Marija Gimbutas’s ‘Old Europe’ model

Record summary

Marija Gimbutas’s interpretations of Neolithic and Copper Age Europe, especially her ‘Old Europe’ model and goddess-centered religious reconstruction, became highly influential in the 1970s and 1980s. Her work matters because it links artefact styles, settlement patterns, iconography and Indo-European migration into a large historical narrative. Supporters valued its comparative scope, while critics questioned whether figurines could securely reveal a uniform goddess religion or peaceful matrifocal society. Later scholarship has revised many migration and gender assumptions without erasing the importance of her archaeological synthesis.