Goddess figurine found in Visoko!
Friday, September 30, 2011 at 6:42PM ;)
Photo: Goddess figurine found in Visoko
Prehistoric goddess figurine found in Visoko
Photo Courtesy of Goran Čakić
Visoko, September 30, 2011
Neolithic artifacts have been discovered, this month, in several areas of the Visoko valley by locals tilling their fields. In addition to artifacts such as pottery fragments and lithic tools, a prehistoric goddess figurine has been unearthed from Visoko's fertile soils.
According to Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, in Old Europe the pregnant Vegetation Goddess represented the annual cycle of germination, growth, and harvest. She wrote that ancient agriculturalists understood the parallel between grain seeds growing in the fields and new life growing in the womb. Representation of this parallel is found in many Old European cultures, including the Butmir culture, which existed in Europe between the 6th and 3rd millenium BC.
The pregnant vegetation goddess, popularly known as the earth goddess, or "Mother Earth", was one of the most-represented female figures in Old European art. Hundreds of pregnant goddess figurines, commonly known as Venus figurines, have been unearthed in European excavations sites dating back to the Neolithic age.
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Old European cultures generally connected the pregnant goddess with food, especially grain and bread. Archaeologists often find pregnant goddess figurines near bread ovens. Farmers throughout prehsitory and history understood cyclical (seasonal) time, and they took advantage of annual cycles with planting and harvest activities, which became rituals.
During her lifetime, Marija Gimbutas identified a diverse and complex range of Neolithic female divinities, including Bird Goddess, Mistress of Animals, Snake Goddess, Deer Mother, Bear Mother, Birth-giver, Nurse, Pregnant Earth Goddess or Earth Mother, and many other female deities. Gimbutas thereby challenged the hypothesis of one "Great Mother" deity for the European Neolithic period.
Gimbutas also identified a rich array of Neolithic male deities, such as the ithyphallic Snake God (a proto-Hermes), a bull- or goat-masked proto-Dionysos, Sorrowful God, a dying and rising Vegetation God, proto-Asklepios, Master of Animals or Forest God, and others.
Gimbutas also deciphered the sacred Old European writing system and the meaning of each of these ideograms is most fully (and beautifully) presented in her book, The Language of the Goddess (1989). Gimbutas postulated that these ideograms were created to symbolise the life energy of nature and of humanity, and that combinations of them could be used to express "sonatas of becoming."
Pregnant goddess figurines were created from many different raw materials, each possessing unique physical qualities that were likely selected for their different attributes of availability, workability, and/or surface appearance. These figurines have been made from ivory, serpentine, schist, limestone, hematite, lignite, calcite, steatite, fired clay, bone and antler. While they have been the subject of scholarly attention for more than a century, a detailed understanding of the techniques used to create them is still lacking.
Although today those female statuettes are called by most archaeologists "Venus figurines," based on the assumption that they represent a standard of female beauty, Gimbutas explains that their function was more important than that of a Venus. These functions were the giving of life, the bringing of death, and the bringing of regeneration. According to Gimbutas, the large breasts and buttocks can be associated with the idea of regeneration and abundance.
Tilling the Earth, and Visoko's Archaeological Heritage
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Click to open in a new windowPhoto right: The central part of the access ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, ploughed up by the land owner.
Unfortunately, modern farming is destroying dozens of precious archaeological sites in Bosnia every year, most of these sites dating back to Neolithic or Medieval times. Paradoxically, however, farming, which releases artifacts to the modern world, has been a vital force in developing archaeological knowledge. Modern non-intrusive farming practices should be applied in order to preserve Visoko's historic landscapes. Modern farmers are the direct successors to the generations who worked and lived on the land before them. This valuable legacy is something local people should try to understand, cherish, and protect, for themselves and for future generations.
But managing archaeological sites on cultivated land presents a particular challenge, since regular cultivation – or even a single instance of unusually deep ploughing – can damage hidden artifacts or remains. Hopefully farmers will begin to play a positive role in ensuring that the access ramp of the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun, as well as other archaeological sites in and around Visoko, are passed down unscathed to future generations.
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Photo: Pottery fragment decorated in a green glaze;)
Photo: Pottery fragment.
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Photo: Human bone unearthed during soil tillage.
Neolithic pottery unearthed by farmers at hill Gradac, Visoko, Bosnia & Herzegovina
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Photo: Neolithic vessel handle; Butmir culture.;)
Photo: Neolithic vessel handle with decorations.;)
Photo: Neolithic vessel handle shows typical decoration.
Pottery from hill Gradac [ Member Galleries ]
References:
- The Living Goddesses - Marija Gimbutas & Miriam Robbins Dexter
- The Language of the Goddess - Marija Gimbutas: unearthing the hidden symbols of western civilization.
B©SNIAN-PYRAMID.COM 2011
Reader Comments (7)
awesome
I am so very humble when I learn more of these pyramids. I am so grateful for the work you are doing and bringing this information out into the light for all of humanity to share.
Ours
Neuffen, Deutschland
thank you thank you thank you thank you please work work work work. the text books can't die and be rewritten fast enough. please please PLEASE WORK TO GET THE WORD OUT ZAHI HAWAS IS GONE YOU HAVE THOUSANDS OF YEARS TO MAKE UP FOR. GET THE WORD OUT GET THE WORD OUT . NEWS OF THIS SORT USED TO BE ON THE COVER OF NEWS PAPERS ! THIS CHANGES OUR PERSPECTIVE OF THE PAST AND THE FUTURE. PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS PRESS. I SHOULDN'T FEEL LIKE A WEIRDO WHEN I TELL HISTORY BUFFS ABOUT THIS ,,,,,,,,DO MORE PLEEEEEAAAASSSEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear Joe,
Thank you for your passionate support!
There's still a lot of new material that needs to be processed and published.
So, please stay tuned!
Sincerely,
Nenad Djurdjevic
Thanks for the photos and info. Great work. Keep sharing
I absolutely agree with Joe that this is huge and mind blowing ,and not a mention on mainstream news .Well we know why .Human history been manipulated ,I could say more,and civilization goes back possibly many hundreds of thousands of years.It is mentioned in the Vedas that there are cities under the sands of the Gobi desert that are over 200,000 years old! We get snippets of information, the age of the pyramids, energy phenomena ,goddess figurines but then we have to wait for more. Frustrating but I am eager to hear more in depth information about the discoveries. Do you believe that this was a matrifocal culture,or is that an overlay. My mother wrote a book called 'The Great Cosmic Mother' covering the same ground as Marija Gimbutas .So this is very interesting for me I have been interested in ancient cultures and 'herstory' for 37 years .But of course the implications of your work if verified take us to another paradigm and another dimension.Truth is more fantastic than fiction. I look forward to reading more about your discoveries and deductions best wishes Toivo Finn . P.S. You may find my mothers paintings interesting on the subject....
Monica Sjöö
Books and other publications
Dear Mr. Finn,
Thank you for your message and interest, and please let me express my admiration for your mother's life and work.
Yes, I think that in Visoko during the Neolithic Period once existed a matrifocal society. However, we don't have found any evidence so far that the same culture/civilization built the pyramids. Therefore, in this moment, I would suggest a cultural overlay of human presence created over millenia.
In my opinion, the civilization who built the pyramids and adjacent structures possessed a high degree of consciousness / knowledge. Unlike modern dogmatic scientists, that civilization apparently have had a particular relationship with the world, nature, and cosmos. Another subject worthy of notice is that the available material evidence suggests that even Neolithic cultures of the Balkans have been strongly inspired by the Vedic cosmology and Rig Veda's view of the cosmos.
Moreover, if we consider the alleged age of the structures (i.e. The Moon Pyramid 10.000 B.C.) it also sweeps away the old paradigm "ex-oriente-lux". Please let me remind you that in the past in order to keep this failing paradigm alive many humans were tortured, drowned and burned at the stake. From a certain viewpoint, the mindset of modern dogmatic scientists and the archaeological establishment isn't that different of the Church in the Middle Ages.
And you're right, yes, truth is more fantastic than fiction!
It all depends on the level of cosciousness a person has reached. The low level of consciousness/knowledge of many humans and/or dogmatic scientists can be observed in their relationship with nature and the environment and, last but not least, in their relationship with animals and fellow humans.
Sincerely,
Nenad M. Djurdjevic