The Institute of Archaeomythology is an international organization of scholars dedicated to fostering an interdisciplinary approach to cultural research with particular emphasis on the beliefs, rituals, social structure and symbolism of past and present societies. The Institute encourages dialogue among specialists from diverse fields by sponsoring international symposia, by publishing collected papers and monographs, and by promoting creative collaboration within an atmosphere of mutual support. We welcome your interest and participation.

News and Notes:

On May 18-19, 2008, the Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania, hosted an international symposium, “The Danube Script: Neo-Eneolithic ‘writing’ in Southeastern Europe.” Researchers from various disciplines met in the Museum of History, Altemberger House, to present original papers and to discuss the possibility that the signs and symbols that were used during the sixth and fifth millennia BC throughout Southeast Europe constituted an early form of writing. The symposium was followed on May 20 by an excursion by all participants to the Transylvanian sites of Tartaria and Turdas.

The symposium was accompanied by an exhibition (May 18-June 5) of enlarged photographs of inscribed artifacts from Neolithic and Eneolithic sites in Romania, and paintings of inscribed objects from the larger Danube region. These events were sponsored by the Brukenthal National Museum in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeomythology.

The collected papers from the symposium on the Danube Script will be published in 2009 by the Brukenthal National Museum, edited by Joan Marler.

The Journal of Archaeomythology Fall Issue, 2008

The next issue of our online Journal is devoted to the subject of FIGURINES: their form, function, and symbolic significance within various cultural contexts. If you would like to submit an article of any length to be considered for this issue, please send it c/o <jmarler@archaeomythology.org> no later than September 1, 2008.

The Journal of Archaeomythology, is a peer-review online publication.

To download the complete texts of the articles of all current and previous Journal issues, we invite you to become a member of the Institute of Archaeomythology.

Relief on a vessel from the Turdas excavation courtesy of National History Museum of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca (photo: Jacob Appelbaum 2007).

Figurine from the Turdas excavation
courtesy of the National History Museum of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca (photo: Jacob Appelbaum 2007).

Ceramic fragment with engraved sign from the Turdas excavation courtesy of National History Museum of Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca (photo: Jacob Appelbaum 2007)