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Marija Gimubtas Papers and Collection of Books
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Title: Marija Gimbutas Papers and Collection of Books
Physical Description: 164 linear feet (298 boxes) and 1,100 volumes
Repository:
Opus Archives and Research Center
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
Language of Material:
English
Biography/Organization History
Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994) was a Lithuanian-American archeologist and
archaeomythologist, and Professor Emeritus of European Archaeology and Indo-European
Studies at the University of California Los Angeles from 1963-1989. Her work focused
on the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Old Europe.
She was born in 1921 in Vilnius, Lithuania. At the University of Vilnius she studied
archaeology, linguistics, ethnology, folklore and literature and received her MA in
1942. In 1946 she earned a PhD in archaeology at Tübingen University in Germany for
her dissertation on prehistoric burial rites in Lithuania. In 1949 Gimbutas moved to
the United States. She worked for Harvard University at the Peabody Museum from
1950-1963 and was made a Fellow of the Peabody in 1955. Her work included
translating archeological reports from Eastern Europe, and her research focused on
European prehistory. In 1963 Gimbutas became a professor at the University of
California in Los Angeles in the European archeology department.
Gimbutas is best known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of
"Old Europe," a term she introduced. Old Europe referred to both the geographical
area and social structures that existed before the Indo-European influence, as
reflected in her work on the cross-disciplines of archaeological artifacts,
linguistics, ethnography, and folklore. This led her to posit the thesis that the
European prehistoric culture was female-centered and worshiped a Mother Goddess as
giver of all life.
Gimbutas conceptualized an interdisciplinary approach to scholarship that she named
"archaeomythology" in order to describe her research methodology, which bridged
archeology, linguistics, and folklore with mythology and symbolic studies. Her most
well known books include
Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1974),
The Language of the Goddess (1989), and
The Civilization of
the Goddess
(1991). See the Opus Archives and Research Center website for
a bibliography of Gimbutas’ works.
Scope and Content Note
The collection includes Marija Gimbutas’ papers and her personal library. Her papers
focus on her professional life during the years she lived in California and taught
at UCLA, and cover her teaching and research through extensive lecture notes,
extensive research notes, photographs, slides and maps, manuscripts for articles and
books, articles and reprints, and figurines from her personal collection.
Her intensive research on European prehistory are evident in her research files on
the European Neolithic cultures and symbols of Old Europe including: Ancient
Symbolism in Lithuanian Folk Art, Slavic Religion, Religion of Old Europe, Lengyel
& East Balkan, Cucuteni, Linear Pottery Culture, Çatal Hüyük (Anotolia,
Turkey) and the work of James Mellaart, Culture Studies of Tisza, Achilleion Site
(includes excavation notes, photocopies of articles, illustrations, and Scaloria
Cave Site (includes information on shells, excavation notes).
The research files also include proofs and drafts for
The
Living Goddesses
, edited by Miriam Robbins Dexter and published
posthumously, and illustration materials that include original illustrations and
page proofs for
Bronze Age Cultures, Language of the
Goddess
, and
Civilization of the Goddess.
Gimbutas’ index cards of bibliographic citations, organized under subject, form a
significant part of her research notes.
The visual materials in the Gimbutas collection contain over 12,000 slides,
illustration materials for her books on prehistoric sacred figures, archeological
and historical maps, charts, and blueprints.
A selection of artifacts comprise an aspect of the collection and includes pottery
shards and samples from archeological sites, replicas of Goddess figurines, mementos
from Lithuania and commemorative medals.
Gimbutas' personal library of over 1,500 volumes includes an extensive collection on
archaeology, as well as numerous volumes about religion, anthropology, linguistics,
mythology, folklore, and art. Search Gimbutas’ collection of books at the Marija Gimbutas Library.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Archaeomythology
Folklore and history
Anthropology
Goddesses
Neolithic period
Europe