Matriarchal Societies

The Independent January 15th – go to http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology … and you will find an archive of article. This one is on page 2 of the (current) archive. Many of The Independent’s archaeology stories appear to be old hat. For example, there is one on the Ice Age Channel River that is several years out of date, and likewise this one, ‘Why  did the collapse of Old Europe bring a shift from female to male power?’. This theme is a hoary old chestnut and there is no evidence whatsoever of a European matriarchal society – it is completely invented by modern romanticists. In contrast, there is plenty of evidence of the worship of a female goddess figure – but in conjunction and alongside male god(s). Hence, a certain amount of cynicism is required when reading this article – which is otherwise informative. It seems a collapse of a culture that straddled Bulgaria, Romania and Moldavia which flourished between 5000-3500BC – at the end of the Mid Holocene Warm Period (probably 3200BC rather than 3500, but not entirely certain as a C14 plateau occurs at this point in time) was followed by the appearance of people from the Eurasian steppes (the nasty male patriarchal society). The collapse of the culture was dramatic – but it would be if it coincided with 3200BC rather than 3500BC and as such would have triggered migrations – the idea of horse nomads from the steppes entering Europe at the same as they did the Near East (via the Caucasus) or even India (via Afghanistan).