Archaeology of Mother Earth Sites and Sanctuaries through the Ages: Rethinking symbols and images, art and artefacts from history and prehistory

Papers from a session on 'Mother Earth' sites presented at the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in Valetta, Malta, in September 2008. The papers discussed the various forms of evidence not only from definite 'Mother Earth' sites but from others for which an expression of a divine feminine principle, personified as belief in an Earth Mother or other female deity, may be inferred as possible or sometimes likely-especially where the work is based on new discoveries. Contents: Introduction (G. T. Meaden); 1) Mythical Representations of 'Mother Earth' in Pictorial Media
(Nikos Chausidis); 2) Perceptions Of The Landscape: At the Palaeolithic Sites Potocka Zijalka and Divje Babe I, Slovenia (Bostjan Odar); 3) Sacred Sites and Symbolism in the Neolithic Landscape of Barbagia Di Seulo, Central Sardinia (M. G. Gradoli and G. T. Meaden); 4) Neolithic Art and Artefacts in Caves Near Seulo in Central Sardinia: 'Grutta 1 De Longu Fresu' (M. G. Gradoli and G. T. Meaden); 5) Prehistoric Occupation and Use of a Cave near Seulo in Central Sardinia: 'The Oval Room' at 'Is Janas' (M. G. Gradoli and G. T. Meaden); 6) The Neolithic Monument of Newgrange in Ireland: a Cosmic Womb? (Kate Prendergast); 7) Proto-Sardinian Iconography and Ideology of the Cult of the Mother Goddess (Giovanni Ugas); 8) The Five Megaliths of the Avebury Cove (G. T. Meaden); 9) Testing Stonehenge Experimentally Using a Replica Full-Size Altar Stone Positioned at the Focus of the Monument (G. T. Meaden); 10) Towards the Interpretation of Neolithic Corporeality: Committing 'Mothers' to Earth (Goce Naumov); 11) "The Bee Goddess": Another Form of a Great Female Divinity? (Angeliki Liveri); 12) A Case of Prehistoric Incubatio: the Cult Site of Civitaluparella, Chieti, Italy (Tomaso Di Fraia); 13) The Mother Goddess in the Monuments and Rituals at the "Dausdava" Getic Religious Centre: Thracian Remains and Modern Relicts (Diana Gergova); 14) Medieval Simulacra of the Mother Earth in the Christian Traditions (Orhideja Zorova); 15) Stones Called Baba as a Continuous Symbol of the Female Divine Principle: Folklore, Mythology and Archaeology (Katya Hrobat); 16) Dust of the Ancestors: the Essence of Being and the Divinity of the Earth (Roberta R. Dods); 17) Earth and Sacredness in the Contemporary World: a Study Case (Dragos Gheorghiu).