Course Descriptions

This course explores archeological and mythological evidence of the veneration of female deities in cultures of the ancient world within Africa, Old Europe, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Middle East, Crete and Greece, Asia, and the New World. Slides from the collection of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas are a special resource for the class, providing an in-depth view of the iconography, social structure, and rich ceremonial life of the earliest farming peoples of Europe, Anatolia, and the Mediterranean. As a working framework of research and interpretation, we incorporate the worldview and methodologies of women's spirituality with archaeomythology, a methodology that combines archaeology, mythology, cultural history, ethnology, linguistics, genetics, and other disciplines to craft a multidimensional investigation of female iconography and rituals in the prehistoric eras.