ABSTRACT
The matrifocal Old European world view ultimately gave way before the Indo-European patrifocal emphasis. Many Old European symbols had carried over from the pre-agricultural Upper Paleolithic, but became adapted to an agricultural way of life. Groups of Old European symbols quite consistently cluster around individual goddesses, their spheres of influence, functions, and sacred animals. The historically attested persistence of the derivation of life from primeval waters is easily recognizable in Old European female symbolism. The reason for the great number of Goddess images in Old Europe lies in its lunar and chthonic symbolism, which perceived life on earth as perpetual transformation: a constant and rhythmic alternation between creation and destruction, birth and death. Associations between objects and symbols painted or incised on female figures, shrine walls, ritual vases and other cult objects tell us much about the underlying belief system.
