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A Womb Not a Tomb Goddess Symbols and Ancient Ireland

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A Womb Not a Tomb Goddess Symbols and Ancient Ireland A Womb Not a Tomb Goddess Symbols and Ancient Ireland by Geraldine Moane Old Europe Cet articIc$ui[h l'oeuvre dc Man~aGimbutaspourfaire ka The two major works of Marija Gimbutas, The Lan- lumi2re sur &S monolithes dc I'Irkznde prd-historique et elk guage of the Goddess and The Civilivrtion of the Goddess, dPmontreh~'CvidcncequeNnugangeetksautresmonuments provide a visually compelling and inspiring compilation dr pierre lvoquent kz gran& dirsse sous ses multiphs aspects. of the images and symbols of the goddess found during 20 BrG na Bdinne, CO na M;, Radharc 6n Aer (Newgrange, Co. Meath, aerial view). Courtesy of the Oifice of Public Works, Ireland. There was a time when you were not a slave, remem- years of archaeological research on Europe during the ber that. You walked alone, full of laughter, you period from 7500 BCE to 3500 BCE. Along with her bathed bare-bellied. You say you have lost all recollec- numerous other scholarly works, they show that during tion of it, remember .. you say there are no words to this time period (referred to by her as old Europe), describe it, you say it does not exist. But remember. religious and cultural life throughout Europe, from Spain Make an effort to remember. Or, failing that, invent. and Ireland to the Ukraine in Russia, centred around (Wittig 89) veneration and celebration of nature in the form of the living body of a Goddess-Creator. Combined with such In this article I would like to invoke the work of Marija books as Mary Condren's Theserpentandthe Goddess,and Gimbutas as an inspiration for remembering the world of Gerda Lerner's The Creation of Patriarchy, they provide ancient Ireland, the world that built Newgrange over ample support for a goddess and woman-centred interpre- 5,000 years ago. To remember, or invent, such a world is tation ofNewgrange, Knowth, Dowth, and the myriad of not only an act of feminist imagination. It is an act of other stone structures and carvings which are the legacy of decolonizing the imagination. It is a reversal of the erasure ancient Ireland. of Irish culture and history, an evocation of a pre-colonial Over the course of her career, Gimbutas has excavated time of free-flowing spirituality and creativity, an envi- or visited numerous sites in the Balkan area (Yugoslavia, sioning of a society free of domination and alienation. Bulgaria), and examined many thousands of archaeologi- VOLUME 17, NUMBER 3 7 cal findings from sites all over Europe, including Spain, great goddess or with an aspect ofher. For example, a Vor Ireland, Britain, France, Switzerland, Malta, Sardinia, triangle represented the birth-giving aspect (vulva or pu- Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, bic triangle), wavy lines represented the nourishing aspect Bulgaria, and Russia. The picture that emerges is remark- (water or nourishing liquid), and triple lines represented ably consistent and clear-cut. However, it is in marked the death-giving aspect. Double spirals or circles with lines contrast to traditional views, which presumed that soci- radiating out represented the eyes of the goddess, and eties were always hierarchical and god-centred, for it triple spirals, winding snakes, crescents, and sprouting shows that prior to 3500 BCE, societies in Europe were seeds were used to symbolize the dynamic, cyclical, under- egalitarian and non-violent, and were oriented towards standing of life and of the goddess. nature, which was venerated primarily in the form of a These examples can only provide a hint of the complex- woman's body. ity and ingenuity of the system described by Gimbutas. The most striking feature of Old European societies This system of representation was consistent throughout Old Europe, providing, as Gimbutas calls it in her book title, The Language of the Goddess, with the abstract sym- Zbere can be little doubt that Newgrange bols representing what she calls a "metaphysical alphabet" (xv). Any artifact or carving, whether simple or complex, represents the earth 5 womb, from which life could be interpreted using this system. The goddess was, comes and to which life returns-the birth-giving literally, everywhere, for as Gimbutas points out, it was and regenerative aspecb of the goddess. sufficient merely to carve a triangle on a rock to evoke the birth-giving aspect of the goddess. Ancient Irish society that emerges from her archaeological findings is the cen- trality of artistic and religious life. Temples were wide- The importance of this work for our understanding of spread and prominent, and contained a wealth of artistic ancient Ireland can hardly be exaggerated. The early and ritualistic artifacts such as paintings, sculptures, pot- inhabitants of Ireland left behind a multitude of stone tery of all kinds, frescoes, and reliefs, usually decorated monuments, carved with symbols which are completely with specific motifs. Additionally, virtually every dwelling consistent with those found elsewhere in Old Europe- contained artifacts-pottery etc.-arranged in groups on symbols such as spirals, triangles, V's, wavy lines, and what could be called altars, in niches, or even on oven circles. When viewed using Marija Gimbutas' framework, platforms, artifacts which were decorated with motifs this artwork confirms that the stone structures and art similar to those found on temple artifacts. Even domestic work of ancient Ireland can be seen as magnificent monu- tools such as lamps, spindle whorls, loom weights and ments to a religious and cosmological system similar to other objects such as stones, bones, pendants, plaques, and that of the rest of Old Europe. seals, were decorated with these motifs. The best known of the Irish monuments is of course, Gimbutas has constructed the religion and cosmology Newgrange, dated at 3500 BCE, which has traditionally of the time by a careful and detailed examination of the been seen as a tomb or cemetery. Newgrange consists of a artifacts and of the motifs preserved on the artifacts. She large cairn or chamber with three cavities, which is covered concludes that throughout Old Europe people shared a by a very large mound of earth, 114 feet high and 130 feet complex, multifaceted conceptualization of nature and of in diameter. There is a long passageway through the the universe, and that they had developed shared ways of mound leading into the chamber. This passageway is representing this understanding. More specifically, she aligned so that at sunrise on winter solstice (and about concludes that nature was imbued with divinity, and was three days before and after) a beam of sunlight enters the understood as a great goddess. The goddess was seen both passage and glides up to illuminate the inner chamber. as unitary, and as having a number ofdifferent aspects, all There are numerous huge boulders lining the passage-way ofwhich had specific representations. The goddess or her into the chamber, and in the chamber itself, many of aspects could be represented concretely, as in a sculpture which are carved with the familiar spirals, triangles, chev- of a pregnant woman, or abstractly, using motifs or rons, circles, and wavy lines described by Gimbutas. There symbols. is also a ring of boulders, some carved, surrounding the Almost all of the figurines, sculpture, and pottery were mound. The carvings include examples of the symbolic decorated with abstract artwork such as spirals, triangles, representations of many of the aspects of the goddess V's, chevrons (columns of V's), wavy lines, zig-zags, which Gimbutas has identified. Significantly, triangles circles, and semi-circles. About 15-20 motifs or symbols and spirals (birth-giving and regenerative symbols) are occur frequently throughout Europe, including Ireland, particularly prominent. with up to 100 symbols occurring sporadically. Gimbutas There can be little doubt that Newgrange represents the concluded that the abstract symbols were part of a system earth's womb, from which life comes and to which life of representation, and each symbol was associated with the returns-the birth-giving and regenerative aspects of the CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME goddess. The astronomical alignment of Newgrange adds clear that ancient Irish society devoted massive resources additional dimensions. As Martin Brennan points out in to the construction of these stone structures, and that the his book The Stars and the Stones, the interplay of light on religion, cosmology, and symbolic system that underlie carved stone allows for a more dynamic and intercon- these structures were central to society. It is also clear that nected interpretation of the symbols. there is considerable continuity between Ireland and the Newgrange is part ofa large complexwhich includes two cultures of Old Europe described by Gimbutas. large structures similar to Newgrange, namely Knowth Ireland is described as a megalithic culture, along with and Dowth. The complex also contains numerous so- Britain, Brittany, Spain, and Malta, because of the exist- called satellite structures, much smaller cairns which again ence of enormous (mega) stone (lithic) structures such as are chambers entered by passageways, and covered with Newgrange, Knowth, and Dowth. Most creati,ve activity earth to form a mound. The whole set of large and small seems to have focused on large stones or stone structures. cairns are interconnected, and many of them are aligned- to Very few artifacts such as pottery or figurines have been solar and lunar placements, and contain stones or boulders found, and there is little evidence of large scale settle- with symbolic carvings. The entire complex is located ments. Rather than building temples, or making sculp- beside a bend in the River Boyne, and is referred to in the tures, pottery, or frescoes, the people devoted their ener- later Celtic mythology as Brugh na Boinne. Boinne is the gies to building large-scale stone structures, using enor- generative form of Boann, goddess of the River Boyne.
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