Vital Water
Material:
Coto Gold marble
Dimensions:
52 x 19 x 11 cm
Year:
2022
This series of sculptures are inspired by the work ''The Language Of The Goddess'' (1989), by the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921-1994). In this work, Gimbutas analysed and classified a multitude of archaeological artifacts - small sculptures and objects of bone, stone, and ceramics - extracted from various Neolithic sites in South-Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, in order to identify the meaning of a pictorial "script" developed at the dawn of European agriculture, nine or eight thousand years ago. With an interdisciplinary approach, which drew on archaeology, but also ethnography, linguistics, and comparative mythology, Gimbutas sought to reconstruct not only the symbology itself but also a goddess-inspired religion and a peaceful, balanced ideological system in tune with Nature, which would leave an indelible mark on the Western psyche.
“The reticulated [tracing] and the painting on ceramics arise, simultaneously, at the beginning of the Neolithic; the symbolic importance of this motif is determined by the wide borders with which they are framed from the moment they appear. The signs with which it is associated - parallel lines, zigzags, triple lines, ems and chevrons - place it in the family of aquatic symbols. On the other hand, it also appears next to regeneration symbols (...). This evidences its connection with the cosmogony of water, the sources of life and the emergence of animal, plant and human life.
The intimate relationship between this sign and the pubic triangle (...) suggests that, symbolically, it is an embryonic substance capable of giving life. In other words: it was possibly a symbol of "Vital Water", well known to us thanks to myths, and its presence in Neolithic figurines probably emphasizes the Goddess' ability to generate life.”
Free translation of: Gimbutas, Marija (1989): The Language of the Goddess (fragment).
Bottom image: Bell idol . Terracotta, 7th century BCE (Late Geometric Period). Photograph by Jastrow (2005) on Wikipedia.