Marija Gimbutas was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.
Gimbutas at the Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden, Germany 1993
Marija Gimbutas by Kerbstone 52, at the back of Newgrange, County Meath, Ireland, in September 1989
Marija Gimbutienė commemorative plaque in Kaunas, Mickevičius Street
Marija Gimbutienė on a 2021 stamp of Lithuania
Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age culture or civilisation in Southeast Europe, centred in the Lower Danube Valley. Old Europe is also referred to in some literature as the Danube civilisation.
Miniature cult scene, Karanovo culture, 5th millennium BC
Hamangia culture pottery, c. 4500 BC
Cucuteni-Trypillia figurine, Romania, 4050–3900 BC
Gold, copper, ceramic and stone artefacts, Varna culture, Bulgaria, c. 4500 BC