Marija Gimbutas: 20 years of studies on the Goddess

International Conference

Rome l 9-10 May 2014

Participants:

Art and Performance Section: Lydia Ruyle, Felis Nusseleim, Franca Bertagnolli, Petra Bialas, Manuela Candini, Sirka Capone, Maddalena Gatta, Morena Luciani Russo, Marianna Marigo, Octavia Monaco, Suzanne Santoro, Sonia Sion

Speakers: Joan Marler, Harald Haarmann, Mariagrazia Pelaia, Sirka Capone, Filomena Tufaro, Laura Leone, Sarah Perini, Giovanni Feo, Adele Campanelli, Maria Cristina Ronc, Valerie Aliberti, Sandra Schiassi.

Conference presentation curated by Luciana Percovich and Morena Luciani Russo.

We conceived, desired, and curated this conference as a tribute to Marija Gimbutas, a woman we feel close to us as a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. Her personal talent reawakened in us the resurfacing of buried and/or misunderstood memories of our shared distant past—what existed before the fragmentary history still told in school textbooks—and sparked a new way of seeing everything around us. Beyond being an archaeologist, or rather a mytho-archaeologist, Marija is for us a teacher of life, of research methodology, and of vision.

Through her, we reconnected with the spirit that animated the complex and far-from-“primitive” societies built by our Ancestresses and Ancestors— that Ancient Europe grounded in principles often at the opposite end of those shaping our present, such as the search for balance, collaboration, and the recognition of the interconnectedness of all manifestations of the physical and invisible worlds.

We structured the Conference in four parts, each speaking a different language:

The first: a small yet rich exhibition of women artists paying tribute to the Potnia through their works.

The second: a celebration in honor of Marija Gimbutas and her work, in which we will form a circle and, whirling, give shape to a Celebration of the Ancestresses.

The third: scholars who knew her and worked alongside her will retrace different aspects of her work, Remembering Marija Gimbutas.

The fourth: Fragments of Memory, a mosaic of small tesserae on the archaic layers of Italy’s history.

Today, in 2026, we honor the memory of Lydia Ruyle, Giovanni Feo, and Sandra Schiassi, who have returned to the regenerating womb of the Goddess, and we gratefully cherish the precious contributions they left through their research.

Programme

The Conference Proceedings were published by Edizioni Ester and are available from all online retailers.