The newest book by the eminent archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, entitled The Civilization of the Goddess, is the culmination of her life's work in Neolithic archaeology. In it she describes a civilization that flourished in Central, Northern and Western Europe duting the Early and Late Neolithic ages which she amply documents with magnificent and provocative illustrations, and proves the existence of a matriarchal religion and high culture which prevailed in Old Europe from at least the Upper Palaeolithic until 3500 BC, when the Indo-Europeans took over. We in the Pictish Arts Society might think that such proof is unnecessary, but the body of archaeological knowledge has until now tended either to debunk such an idea, or been unwilling to state the facts outright.

Gimbutas has overseen digs in Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Romania and Moldavia. She speaks twenty-five languages and has done linguistic analysis to add meaning and interpretation to what has been uncovered. To me the most striking statement in the book is: "No doubt the understanding of paternity was available in the Neolithic. It simply was given no importance". This is because the magic and mystery of feminine birth-giving and death-dealing power was seen to be the ultimate reality.

The finds themselves are fascinating. At one site in Greece, Achilleon, hundreds of small figurines of the Pregnant Goddess were found near the bread ovens in the courtyard of every house. Two storey temples were unearthed, the bottom level of which was devoted to crafting ritual implements, sacred cloth was woven and Goddess figurines in the birth position, very like sheela-na-gigs, were found.

Every page of this book holds illustrations of animal and gynomorphic pottery and religious statues, village reconstructions, grave excavations and even a full-fledged undeciphered script, not used for accounting like the much later Sumerian cuneiform that is often called the first writing.

Gimbutas shows that this wide-spread Neoiithic Goddess-worshipping culture was destroyed by three waves of invasion by horse-riding, warring herders From the Russian steppes. These invaders spoke Indo-European languages from which all modern European languages except Basque, Finnish, Magyar and Maltese derive, worshipped a sky god and considered herds, wives and children to be the personal property of valorised, dominant males.

Male archaeologist are already attempting to discredit her latest work, as they have been doing for years but, until more women do the painstaking exegetical work both in archaeology and theology, bringing to it their particular vision, we can be very grateful that Marija Gimbutas has paved the way in The Civilization of the Goddess. I am sure that this book will prove to be a watershed in the history of knowledge.

Chessie Stevenson