Marija Gimbutas

Marija Gimbutas
Prof. Dr. Marija Gimbutas at the Frauenmuseum Wiesbaden, Germany 1993
Born	Marija Birutė Alseikaitė (1921-01-23)January 23, 1921 Vilnius, Lithuania
Died	February 2, 1994(1994-02-02) (aged 73) Los Angeles
Nationality	Lithuanian-American
Other names	Lithuanian: Marija Gimbutienė
Alma mater	Vilnius University
Occupation	archaeologist
Years active	1949–1991
Known for	Kurgan hypothesis
Notable work	The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe (1974); The Language of the Goddess (1989); The Civilization of the Goddess (1991)

Marija Gimbutas (Lithuanian: Marija Gimbutienė; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994), was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.

Born as Marija Birutė Alseikaitė to Veronika Janulaitytė-Alseikienė and Danielius Alseika in Vilnius, the capital of Republic of Central Lithuania, she had members of the Lithuanian intelligentsia as parents. Her mother received a doctorate in ophthalmology at the University of Berlin in 1908 and became the first female physician in Lithuania, while her father received his medical degree from the University of Tartu in 1910. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Gimbutas' parents founded the first Lithuanian hospital in the capital. During this period, her father also served as the publisher of the newspaper Vilniaus Žodis and the cultural magazine Vilniaus Šviesa and was an outspoken proponent of Lithuanian independence during the Poland-Lithuanian War. Gimbutas' parents were connoisseurs of traditional Lithuanian folk arts and frequently invited contemporary musicians, writers, and authors to their home, including Vydūnas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, and Jonas Basanavičius. With regard to her strong cultural upbringing, Gimbutas said: