The recent passing of Andrew Colin Renfrew, one of the great archaeologists of the last and present century, reopens the debate on the origin of the Indo-Europeans; his name is in fact linked to the Anatolian hypothesis as the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, a theory opposed to the Kurganic one of Marija Gimbutas, according to which the Proto-Indo-Europeans would have lived in the VII-VI millennium BC in Anatolia and from there would have progressively spread, through cultural transmission and not through physical migration, towards Europe, bringing with them the conquests of the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution.
The scholar later admitted at the opening of the conference at the University of Chicago, entitled “Marija Gimbutas Memorial Lecture series” that Gimbutas had been right.The recording of this conference that we are publishing does credit to the two great archaeologists of the twentieth century.
Let us remember that when in 1980 the “Los Angeles Times” defined Marija Gimbutas “Woman of the Year”, Marija commented on the flattering recognition despite many objections, saying she was aware that for a real appreciation and acquisition of her research “at least 35 years would be necessary”!
Well, maybe we're there!!
