Magna Mater in Macedonia - the Vinca Culture I will start with a little Dreamtime presentation of mine, just to show how human fancy can make sense out of all the tiny little pieces of inklings that I will accompany my odyssey with, to reveal at least how saucy it can get when one indulges into the existence of the primeval world, the natural state of harmony, balance of forces, Nature and Cosmos united. The word Cosmos 1, to me sounds like Kos Most (Macedonian - Bow Bridge), just as the Milky Way appears on the night sky, clearly visible from a dark place high up in the mountains of Macedon. Those stars that burned images into the sub-consciousness of the people who carved them into symbols on rocks, which the Gods arouse from the Earth during the Flood. It was the age of the Bliss, the balance of all energies, the Heaven on Earth. These people I am creating here in my imagination are those that walked the land of Macedon sometime between the sixth and the third millennia BC. Follow me to their Motherland: (Dreamtime‌) Once upon a time 2, there was a child who wanted to become a hero, just as those before who had reached the stars. There was light coming through the window in the house. The child went to pray to the Great Goddess Ma (Mo), the Mother of all life on Earth. It was a peaceful sunset outside to the west, and the birds were singing sweet songs. The child put the little totem3 on the shrine and went outside 4, down the cobblestone pathway to the rock, where the script was. It was
1
From Online Etymology Dictionary: Cosmos - c.1200 (but not popular until 1848, as a translation of Humboldt's Kosmos), from Gk. kosmos "orderly arrangement" (cf. Homeric kosmeo, used of the act of marshaling troops), with an important secondary sense of "ornament, decoration, dress." Pythagoras is said to have been the first to apply this word to "the universe," perhaps originally meaning "the starry firmament," but later it was extended to the whole physical world, including the earth. For specific reference to "the world of people," the classical phrase was he oikoumene (ge) "the inhabited (earth)." Septuagint uses both kosmos and oikoumene. Kosmos also was used in Christian religious writing with a sense of "worldly life, this world (as opposed to the afterlife)," but the more frequent word for this was aion, lit. "lifetime, age."
2
By C 14 analysis carried out in Macedonia and in the neighboring countries, and also by comparative analyses, the chronological framework of the Neolithic era has been set from 6500 till 4800 BC and of the Eneolithic from 4800 till 2500 BC. Concerning the Neolithic period on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia the basic widely accepted cultural groups are the Anzabegovo - Vrsnik, i.e.(st)., Zelenikovo culture and Velusina - Porodin culture. On the grounds of an overall chronological analysis three stages have been identified in the Neolithic, classified as Early, Middle and Late Neolithic Ages. They correlate with the cultural compounds in the Balkans at large, above all with the Balkan-Anatolian compound, rather than with the Starcevo, i.e., Vinca-Tordos compound, Zelenikovo; and the compounds Karanovo; Proto-Sesklo, Sesklo and Dimini. (Irena Kolistrkoska Nasteva)
3
The abundance of terracotta figurines depicting the woman from prehistory, more precisely from the Neolithic and Eneolithic eras, which were discovered in the Republic of Macedonia, have imposed the idea of jointly presenting archaeological artifacts that are inter-related merely by one concept – the woman. The purpose is to elucidate a segment of the rich spiritual life of the prehistoric populace settling the territory of present day Macedonia from the sixth till the third millennia BC. (Irena Kolistrkoska Nasteva) 4
As we know, the Neolithic settlements were relatively small, consisting of twenty to thirty houses and located on mounds in plains. In their vicinity there were regularly clear drinking water, fertile soil for cultivating grain, natural resources of salty earth for the cattle, and other necessities. Houses were built of vertical support beams with wattle-