Research in the Archaeology of Old Europe

Even when writing about regions located far away from the Baltic lands, or discussing the mythology and archaeology (archaeomythology) of Old Europe, which became her main interest at the third stage of her research career, Marija Gimbutas managed to include pre-Indo-European and Baltic archaeological materials, as well as evidence from the Lithuanian and Latvian mythology, into the international literature.  It is owing to her writings that the Nemunas culture is now discussed in studies with a broad European scope, and it is thanks to her that materials from Juodkrantė and Nida in the Curonian Spit, Palanga and Šventoji in Western Lithuania, Lubāna and Nainiekste in Eastern Latvia, Tamula in Estonia, and other monuments of our region, are mentioned in studies of the famous Ertebølle culture in Denmark or Newgrange, the most prominent monument of megalithic culture in Ireland. It is in this context that we see for the first time that the abundant plastic art heritage from the Narva culture on the Eastern Baltic shores is by no means inferior to the sculpture of Southern Europe, the echoes of whose transformation may be found in Greek and Celtic archaeological materials and mythology.

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. 8)