The Balts (1963)

[The Lawspeaker]

Foreword

This book was written at Stanford, California, at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, located on a hill overlooking broad expanses in all directions. At certain moments here I have visualized the hills and slopes shrouded with green oaks as seen from the castle hill of Gediminas in Vilnius, my native city in the heart of the Baltic lands, from which I am separated by almost twenty years. The Californian sand dunes, at Carmel, remind me of the pure white sands of Palanga, where I used to collect handfuls of amber; and the sunsets in the Pacific, of the peacefully sinking sun as it disappeared into the Baltic Sea, beyond where, to the west, my forefathers thought was the cosmic tree, the axis of the world, holding up the arch of the sky.
I am deeply grateful therefore to the Center for such inspiring working conditions, the delightful atmosphere, and for all the assistance made available to me. I would also like to express appreciation to my many Lithuanian, Lettish, Polish and Russian colleagues for invaluable information they supplied and the illustrations and books they procured, particularly to Drs J. Antoniewicz, V. Ģinters, Ju. V. Kukharenko, R. Rimantienė, and A. Spekke. For technical help, editing and typing, I am deeply indebted to Miss M. Gallaher and to my daughter Danutė.





CONTENTS

.	List of Illustrations	p. 6
.	Foreword	p. 11
.	General Chronological Table	p. 12
.	Introduction	p. 13
Chapter I	Linguistic and Historic Background	p. 21
Chapter II	Their Origins	p. 37
Chapter III	The Bronze and the Early Iron Age of the Maritime Balts	p. 54
Chapter IV	The Bronze and the Early Iron Age of the Eastern Balts	p. 91
Chapter V	The “Golden Age”	p. 109
Chapter VI	The Baltic “Middle Iron Age”	p. 141
Chapter VII	The Balts Before the Dawn of History	p. 155
Chapter VIII	Religion	p. 179
.	Notes	p. 205
.	Bibliography	p. 214
.	Sources of Illustrtations	p. 224
.	The Plates	p. 227
.	Index	p. 277

Source:The Balts- by Marija Gimbutas

[Bloodeagle]

I am familiar with Marija Gimbutas. She is the creator of the Kurgan hypothesis.

[Birka]

What is the Kurgan hypothesis? And don't tell me it comes from the movie "The Highlander", or does it.

[Bloodeagle]

What is the Kurgan hypothesis? And don't tell me it comes from the movie "The Highlander", or does it.

That was funny Birka. The Kurgan

[Inese]

Good posting Tristan!!! Thank you! up

[The Lawspeaker]

Paldies, Inese.

[Osweo]

Ah, by the way, there's a PDF link here:
http://www.vaidilute.com/books/gimbu...mbutas-pdf.zip
(And I'm very WARY of Gimbutas, she's a raving misandrist, which is roughly the essence, justification and inspiration of the Kurgan Hypothesis... I read her similar book on the Slavs and it was hardly as comprehensive as I would have liked. )