The Neolithic great goddess: a study in modern tradition
Modern belief in the veneration of a single Great Goddess in the European Neolithic is often accompanied by the notion that those cultures of ‘Old Europe’ were woman-centred in society as well as religion. What is the long history which precedes these contemporary notions? What is the complex history of their political development? A chain runs from Classical times to Marija Gimbutas (Meskell 1995) and our own day.
Iranians and Greeks after 90 years: a religious history of southern Russia in ancient times
This introductory essay places Rostovtzeff’s interpretative model of northern Black Sea archaeology in the context of contemporary historical imagination in Russia and Europe. The discussion focuses in particular on Rostovtzeff’s approach to Graeco-Scythian metalwork, as pioneered in his 1913 article on ‘The conception of monarchical power in Scythia and on the Bosporus’, and the possibilities which religious interpretation of the objects’ figured scenes offered in developing the narrative of cultural fusion between Orientals and Occidentals best known in the West from his Iranians and Greeks in South Russia (1922). The author seeks to bring out the teleological tendencies of this account, largely concerned with explaining Russia’s historical identity as a Christian empire between East and West.
Marius the Epicurean
An imaginary historical portrait in which Marius is offered as a kind of self-portrait of Pater transferred to the Rome of Marcus Aurelius. Marius speculates on various views of art and life. The love of art for art's sake is advocated, as is the moral obligation to lead a good and ordered life.