somehow
homogeneous block of time
and human culture.
6 Chapters by E. Brumfiel,
M. Conkey and J. Gero, J. Gero,
C. Hastorf, R. Wright in Gero
and Conkey (eds), Engendering
Archaeology; J. Barrett, Food,
gender and metal: questions of
social reproduction, in M.L.S.
Sorensen and R.Thomas (eds),
The Bronze Age-Iron Age
Transition in Europe Vol.II.
BAR International Series No.
483 (Oxford, 1989) 304-20; E.
Brumfiel, Breaking and entering
the ecosystem gender, class
and factions steal the show,
American Anthropologist 94(3)
(1992) 551-67; C.Claassen (ed.),
Women in Archaeology
(University of Pennsylvania
Press: Philadelphia, 1994);
Conkey and Gero, From pro-
gramme to practice, 411-37;
R. Joyce,The construction of
gender in classic Maya monu-
ments, in R.Wright (ed.),
Gender and Archaeology
(University of Pennsylvania
Press: Philadelphia, 1996) 167-
98; S.Nelson, Gender in
Archaeology (AltaMira Press:
Walnut Creek Ca, 1997);
J.Spector, What This Awl
Means (University of Minnesota
Press: Minneapolis, 1993);
R.Tringham, Engendered
places in prehistory, Gender,
Place and Culture 1(2) (1994)
169-203; R. Tringham,
Archaeological houses, house-
holds, housework and the
home, in D. Benjamin and D.
Stea (eds), The Home: Words,
Interpretations, Meanings and
Environments (Avebury Press:
Aldershot, 1995) 79-107;
Wright (ed.), Gender and
Archaeology, 1-22; A.Wylie,
Matters of fact and matters of
interest, in S. Shennan (ed.),
Archaeological Approaches to
Cultural Identity (Unwin,
Hyman Ltd: London, 1989).
7 M.Gimbutas, Women and
culture in Goddess-oriented Old
Europe, in J.Plaskow and
C. Christ (eds), Weaving the
Visions: New Patterns in
Feminist Spirituality (Harper
and Row: San Francisco, 1989)
63.
8 See note 7.
9 L. Meskell, Goddesses,
Gimbutas and `New Age'
archaeology, Antiquity 69
(1995) 74-86.
10 R. Tringham, Review of
M.Gimbutas, Civilization of
the Goddess, American
Anthropologist 95(1) (1993)
196-7.
11 Tringham, Engendered
places in prehistory, 189.
12 R. Eisler, The Chalice and
the Blade (Harper and Row:
San Francisco, 1987); Gadon, .
The Once and Future Goddess;
even G. Lerner, The Creation of
Patriarchy (Oxford University
Press: New York, 1986).
13 D. Bailey, The interpretation
of figurines: the emergence of
illusion and new ways of seeing,
Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 6(2) (1996) 291-95; G.
Haaland and R. Haaland, Levels
of meaning in symbolic objects,
Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 6(2) (1996) 295-300;
N. Iamilton, The personal is
political, Cambridge
Archaeological Journal 6 (2)
(1996) 282-85; J. Marcus, The
importance of context in
interpreting figurines,
Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 6(2) (1996) 285-91; R.
Ucko, Mother, are you there?,
Cambridge Archaeological
Journal 6(2) (1996) 300-304.
14 P. Ucko, Anthropomorphic
Figures of Predynastic Egypt
and Neolithic Crete (Andrew
Szmidla: London, 1968).
15 M.-A. Dobres, Representa-
tions of Palaeolithic visual
imagery. simulacra and their
alternatives, Kroeber
Anthropological Society Papers
73-74 (1992) 1-25; M.-A. Dobres,
Reconsidering Venus figurines:
a feminist inspired re-analysis,
in A.S.Goldsmith, S. Garvie, D.
Selin and J. Smith (eds), Ancient
ANClENT GODDESSES
Images, Ancient Thought: The
Archaeology of Ideology
(Chacmool, The Archaeological
Association, University of
Calgary: Calgary, Alberta, 1992)
245-62; Meskell, Goddesses,
Gimbutas, and `New Age'
archaeology.
16 Hamilton, The personal is
political.
17 P. Rice, Prehistoric Venuses:
symbols of motherhood or
womanhood? Journal of
Anthropological Archaeology
37(4) (1981) 402-14.
18 K. Bolen, Prehistoric con-
struction of mothering, in C.
Claassen (ed.), Exploring
Gender Through Archaeology.
Monographs in World
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Press: Madison, Wise., 1992).
19 D. Collins and J. Onians,
The origins of art, Art History
I (1) (1978) 12-13.
20 R. Mack, Reading the
archaeology of the female body,
Qui Parle 4(1) (1990) 79-97.
21 See note 20 and R. Mack,
Gendered site: archaeology,
representation and the female
body, in Goldsmith et al. (eds),
Ancient Images, Ancient
Thought, 235.
22 Hamilton, The personal is
polit icl; Meskell, Goddesses,
Gimbutas and 'New-Age'
archaeology.
23 D. Bailey, Reading prehistoric
figurines as individuals, World
Archaeology 25 (3) 322-31; P.
Biehl, Overcoming the 'Mother-
Goddess-Movement': a new
approach to the study of
human representations,
Proceedings of the Latvian
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Dobres, Reconsidering Venus
Figurines, in Goldsmith et al.
(eds), Ancient Images, Ancient
Thought; S. Nelson, Diversity
of the Upper Palaeolithic
'Venus' figurines and
archaeological mythology, in S.
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Powers of Observation:
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Archaeology (American
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24 H. Delporte, L'Image de la
Femme dans l'Art
Prhistorique (Picard: Paris,
1979); R. Ucko and A.
Rosenfeld, Anthropomorphic
Representations in
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25 O. Soffer, The mutability of
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M. Conkey, O. Soffer, D.
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26 Bailey, Reading prehistoric
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27 P. Biehl, Symbolic
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28 Biehl, Symbolic.
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29 D. Bailey, Beyond Gods and
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30 M. Gimbutas, The
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the World of Old Europe
(Harper and Row: San
Francisco, 1991).
31 Biehl, Overcoming the
`Mother-Goddess-Movement
Biehl, Symbolic communication
systems.
32 Bailey, Reading prehistoric
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33 Hamilton, The personal is
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34 Marcus, The importance of
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35 (See Delporte, L'Image de la
Femme).
36 M. Gvozdover, Ornamenta1
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199
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figurines of the Kostenki
Palaeolithic culture, Female
Imagery in the Palaeolithic,
32-94.
37 Dobres, Reconsidering
Venus figurines.
38 Bailey, Beyond Gods and
Goddesses; D. Bailey, The
interpretation of figurines,
291-95; Bailey, Reading
prehistoric figurines; Biehl,
Overcoming the 'Mother-
Goddess-Movement ; Marcus,
The importance of context;
Meskell, Goddesses, Gimbutas
and `New Age' archaeology. -
39 Meskell, Goddesses,
Gimbutas and `New Age'
archaeology, 76.
40 E.g., Marcus, The
importance of context.
41 E.g., R. Tringham,
Introduction: the Selevac
archaeological project, in R.
Tringham and D. Krstic (eds),
Selevac: a Neolithic Village in
Yugoslavia, 1-12.
42 Bailey, Beyond Gods and
Goddesses; Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems;
Marangou, Figurines et
miniatures; Milojkovic, The
anthropomorphic and
zoomorphic figurines from
Selevac; Talalay, Rethinking
the function of clay-legs;
Talalay, Deities, Dolls and
Devices; M. Voigt, Hajji Firuz
Tepe, Iran: the Neolithic
Settlement (University Museum,
University of Pennsylvania:
Philadelphia, 1983).
43 R. Tringham, M. Stevanovic
and B.Brukner (eds), Opovo:
the Construction of a
Prehistoric Place in Europe
(Archaeological Research Facility
Publications, University of
California, Berkeley: Berkeley,
in press).
44 Gimbutas, Civilization of
the Goddess; Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems.
45 Milojkovic, The
anthropomorphic and .
zoomorphic figurines from
Selevac.

200
46 M. Stevanovic, The Age of
Clay: The Social Dynamics of
House Destruction (PhD thesis,
University of California,
Berkeley: Berkeley, 1996); M.
Stevanovic and R. Tringham,
The significance of Neolithic
houses in the archaeological
record of south-east Europe, in
Z. Mikic (ed.), Zbo'nik posvectin
Dragoslavu Srejovicu
(Balkanoloski lnstitut: Beograd,
in press); R. Tringham, Z.V.
Brukner and Z. Krstic, The
Opovo Project: a study of
socio-economic change in the
Balkan Neolithic. 2nd
preliminary report. Journal of
Field Archaeology 19(3) (1992)
351-86.
47 R. Tringham, Selevac in the
wider context of European pre-
history, in Tringham and Krstic
(eds), Selevac: a Neolithic
Village in Yuogoslavia, 567-
616.
48 I. Hodder, The meaning of
discard: ash and domestic space
in Baringo, in S. Kent (ed.),
Method and Theory for
Activity Area Research: An
Ethnoarchaeo logical Approach
(Columbia University Press:
New York, 1987) 424-8;
H. Moore, Space, Text and
Gender (Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge, 1986);
C. Richards and J. Thomas,
Ritual activity and structured
deposition in Later Neolithic
Wessex, in R. Bradley and
J. Gardiner (eds), Neolithic
Studies: a Review of Some
Current Research. BAR British
Series No.133 (Oxford, 1984)
189-217.
49 Biehl, Overcoming the
`Mother- Goddess-Movement';
Biehl, Symbolic communication
systems.
50 Wylie, Matters of fact and
matters of interest.
51 D. Bailey, Representing
gender: homology or .
propaganda, Journal of
European Archaeology 2(2)
(1994) 193-202.
52 Ucko, Mother, are you
there?, 303.
53 C. Gamble, Interaction and
alliance in Palaeolithic society.
Man (NS) 17(1) (1982) 92-107;
C. Gamble, The social context
for European Palaeolithic art,
Proceedings of the Prehistoric
Society 57(1) (1991) 3-15.
54 C. McCoid and L.
McDermott, Towards
Decolonizing Gender: Female
Vision in the Upper
Palaeolithic (Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the
American Anthropological
Association, San Francisco, Ca.,
1992).
55 See note 54; also
L. McDermott, Self-
representation in Upper
Palaeolithic female figurines,
Current Anthropology 37(2)
(1996) 227-75.
56 A. Kehoe, The weaver's
wraith, in D. Walde and
N. Willows (eds), The
Archaeology of Gender
(Chacmool, The Archaeological
Association, University of
Calgary: Calgary, Alberta, 1991)
430-5.
57 A. Marshack, The Roots of
Civilization: The Cognitive
Beginnings of Man's First Art,
Symbols and Notation
(McGraw Hill: New York, 1972).
58 Soffer, The mutability of
Upper Palaeolithic art.
59 Gvozdover, Ornamental
decoration; Gvozdover, The
typology of female figurines.
60 L. Conroy, Upper
Palaeolithic figurines and the
emergence of gender; in
H. duCros and L. Smith (eds),
Women in Archaeology: A
Feminist Critique. Department
of Prehistory Occasional
Monographs 22 (Australian
National University: Canberra,
1993) 153-60.
61 R. Tringham, Selevac in the
wider context of European pre-
history, 567-616; R. Tringham,
Households with faces: the
challenge of gender in
prehistoric architectural
remains, in Gero and Conkey
(eds), Engendering
Archaeology, 113-15.
62 Compare Bailey, The
interpretation of figurines; J.
ANCIENT GODDESSES
Chapman, The Vinca Culture.
BAR International Series
No.117 (Oxford, 1981);
J. Chapman, Regional study of
the North Sumadija region, in
R. Tringham and D. Krstic
(eds), Selevac: a Neolithic
Village in Yugoslavia, 13-44;
Gimbutas, The Goddesses and
Gods of Old Europe; Gimbutas,
Civilization of the Goddess;
A. Sherratt, Social evolution:
Europe in the later Neolithic
and Copper Ages, in J. Bintliff
(ed.), European Social
Evolution (University of
Bradford: Bradford, 1984) 123-
4; Tringham, Selevac in the
wider context of European pre-
history; A. Whittle, Europe in
the Neolithic: the Creation of
New Worlds (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge,
1996).
63 Chapman, Regional study
of the North Sumadija region;
Tringham, Selevac in the wider
context of European prehistory.
64 D. Bailey, The living house:
signifying continuity, in R.
Samson (ed.), The Social
Archaeology of Houses
(Edinburgh University Press:
Edinburgh, 1990) 19-48;
J. Chapman, The early Balkan
village, in Neolithic of
Southeastern Europe and its
Near Eastern Connections Vol.
l\ (Varia Archaeologica
Hungarica: Budapest, 1989)
33-55; Tringham, Selevac in the
wider context of European
prehistory; Tringham, The
Selevac archaeological project;
Tringham et al., The Opovo
project.
65 See note 64.
66 Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems.
67 Tringham, Selevac in the
wider context of European
prehistory.
68 Stevanovic and Tringham,
The significance of Neolithic
houses; M. Stevanovic,
Production of architecture in
the age of clay, Journal of
Anthropological Archaeology
16 (1997) 334-95; Stevanovic,
The Age of Clay; Tringham,
Notes to Chapter 1
Engendered places in prehistory;
R. Tringham and M. Stevanovic,
Archaeological excavation of
Selevac 1976-78, in Tringham
and Krstic (eds), Selevac: a
Neolithic Village in Yugoslavia.
69 Stevanovic, The Age of
Clay; Stevanovic, Production of
architecture in the age of clay;
Stevanovic and Tringham, The
significance of Neolithic
houses; Tringham, Houses with
faces; Tringham, Engendered
places in prehistory:
70 Biehl, Overcoming the
'Mother-Goddess-Movement',
120.
71 Bailey, Reading prehistoric
figurines.
72 H. Todorova, Klasifikaciya
na idolnata plastika of Golyamo
Delchevo, Izvestiya na
Arkheologicheskaya Institut 36
(1978).
73 For individual identity:
Bailey, The living house; Bailey,
Beyond Gods and Goddesses;
Bailey, Reading prehistoric
figurines as individuals; for a
more complex meaning: Bailey,
Representing gender; Bailey,
The interpretation of figurines.
74 Gimbutas, Civilization of
the Goddess; Chapman,
Regional study of the North
Sumadija region; Sherratt,
Social evolution; Tringham,
Selevac in the wider context of
European prehistory.
75 Gimbutas, Civilization of
the Goddess, 352-401.
76 D. Anthony, Nazi and
eco-feminist prehistories:
counterpoints in lndo-
European archaeology, in P.
Kohl and C. Fawcett (eds),
Nationalism, Politics and the
Practice of Archaeology
(Cambridge University Press:
Cambridge, 1996); Haaland and
Haaland, Who speaks the
Goddess's language?; C.
Renfrew, The Archaeology of
Language: the Puzzle of Indo-
European Origins (Jonathan
Cape: London, 1987); M.
Zvelebil, Farmers, our ancestors
and the identity of Europe, in
P. Graves-Brown, S. Jones and
C. Gamble (eds), Cultural
Identity and Archaeology
(Routledge: London and New
York, 1996) 145-66.
77 Chapman, Regional study
of the North Sumadija region;
Sherratt, Social evolution; I.
Hodder, The Domestication of
Europe (Basil Blackwel\: Oxford,
1991); Tringham, Selevac in
the wider context of European
prehistory.
78 Haaland and Haaland, Who
speaks the Goddess's
language?; Haaland and
Haaland, Levels of meaning in
symbolic objects; Ucko, Mot he;
are you there?.
79 E. Goring, The
anthropomorphic figurines, in
E. Peltenburg (ed.), The Lembo
Archaeological Project. Vol.ll.2
Studies in Mediterranean
Archaeology LXX.3, (Paul
Astrms Frlag: Gteborg,
1991).
80 Bailey, The living house;
Bailey, Reading prehistoric
figurines; Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems;
Haaland and Haaland, Who
speaks the Goddess's
language?
81 Bailey, Beyond Gods and
Goddesses; Gimbutas, The
Language of the Goddess;
Marcus, The importance of
context.
82 Talalay, Rethinking the
function of clay legs; Talalay,
Deities, Dolls and Devices.
83 Ucko, Anthropomorphic
Figurines.
84 Bailey, The interpretation of
figurines.
85 Biehl, Symbolic communica-
tion systems, 118.
86 See also Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems, 106;
Haaland and Haaland, Who
speaks the Goddess's
language?, 106.
87 I. Hodder, Symbols in
Action (Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge, 1982); I.
Hodder, The contextual
analysis of symbolic meanings,
in I. Hodder (ed.), The
Archaeology of Contextual
Meanings (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge,
201
1987) 1-10; Hodder, The
Domestication of Europe; H.
Morphy, From dull to brilliant:
the aesthetics of spiritual power
among the Yolngu, Man 24
(1989) 21-40; M. Strathern, The
Gender of the Gift: Problems
with Women and Problems
with Society in Melanesia
(University of California Press:
Berkeley, 1988); V. Turner,
Forest of Symbols: Aspects of
Ndembu Ritual (Cornell
University Press: Ithaca, NY,
1968); Ucko, Mothe; are you
there?, 303; A. Gell, Wrapping
in Images (Clarendon Press:
Oxford, 1993); Marcus, The
importance of context, 286.
88 M. Gimbutas, The temples
of Old Europe, Archaeology 38
(1980) 41-50.
89 K. Hegedus and J. Makkay,
Vszto-Magor, in P. Raczky -
(ed.), The Late Neolithic of
the Tisza Region (Directorate
of Szolnok County Museums:
Budapest-Szolnok, 1987).
90 Gimbutas, Civilization of
the Goddess, Fig. 3.26.
91 See also Biehl, Symbolic
communication systems.
92 E.g., as Gimbutas does at
Sabatinovka (Gimbutas,
Civilization of the Goddess,
260-61).
93 See also Ucko, Mother, are
you there?, 303.
94 E.g., Bailey, Beyond Gods
and Goddesses; Tringham,
Selevac in the wider context of
European prehistory.
95 S. Ardener, Perceiving
Women (Malaby: London, 1975);
Bailey, Representing gender.
96 Ucko, Mother; are you there?,
301; Haaland and Haaland,
Levels of meaning in symbolic
objects, 298; R. Tringham, Men
and women in prehistoric
architecture. Traditional
Dwellings and Settlements
Review III (1) (1991) 9-28.
97 L. Donley, House power:
Swahili space and symbolic
markers, in l. Hodder (ed.),
Symbolic and Structural
Archaeology (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge,
1982) 63-73; Hodder, The

202 ANClENT GODDESSES Notes to Chapters 1, 2, 3 203

Domestication of Europe; (Cambridge University Press: (Thames and Hudson: London, 29 This is discussed further in upper case. In both languages, transmit information over time
Moore, Space, Text and Gender; Cambridge, 1903). 1990). I. Hodder (ed.,), On the Surface. syllabic homophony occurs - and space. This led to the
Tringham, Men and women in 7 atal Hyk: A Neolithic 21 R Streep, Sanctuaries of the 30 Hodder, On the Surface. i.. different signs have the same expansion of long-distance
prehistoric architecture; Town in Anatolia (Thames and Goddess: The Sacred Land- 31 Hodder, On the Surface. phonetic values. In order to trade, concentration of power
Tringham, Engendered places Hudson: London, 1967) 201. scapes and Objects (Bulfinch 32 Hodder, On the Surface; also distinguish between these in the hands of an elite, and the
in prehistory. 8 J.G. Frazer, The Golden Press: Boston, 1994) 46. Townsend, The Goddess: fact, homophonic signs, they are beginnings of a written
98 Hodder, The Domestication Bough (Wordsworth Editions 22 See Townsend, The fallacy, 191. tagged with different symbols literature. Southern
of Europe. Ltd: Ware, 1993, 1922) 331. Goddess: fact, fallacy 174 for 33 See Tim Taylor's analysis in and numbers such as ur, r, r, Mesopotamia was populated by
99 Anthony, Nazi and eco- 9 'R. Hutton,The Neolithic an explanation of this. The Prehistory of Sex: Four ur 4 . The symbol indicates the the Sumerians, a people of
feminist prehistories; Ucko, great goddess: a study in 23 Meskell, Goddesses, Million Years of Human sound sh, as in 'shop', the unknown origin, who founded
Mother, are you there?, 304. modern tradition, Antiquity Gimbutas and `New Age' Sexual Culture (Fourth Estate: symbol represents an aleph, a the southern city-states, and the
100 E.g., Tringham, Selevac in 71(271) (1997) 91-9. archaeology, 79. London, 1996). glottal stop, the symbol Akkadians, a Semitic people
the wider context of European 10 R. Hutton, The Pagan 24 Poem taken from an audio 34 E. Hobsbawm, Introduction: represents an ayin, a named after their capital city of
prehistory. Religions of the British Isles tape interview with Marija Inventing traditions, in E. pharyngeal voiced fricative. Akkade, who had arrived in the
101 Cf. Marcus, The (Blackwell: Oxford, 1991) 40. Gimbutas, The age of the Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (eds), Small capitals are used to - northern part of the alluvial
importance of context, 290. 11 J. Mellaart, Earliest Goddess: ancient roots of the The Invention of Tradition represent logograms, signs plain. Six centuries of small
102 Haaland and Haaland, Who Civilizations of the Near East emerging feminine (Cambridge University Press: representing whole words warring city-states were followed
speaks the Goddess's lan- (Thames and Hudson: London, consciousness, Sounds True Cambridge, 1983) 1-14. rather in the fashion of Chinese by the first nation-state and
guage?, 114. 1965) 77. Recordings, (1992) Boulder. # characters. empire known to history, that
103 Meskell, Goddesses, 12 J.B. Townsend, The A192. 4 F.A.M. Wiggermann, The- - of the Old Akkadians. This was
Gimbutas and `New Age' Goddess: fact, fallacy and 25 J. Bamberger, The myth of 3 Goddesses of the Ancient succeeded by the Neo-Sumerian
Staff of Ninsubura, Jaarbericht
archaeology. revitalisation movement, in matriarchy: why men rule in Near East 3000-1000 BC Ex Oriente Lux 29 (1985-86) Empire, founded by the third
104 J.-P. Bourdier, Reading LW. Hurtado (ed.), Goddesses primitive society, in M.Z. 1 See my forthcoming article: 28-9. dynasty of Ur.
tradition, in J.-P. Bourdier and in Religions and Modern Rosaldo and L. Lamphere (eds), King by Love of Inanna - an 5 Cuneiform, meaning 'wedged- 10 F.A.M. Wiggermann,
N. AlSayyad (eds), Dwellings, Debate (Scholars Press: Woman, Culture and Society image of female empowerment?, shaped writing' (from Latin Theologies, priests, and worship
Settlements and Traditions: Atlanta, 1990) 191. (Stanford University Press: NIN, Annual of Ancient Near cuneus 'a wedge'), refers to the in Ancient Mesopotamia, in
Cross-Cultural Perspectives 13 My thanks to Mehmet Stanford, 1974) 280. Eastern Gender Studies, 1, script used in Mesopotamia and J.M. Sasson, (ed.), Civilizations
(University Press of America: zdogan for this information. 26 There is evidence of which examines this issue in the neighbouring regions for of the Ancient Near East llI
Lanham, Md., 1989); 14 Townsend, The Goddess: somewhat mixed assemblages relation to the worshippers of writing on clay tablets. The (Macmillan: New York, 1995)
Tringham, Men and women in fact, fallacy, 193. where men could be buried Inanna. signs were formed by pressing a 1867-9.
prehistoric architecture. 15 J. Mellaart, The Neolithic of with necklaces and women with 2 Representations of divine rectangular-ended instrument 11 B.Alster and A.Westenholz,
105 Tringham, Engendered the Near East, 114. maceheads. The range of goods figures in the ancient Near East into the soft clay to leave wedge- The Barton Cylinder, Acta
places in prehistory; Tringham, 16 L.M. Meskell, Goddesses, appearing in burials is quite are characterized by horned shaped impressions. Sumerologica, 16 (1994) 26
Archaeological houses; Gimbutas and `New Age' varied: jewellery, obsidian and headdresses, which are absent 6 J.S. Cooper, Gendered lines i 12-14.
Tringham, Households with archaeology, Antiquity 69 flint tools, bone tools and in these figurines. sexuality in Sumerian love 12 G. Leick, Sex and Eroticism
faces. - (1995) 82. implements, ground stone tools, 3 The languages spoken in poetry, in I.L. Finkel and M.J. in Mesopotamian Literature
17 See M. Gimbutas, The textiles, vessels, paint, stamp ancient Mesopotamia belonged Geller (eds), Sumerian Gods (Routledge: London, 1994) 13-
Goddesses and Gods of Old seals and mirrors. See to two unrelated language and Their Representations 14.
2 Twin Peaks: the
Europe (University of l. Hodder (ed.), On the Surface. families. While the Sumerian (Styx Publications: Groningen, 13 M. Civil, On Mesopotamian
Archaeologies of atalhyiik
California Press: Los Angeles, atalhyak 1993-5 (McDonald language has no known relations, 1997) 85-97. jails and their lady warden, in
1 J. Mellaart, The Neolithic of 1982) and R. Pollack, The body lnstitute: Cambridge, 1997). the Akkadian language 7 G. Colbow, Die Kriegerische M.E. Cohen, D.C. Snell and
the Near East (Thames and of the Goddess, in V. Noble 27 M. Bloch and J. Parry, (including dialects of Old Istar - Zu den D.B. Weisberg (eds), The Tablet
Hudson: London, 1975) 115. (ed.), Uncoiling the Snake: Introduction: Death and the Akkadian, Babylonian and Erscheinungsformen bewaffneter and the Scroll, Near Eastern
2 J. Mellaart, Excavations at Ancient Patterns in regeneration of life, in Assyrian) belongs to the well- Gottheiten zwischen der Mitte Studies in Honor of William
atal Hyk, first preliminary Contemporary Women's Lives M. Bloch and J. Parry (eds), known Semitic family which des 3. and der Mitte des 2. W Hallo (CDL Press:
report, 1961, Anatolian (Harper San Francisco: New Death and the Regeneration includes Hebrew and Arabic. Jahrtausends (Profil Verlag: Bethesda, 1993) 72-8.
Studies 12 (1964) 57. York, 1993) 99-117. of Life (Cambridge University Scholars have evolved-generally Munich, 1991). 14 Various writings of the name
3 O.G.S. Crawford, The Eye 18 Gimbutas, The Goddesses Press: Cambridge, 1982) 33.
- agreed conventions for 8 A. Deimel, Panatheon of the Semitic goddess Ishtar
Goddess (Phoenix House: and Gods, 152. - 28 Meskell, Goddesses, representing these languages in Babylonicum, Nomina Deorum occur in the cuneiform
London, 1957); E. T. Vermeille, 19 R. Eisler, The goddess of Gimbutas and `New Age' - the Latin alphabet: Akkadian is (Sumptibus Pontificii Instituti literature. The syllabic writing
Greece in the Bronze Age nature and spirituality: an archaeology, 76. I should also printed in italics in normal word Biblici: Rome, 1914). originally reflected a syllabic
(University of Chicago Press: ecomanifesto, in J. Campbell point out that there are division (e.g. bastu) while - 9 Mesopotamia, roughly the spelling as-dar = `Astar, the Old
Chicago, 1964). and C. Muss (eds), In All Her significant regional variations Sumerian is printed in ordinary region of modern Iraq, was the Akkadian pronunciation of the
4 J. Mellaart, Excavations at Names: Explorations of the during the Neolithic between (Roman) type with the signs cradle of civilization which saw goddess's name. By the end of
atal Hyk, 1963, Anatolian Feminine in Divinity (Harper Anatolian sites like atalhyk that make up a single word the birth of urbanization and a the third millennium, this
Studies 14 (1964) 14, 49. San Francisco: New York, 1991) and Hailar. This suggests that separated by dashes (e.g. a-gub- hierarchical society in the later developed into Estar and from
5 Mellaart, Excavations at 3-4, 8. we should consider regionality ba). Sumerian signs whose part of the fourth millennium that, irregularly, into Istar, as
atal Hyk, 1963, 52. 20 See, as an example of this and difference, rather than the value is uncertain (e.g. Inanna- BC. This process was made early as the Old Babylonian
6 J.E. Harrison, Prolegomena conflation, A. Getty, Goddess: tendency to homogenize these GAR) or used in Akkadian (e.g. possible by the development of period.
to the Study of Greek Religion Mother of Living Nature objects. DINGIR-DINGIR) are printed writing, enabling people to 15 A. Baring and J. Cashford,