di Filomena Tufaro
Adapted from Marija Gimbutas - Twenty years of Goddess study - Proceedings of the conference of the same name – Rome 9-10 May 2014 – Laima Editorial Project – Turin
The brief research on Neolithic burials initially led me into a universe populated, almost inexorably, by chieftains, heads of families, sorcerers, extraordinary hunters, silent by female voices, despite the fact that the archaeological data were quite comforting. So I started asking myself questions and above all getting ready to listen to new stories.
I wondered if the young woman of 20-25 years, found in Via Guidorossi, on the outskirts of Parma (together with numerous other significant burials), had nothing to say in life, if I didn't instead ask myself what role it played, given the kind of ritual that was reserved for it.
It was placed in a large pit, covered with a layer of hazelnut remains and various faunal finds (goats, ox, pigs and pikes). Near the head there was a trace of a small hearth, in the center of which was placed a fragment voluntarily broken around a double spiral motif. Near the feet there was a large millstone, an instrument for crushing cereals, upside down, with the worktop facing the ground. On the hand of the deceased, which seems to have suffered from serious pathologies, a small vase was found, an oval-mouthed container with a spout, decorated by a band divided into six squares, containing two double spirals, closed by a flat pebble.
The burial is full of symbolic meanings. The presence of the millstone is quite widespread during the Neolithic in both female and male burials. Often intentionally broken millstones are found, sometimes placed at the feet or under the head, as if it were a sort of pillow. In our case the millstone, placed at the feet of the deceased, was upside down, just as we often find them upside down in agricultural rituals. Therefore an object that is part of everyday life but which, at the same time, deviates from it, assuming the role of a symbolic tool, of the seed that becomes wheat in the earth, which in turn becomes bread and which embodies the great mystery of transformation. The spiral, evocation of the regenerative power, hidden in a symbol.
Or the faunal remains that accompany the woman. I am thinking in particular of the presence of the pike, associated with the goddess of regeneration, particularly present in the burials of the Lepenski Vir site, where the fish goddess is the most important deity. Therefore an extraordinary condensation of elements that speak to us of death and regeneration.
In recent years, the area around Parma and western Emilia in general has offered truly significant evidence in the context of the so-called Culture of Square Mouthed Vases, characteristic of the Middle Neolithic in Northern Italy. Many of the burials found are distinguished by the presence of ceramic vases, millstones, bone objects, such as awls and spatulas, shells used to form ornaments or simply distributed in the burial, and still jewels made of steatite. Of some objects, beyond the mere ornamental value, it is possible to grasp the symbolic meaning hidden in them.
An example is provided by steatite, a stone abundant in some areas of Italy such as the Parma Apennines or Sardinia and which is characterized, by its very nature, as being easily workable. This characteristic, combined with its availability, could lead us to consider it of little value and not to attribute the due value to the objects made with it. But, in this regard, it is legitimate to wonder if it should really be that simple to make the hundreds of tiny pearls, sometimes just 2 mm in diameter, used to make the necklaces, which often accompany our deceased. A similar consideration can also be extended to other raw materials, such as shells, symbols that speak of the infinite dynamism of nature, of transformation, of the sacred forces concentrated in the Waters and in the Women.
An exceptional burial, among the approximately 200 attributed to the culture of the Square Mouth Vessels, is that of Vicofertile, still near Parma. As the only female burial, it was located almost in the center of five male burials, some of which were completely devoid of grave goods.
A strongly distinctive element is given by the presence inside the tomb of a statuette, placed almost in front of the woman's face.
It represents a seated woman, with an oval and flat face, slit eyes, a very prominent nose, an elaborate hairstyle that reaches to the shoulders. Her triangular bust is slender, her arms slender, detached from her bust and folded above her waist, her hands joined with fingers evident. Her breasts are flat, separated by a triangular notch. A small cup under her throat and a thin line on her right wrist could possibly represent jewelry. Her underside is massive, with broad hips, her buttocks flat and contoured, as if molded into a low-backed seat, which was probably of wood. Her legs, bent in the sitting position and together, are very poorly preserved, having been compressed and displaced laterally by the pressure of the ground.
It is in dark clay, black from the womb of the Earth, but traces of white can be seen in many areas of the figure.
The flattening at the back, certainly adapted to a seat, whose imprint can be recognized up to the middle of the back, makes the Vicofertile statuette an image showing the Goddess seated on a throne, to which the connotations of goddess of fertility do not seem pertinent. Instead, the white Lady of death, white as bones, Lady of death and rebirth, of death that it contains the promise of regeneration.
Inside the burial there was also a vase with a square mouth and an olla, the so-called San Martino-type olla, a vase characteristic of a Middle Neolithic culture of Southern Italy, Serra d'Alto.
This culture is characterized by a vase production with elaborate shapes and decorations, mostly painted, consisting of meander motifs, chessboards, spirals, triangles, hourglass motifs, tremolo lines.
Not simple geometric motifs, as Marija Gimbutas teaches me, but elements full of symbolic meaning. The handles of the vases are also very characteristic, often surmounted by more or less stylized animal protomes, with a certain predominance of the ram.
The so-called San Martino-type olletta belongs to a late period of this culture, a vascular type that seems to have been intended above all for the funerary sphere, and, even more particularly, in northern Italy, for female burials. The dimensions are generally quite small; the surfaces are mostly decorated, and, if there is a decoration, it is represented by spirals (after all, even the handles often appear folded into a double spiral with traces of red colouring).
This type of vase occurs with truly singular frequency in Trentino, but above all in Emilia Romagna.
The presence of a spoon is often associated with the vase, made, in one case, on deer bone. The predilection for a wild animal, in a Neolithic context, in which domestic animals usually prevail, demonstrates the attribution of a particular value to the object, confirming its cult value.
Some elements, such as the internal groove on the rim, the presence of holes for fixing a lid, the association with terracotta caps and bone spoons, suggest that they entered the kits as ritual vases, probable containers of substances, ointments .
This data brings me closer to what Momolina Marconi, historian of religions and profound connoisseur of the Mediterranean religion, defines the domain of the Great Mediterranean Goddess.
Filomena Tufaro
Adapted from Marija Gimbutas - Twenty years of Goddess study - Proceedings of the conference of the same name – Rome 9-10 May 2014 – Laima Editorial Project – Turin
REFERENCES
- Maria Bernabò Brea – “A female statuette from a Neolithic funerary context in the Parma area"- in Journal of Prehistoric Sciences – LVI 2006 – pp. 197-202;
- Maria Bernabò Brea – “Reflection on the circulation of immaterial elements in Neolithic Europe"- Congrés Internacional Xarses al Neolithic – Neolithic Networks Rubricatum. Journal of the Museu de Gava - 5 - 2012 - pp. 487-497;
- Maria Bernabò Brea, Maria Maffi, Paola Mazzieri and Loretana Salvadei – “Funerary testimonies of the people of the Vasi a Bocca Quadrata in western Emilia"- Archeology and anthropology – Journal of Prehistoric Sciences – LX – 2010 – 63-126;
- Selene Maria Cassano and Alessandra Manfredini – Masseria Candelaro. Daily life and ideological world in a Neolithic village on the Tavoliere – Foggia 2005;
- Anna De Nardis (edited by) – From Circe to Morgana. Writings by Momolina Marconi – Venexia 2009;
- Marija Gimbutas – The Civilization of the Goddess – Vol. 1-2 – Alternative Press/New Balances 2012;
- Paola Mazzieri, Renata Grifoni Cremonesi, Marta Colombo and Maria Bernabò Brea – “Contacts and exchanges between the Serra d'Alto culture and square-mouthed vases: the case of San Martino-type ollas"- Congrés Internacional Xarses al Neolithic – Neolithic Networks Rubricatum. Journal of the Museu de Gava - 5 - 2012 - p. 351-361;
- Momolina Marconi – Mediterranean reflections in the oldest religion of Lazio – G. Principality - Milan 1939.
