Perhaps the most
compelling evidence for the existence of the
Goddess are the paintings and figurines in human
form, especially the figurine commented on by
Hodder in a series of dialogues he and I have
held via e-mail. She sits naked, Her body full
to overflowing, showing Her ability to nurture.
Her hands rest on the necks of the leopards that
stand beside her, their tails curling back over
her shoulders, showing Her connection to the
wild, and Her strength and power to protect. A
human figure lies between Her legs, showing Her
power to reproduce. Found in a grain bin, She
protected the life-giving grain, and insured the
continuing cycles of life upon which the
fertility of the land depended.
Although Hodder believes
that "we have no suggestion that grain bins were
symbolically important," the spiritual
significance of grain is evident in almost every
culture - from the Native American Selu, the
Corn Mother, to Demeter, the Grain Mother, and
all the myths and celebrations into historical
times of the harvesting of the grain. A terra
cotta relief from the 5th century BCE inscribed
"Demeter, Lady of the Wild Things," shows Her
with wheat and poppy pods, symbols of the Earth
and the underworld &endash; life and death. Here
is evidence that six thousand years after Catal,
the people of Greece paid homage to the grain
mother, and still recalled her ancient
connection to the "wild things."
The theme of the
protecting felines can be seen in many
sculptures and reliefs throughout the
Mediterrean area. There are reliefs of the
Sumerian Ishtar standing on a lion very much
like a relief from Anatolia of Kybele standing
on a lion. But the most compelling evidence of
all is the 4th Century BCE statues of Kybele
that show her seated and flanked by two
lionesses. The resemblance between these
historic era statues of Goddess Kybele and the
Neolithic Goddess from Catal is
overwhelming.
Then in the first
century CE, larger than life-size statues of
Artemis greeted Paul when he came to Ephesus to
preach against the Goddess religion. The Goddess
had grown much larger and She was clothed, but
Her lions were still with Her &endash; though
now there were four, and they were males. With
the inscriptions and historic references to both
Kybele and Artemis as Goddess, how can the
near-identical imagery of the Catal figure fail
to identify Her as Goddess?
If the "thousands of
inscriptions … and other archaeological
finds" are "scant evidence" for Goddess worship
at Catalhoyuk, which Goddess culture will be
denied next? I believe there is a backlash
operating here. Many
women have been positively affected by the
evidence of the feminine deity, a deity that we
have not invented, but have reclaimed from a
past that goes back to the beginnings of
humanity. If
archaeologists become entrenched in the denial
of Goddess worship in past cultures, we Goddess
followers become even more marginalized than we
are today, and fewer and fewer women may have
the opportunity to discover the Goddess in their
lives. The study of Goddess cultures affects
every aspect of our lives &endash; from the
personal/political to the social/ecological
&endash; and archaeology is an important
foundation for our study. We must find ways to
challenge the backlash and keep the doors open
for feminist research, as we continue our work
of re-discovering Goddess and re-creating Her
values in our world.
[This article will
also be published in slightly different form in
an upcoming issue of Goddessing
Regenerated. Sample copies are available for
$5 from: Goddessing, P.O. Box 269, Valrico, FL
33595 USA.]
*Before the Present
**This exhibit was
mounted in the museum at Catal in the fall of
1998.
References:
The Anatolian
Civilizations Museum, guidebook complied by
Director I. Tlemizsoy. 1998. (9)
Ephesus,
museum guidebook text by Selahattin Erdemgil,
Archaeologist, Director of Ephesus Museum. 1986.
(6)
Awakened Woman
E-Magazine,
http://www.awakenedwoman.com/rose_frances.htm,
'Behold: The Art of Rose Wognum Frances' by
Stephanie Hiller.
Gimbutas,
Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989. (xix
)
Conkey,
Margaret W. and Ruth E. Tringham, 1995,
'Archaeology and the Goddess: Exploring the
Contours of Feminist Archaeology' in Stanton,
Domna C. and Abigail J. Stewart (eds), 1995,
Feminisms in the Academy, University of Michigan
Press.
Catalhoyuk
Archaeological Site,
http://catal.arch.cam.ac.uk/catal/catal.html, "A
dialogue with the Goddess community: A
discussion between Ian Hodder and Anita Louise"
Getty, Adele.
Goddess, Mother of Living Nature. London:
Thames and Hudson, 1990. (80)
Gimbutas _____
(270)
A
photo-journal of Anita Louise's visit to
Catalhoyuk in '98 is at:
http://www.wordweb.org/sacredjo/catal/index.html
Art and
"wonderings" about the symbolism at Catal is at
http://www.wordweb.org/sacredjo/catalart/why.html
To check out
Ian Hodder's website, go to
http://catal.arch.cam.ac.uk/catal/catal.html
//