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
In Masseria Candelaro, a Neolithic village in the Foggia area, several burials have come to light, including those of three women buried inside deep silos (it is first of all interesting that a place originally used for storing cereals is reused with sepulchral functions ).
The first tomb houses two women, one 15/17 years old, the other more than 50 years old, bearing a bone awl on their chest made from a sheep and goat tibia.
Lesser pearl grass seeds were found associated with the burial. Listed among the weeds of cereals, it is also known for its medicinal and medicinal properties. In historical times, pearl herb infusions were suggested as remedies for the expulsion of kidney stones, and, above all, to facilitate childbirth.
The second tomb houses a 30/40 year old woman. The arrangement of the skeleton indicated that the woman had been placed in a free environment, not filled with earthy fillings, due to subsequent collapses. Therefore, the space dedicated to the burial was really very large, given that it could indicate a particular emphasis attributed to her deposition. The funeral equipment consisted of a shiny black bowl and a jug and, once again a very suggestive figure, seeds of wild plants: silene, hypericum, verbena. This time we are not dealing with weeds of cereals, but plants typical of grassland environments, all characterized by colorful flowers.
They too possess important medicinal properties, and therefore their presence may not be occasional, but may have an important meaning, both in terms of the knowledge that women had of the virtues of certain herbs and certain flowers, and in the symbolic meaning linked to them .
Momolina Marconi dedicates pages of great interest to verbena, also known as the sacred herb, to which the ancients attributed prodigious properties. The term is made up of the root verb- and the derivative element -ena, a derivative element of great fortune within the Mediterranean populations, to the point of being able to indicate Crete as one of the ancient centers of Aegean expansion of the morpheme. A term therefore in which to see both for the radical element and for the derivative element, a word of Mediterranean substrate. It should be added that the verbena is called in Greek as well as ιερά βοτάνη (sacred herb), also περιστερά (dove), περιστερεών (dovecote), τρυγόνιον (dove), all names that show its close relationship with the dove, the aphrodisiac bird dear to the great Mediterranean goddess. A common name for this plant is columbine grass; in Spain verbenas are popular festivals: among the most famous is the one celebrated in Madrid for the Madonna della Colomba.
But always from Momolina Marconi I take another image, which brings us back to the primary innocence of Potnia, when she writes about Morgana: "I like to think of the beautiful among the beautiful in the noonday idleness intent, with her companions, on gathering and weaving flowers, no longer for lethal or healthy purposes, but only to compose graceful crowns; in this moment every artifice gives way to the immediate enjoyment of nature”.
So these flowers are my gift to Marija Gimbutas: the silene open until evening for the nocturnal butterflies, the hypericum that illuminates the earth at the solstice, the verbena sacred to the Goddess, which Marija has made so vivid to our eyes and whose recovery cannot fail to translate into a recovery of nature itself.
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 - in 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.
