“Goddess is a metaphor for the great force of creativity
and compassion that underlies existence”.
Starhawk
Before you go running off to New York, remember this exhibit was in 2010...sorry about that. I just thought it was worth commemorating here, as written.
Observations on The Lost World of Old Europe Exhibition
by Lydia Ruyle, Artist, Author, Scholar
One of the highlights of a holiday trip to New York City in 2009 was a
visit to The Lost World of Old Europe, The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BCE
exhibition at New York University. We arrived just after a huge
snowstorm had blanketed the east coast. The city streets were piled with
snow and ice and we were bundled up from head to toe to deal with the
cold.
A large banner with a Goddess image on it stood at the entrance to
the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World building a block east
of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 84th. Walking inside, we deposited
our gear in a closet and walked into the surprisingly small exhibition
space. Visually the entire exhibition is a celebration of the feminine.
A case with a vessel, a large map of Old Europe, and an introduction
to the exhibition are on the wall in the foyer. The introduction
states:
“In 4500 BCE, before the invention of writing and before the first
cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt were established, Old Europe was among
the most sophisticated and technologically advanced regions in the
world. The phrase “Old Europe” refers to a cycle of related cultures
that thrived in southeastern Europe during the fifth and fourth
millennia BC. The heart of Old Europe was centered in the Danube River’s
fertile valleys, where agriculturally rich plains were exploited by
Neolithic farmers who founded long lasting settlements—some of which
grew to substantial size, with populations reaching upward of 10,000
people. Today, the intriguing and enigmatic remains of these highly
developed cultures can be found at sites that extend from modern day
Serbia to Ukraine. The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley,
5000-3000 BC presents extraordinary finds from the three countries with
the richest Old European archaeological heritage—Bulgaria, the Republic
of Moldova, and Romania.
While Old Europe can be defined geographically with relative
simplicity, the identification of cultural groups who lived there is
more complicated. Since these cultures did not leave behind any written
sources, the material remains from excavated settlements are the only
tools that scholars can use to reveal both localized and common customs.
Archaeological exploitation began throughout the region at the end of
the nineteenth century but systematic excavations did not commence until
the 1930s. During these formative years, when a common Old European
culture had not yet been identified, archaeologists began classifying
individual cultural groups based upon the site where each was first
recognized. Hence, the Cucuteni culture is named after the modern
Romanian village of Cucuteni, where the first remains from this culture
were excavated. The same is true for the lower Danube site of Gumelnita
and Hamangia, and Varna in Bulgaria, all highlighted in this exhibition.
Modern observers have projected quite different visions on the
remains of Old Europe. But this much is clear—far earlier than is
generally recognized, southeastern Europe achieved a level of
technological skill, artistic creativity, and social sophistication that
defies our standard categories and is just beginning to be understood
in a systematic way. New studies of old collections, future excavation
projects, and exhibitions such as this one hold out hope for a clearer
understanding of Old Europe, the first proto civilization of Europe
itself.”
There are two rooms for the exhibition which you can see from the
foyer through tall glass doors. One is filled with exquisite ceramics,
large and small, small gold objects and items made from spondylous
shells which were traded across the Danube area. A raised rectangle
platform displays the ceramics at waist level making it very easy to see
the details. The size of some of the vessels is astonishing, some two
to three feet in diameter. The patterns and details on the full rounded
vessels are stunning. The artistic ability and skill to create the
vessels, decorate them with symbols and the technology to fire them in
kilns are most impressive.
A figure seated in a vessel decorated with symbols connects a female
figure with vessel as a shrine. There are also several large clay
figures of females, approximately twelve to fifteen inches high which
are hollow, in cases along the wall.
I’ve found only by actually seeing and experiencing objects can you
appreciate their scale and detail. I use what I call my artistic sight,
trained now for over fifty years, to see, feel and touch the gorgeous,
sophisticated objects. The ceramics symbolize to me the abundance of
creation and creativity in female forms.
The second room, which you enter by parting two tall glass doors,
felt like entering a shrine or sacred space. At the center of the room
across from the doors is a case with the Thinking Man and Thinking Woman
in it. The Thinking Man has breasts and I think is a female. Douglas
Anthony, one of the exhibition curators, stated in a radio interview
that The Thinking Man could be a woman. Hooray Women can think
Amazing
In the middle of the room are two cylinders lighted from within
displaying groups of clay figurines, one titled a Council of Goddesses.
One cylinder has the figures arranged in a circle, the other has the
figures in a vessel. The figures are small, the largest perhaps eight
inches, and half of them are seated on seats or thrones.
The text labels on the circle of figures states:
“This group of twenty-one figurines (thirteen large and eight small)
was found together with fragments from two large ceramic vessels, one
meant to contain them and the other functioning as a lid. The figurines
and the fragments were placed adjacent to a hearth inside a large
building, interpreted as a sanctuary, which from archaeological remains
appears to have been intentionally destroyed by fire.
Originally wrapped in straw to protect them, the figurines can be
identified as female by their clearly marked anatomy. All have
schematically rendered bodies with abbreviated heads and arms, and
exaggerated hips. The thirteen larger statuettes are set apart from the
eight smaller ones by their painted decoration and the individualized
chairs that accompany them. Two of the figurines could possibly be
identified as senior by the fact that they sit on horn-backed thrones, a
type of seating that in later cultures held ritual or religious
significance. The intentional placements of these figurines next to a
hearth, the emphasis on female anatomical details, and the hierarchy
among the statuettes have prompted some scholars to identify the group
as a “Council of Goddesses.” The lack of specific information concerning
a Cucuteni or Old European pantheon, however, prevents a specific
identification of this intriguing collection.”
The second lighted cylinder features figures seated around a central
opening in a shrine like vessel again connecting figures with vessel
suggesting female ritual in a defined ritual space.
There are cases around the room with more figures in them. An explanation text on the wall in the second room states:
“Old European Figurines: Materials, Composition and Technique
Anthropomorphic figurines were fashioned by Neolithic cultures from
Anatolia to Thessaly, from Egypt to the Levant, and from Mesopotamia to
Southeast Asia. Made in a wide array of materials—stone, metal, fired
clay, ivory, shell, and bone—they are found in domestic and funerary
contexts and probably played a central role in the social and ritual
life of the communities producing them.
Among Old European cultural groups, figurines were predominantly
modeled in clay. Bodies were usually composed of two modeled pieces that
were pressed together and then covered with an additional layer of
clay. For larger figurines, a two-piece mold may have been used. The
body of each figurine was then decorated. Pierced holes, incision work,
and painted motifs were frequently used to enliven the surface. After
firing, small attachments, often in copper, were inserted in the holes
as ornaments.
Each cultural group living in the Danube Valley developed a unique
tradition for the depiction of the human body, favoring specific shapes,
forms, and decoration. For example, the Cucuteni culture created highly
stylized bodies with abbreviated heads and arms, and decorated them
with extraordinarily precise incision work and painted motifs to create
complex series of signs and symbols. In contrast, the Hamangia culture
preferred more accurate representations or figures that combined
realistic bodies and unrealistic “pillar” heads, while generally
avoiding painted decoration.
An element common to all figures is their miniaturization. The small
size, resulting from compression and abstraction of the human body,
must have been fundamental in defining the function and meaning of these
objects. It has been suggested that they were used in initiation rites,
to prompt narratives or as magical depictions of deities. Regardless of
the various interpretations, it is certain that the size allowed a
person to interact with these tiny bodies, moving and arranging them
with respect to surrounding space and to one another, thus creating a
highly individualized relationship between each user and the figurines.
The female figure was of great symbolic significance during the
Neolithic period, as attested by a proliferation of figurines in a
variety of materials, here including stone, lime plaster, and clay.
Although we cannot be certain whether these figures represent humans or
deities, some scholars have identified them as representations of a
Mother Goddess, possibly linked to the importance of fertile land in
agricultural societies.”
(underlined emphasis mine)
The majority of the figures are small and female in form. Usage of
the term figurines rather than figures suggests to me a subtle method of
diminishing their significance as sacred objects. Their size could be a
function of the physical properties of clay itself as larger figures
must be hollow in order to keep clay from exploding at high firing
temperatures.
The texts for the objects and explanations attempt to reflect a
“scientific” left brained approach to the material. I included the
mounted texts from the exhibition in this review in order to give a
framework for what the exhibition organizers present. Like any selection
process, the objects chosen and the texts are the choices of the
organizers. I do not interpret them as negative just limited as to the
concept of a Goddess. For me, the missing element is the artistic
spiritual insight of the material which celebrates the fecundity and
abundance of life in the female form as a Great Goddess. I agree with
Starhawk that “Goddess is a metaphor for the great force of creativity
and compassion that underlies existence”. From my experience, western
archaeology avoids the term. Eastern European archaeology uses the term
Goddess with respect and reverence.
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The perfect artist/scholar to review this exhibit, find out more about Lydia Ruyle.....
Getting inside her head:
"Seeking with my mind and body, knowing with my inner being, life
gives me wake-up calls. Art and the Ancient Mothers call me on a
journey. Art is my soul language. I create because I must. After
exploring many media, I began to make icons, sacred images of the divine
feminine, to tell herstory and share my art with the world."
--- Lydia Ruyle
To see Lydia's incredible banners, true
Ambassadors of Goddess, that have traveled around the globe for years raising awareness of the Feminine, go to www.lydiaruyle.com
The Goddess figure featured on a banner outside the exhibition and on
the front page story in The New York Times about the exhibition opening
is similar to Cucetani Venus, a Goddess Icon Banner Lydia created in
2006 for an Archaeomythology Conference at the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiui, Romania.
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Source:
http://www.examiner.com/article/goddess-of-old-europe-debuts-new-york-exhibit-at-new-york-university
Please note, by checking for info on Lydia Ruyle, I only was able to get a link that worked to her art, which is very interesting!
http://www.lydiaruyle.com/artpage1.html
Crucifixion Triptych I, 1977
