At Harvard University

In the fifties and sixties, working at the Department of Eastern Archaeology and Ethnology of the Harvard University’s Faculty of Anthropology since 1950, Marija Gimbutas produced a number of in-depth studies on the ancient symbolism of Lithuanian folk art and the prehistoric culture of Eastern Prussia and Western Lithuania.  Based on the analysis of numerous archaeological studies (mostly by German researchers) and on her own research conducted in 1950-1955, she offered a comprehensive picture of the development of this region from the formation of the Balts until the 13th century. The study essentially remains the only Lithuanian-language work on the Western Balts.  Its emergence was prompted by her study on the prehistory of Eastern Europe, which was carried out at Harvard’s Peabody Museum in 1950-1955 and which was in such demand in American universities that the second edition came out as early as in 1958.  This English-language book dealt with  materials on the prehistory of the Baltic region, from the late Paleolithic period, starting with the Svidrian culture and ending with the Eastern Baltic rope pottery culture group.

Adomas Butrimas
(After: Butrimas, Adomas. Marija Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė – baltų archeologijos tyrėja (Marija Alseikaitė-Gimbutas, a researcher in Baltic archaeology). Lituanistica, 2012, t. 58, nr. 1 (87),  p. 5)