Latest news
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31.03.2025
Dr Kaarina Kailo, an expert in sauna and karhumythology, has been awarded the SARASVATI AWARD for non-fiction book of the year in the United States.
The ASWM, Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (USA) announced the Nonfiction Book of the Year Award at an international conference ("Sacred Stories of the Sentient Earth: Scholarship for Collaboration, Intervention, Reciprocity") on 29 March 2025 in Arizona. It was awarded to The Woman Who Married The Bear: The Spirituality of Ancient Foremothers (Oxford UP, 2023), co-authored by Iroquois scholar Barbara Alice Mann and Kaarina Kailo, Associate Professor at the University of Oulu. The book compares the oldest mythologies of North America and Eurasia and their worldview context.
The Sarasvati Nonfiction Book Award is given annually to the best nonfiction book in the field and has previously been awarded to Judy Grahn, Starr Goode, Adrienne Mayor, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor Mair. The award recognises outstanding research and excellence in its description and presentation.
Kaarina Kailo has written and edited numerous non-fiction books and articles during her career, six of which have focused on sauna culture. As a specialist at the European Archaeomythological Institute, she has also focused on bear religion and Nordic women's mythology and Kalevala. Kailo's next sauna book in English will be published in the summer (Sauna Culture Sweat and Spirituality, Architectonics and Cosmology of Sacred Space, Springer). Barbara Alice Mann, Professor Emeritus of Seneca Indian Studies at the University of Toledo, is the author of l5 books and over 500 scholarly articles.
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24.8.2024
Some impressions of the collection of Haarmann’s publications in the archive, including photos featuring Prof. Vasja Velinova (director of the Centre) and Dr. Rossen Milev (director of Balkanmedia)
Photos: Dr. Rossen Milev
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13.5.2024
Kaarina Kailo amongst other researchers will give presentations in S/HE Divine Studies Online Conference hosted by Mago Academy. The event will be held on June 7–9, 2024. More information here.
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2.4.2024
The article "Lost People of Old Europe" by Harald Haarmann and Mariagrazia Pelaia has been published in the March 2024 issue of the Prometeo Liberato magazine. The online magazine is available on the website's bottom section and on Issuu service.
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The Goddess Project Podcast interviews PhD Kaarina Kailo on her newest book. Watch on YouTube.
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Harald Haarmann and other researchers will lecture in Vienna on April 20, 2024. The event will be in German and English.
Introducing the Association Pro Vanha Eurooppa (a non-profit organization registered in Finland) and its programmatic orientation
In a series of presentations, ancient living-conditions in the wider Danube Region will be illuminated, with the intention to provide a framework for an understanding of the achievements in the pre-Greek era and, to convey information about a major change in the perception of cultural history: Ancient Greek civilization of antiquity was not the cradle of western civilization.
It assumed a different role which was that of a turntable for the transmission of knowledge about the cultural heritage of the ancient Danube civilization.
Edit: Summaries of the presentations available here.
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Jonas Hopf interviews Harald Haarmann on the topic of Europe's first civilization. The German-language discussion is available on YouTube. Automatic translation subtitles are available.
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Uwe Hinrichs has written a review of Harald Haarmann's work “Kairos. Human Responses to the Flow of Time in the Dynamic Formation Process of Western Civilization.” (Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung. Hildesheim 2023.)
The review will be published later in the Zeitschrift für Balkanologie journal.
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Helen Hye-Sook Hwang interviews Dr. Kaarina Kailo in Return to Mago E-Magazine. Kailo discusses her career, multidisciplinary research approach and her art. Read the article here.
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At the Bulgarian premiere of his book “Introduction to the Danube Script”, PhD Harald Haarmann proposes the addition of the Danubian script to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List. Watch Haarmann’s presentation on YouTube.
The premiere, organized by the Central Library of the Capital, Association Balkanmedia, and Magazine 8, took place on November 23, 2023, in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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4.8.2023
Harald Haarmann and Nana Sturm discuss matriarchal traces in Basque language and culture. The video can be viewed on Matriwissen channel on YouTube. Auto-generated captions and translations to multiple languages are available.
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19.6.2023
Harald Haarmann and Karl Gamper discuss peace in Our Roots Summit 2023. Watch the replay (in German) on YouTube.
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YouTuber Jonas Hopf interviews Harald Haarmann on Old Europe and the invention of the wheel on his channel “Auf Zeitreise mit Jonas Hopf”. (In German, auto translation available.)
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Joan Marler’s paper “Baltic Archaeology, Cultural History, Ancient Lithuanian Symbolism, Old Europe, and the Archaeomythology of Marija Gimbutas” was published in Vol 23 (2022): Archaeologia Lituana. Open access.
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“Prehistory in Italy” collects information on the civilization of the Goddess in Italy, in Italian and in English (automatic translation). See especially “Lost peoples of ancient Europe - A tribute to Marija Gimbutas, visionary archaeologist.” by Harald Haarmann and Mariagrazia Pelaia.
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“Die große Göttin - Das Rätsel der alteuropäischen Donau-Zivilisation”, featuring Harald Haarmann.
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Harald Haarmann discusses Old Europe on Nana Sturm’s YouTube channel Matriwissen. Watch the videos here. (In German, auto-generated subtitles available.)
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The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology will hold a conference on the topic of “Waters of Life: Exploring Mythos, Divinity, Beings, and Ecology” in Syracuse, New York on May 5-6, 2023.
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February 23, 2023, 12 noon Eastern Standard Time
Kaarina Kailo will give a presentation titled “The Woman who Married the Bear and Original Instructions” at the Scholar Salon of The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. You must be a member to register for Scholar Salons. Join here.
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“The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation: The discovery of Europe's oldest civilisation” has been published in Ukrainian language. Watch a presentation of the book on YouTube (in Ukrainian).
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Barbara Alice Mann & Kaarina Kailo, Oxford UP, Forthcoming 2023.
“Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear appear across the global North from Indigenous North America and Scandinavia to Russia and Korea. In The Woman Who Married the Bear, authors Barbara Alice Mann, a scholar of Indigenous American culture, and Kaarina Kailo, who specializes in the cultures of Northern Europe, join forces to examine the Bear-Husband stories on their respective continents, their common elements, and their meanings in the context of matriarchal culture.”
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10.8.2022
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5.8.2022
Patricia McBroom is an anthropologist, science journalist and professor of women’s studies. In 2020, she published a research memoir: “Dance of the Deities”
Patricia McBroom’s blog -
1.8.2022
Harald Haarmann: Roots of Ancient Greek Civilization, The Influence of Old Europe
Contrary to a prevalent belief of the Western world, that democracy, agriculture, theater and the arts were the attainments of Classical Greek civilization, these were actually a Bronze Age fusion of earlier European concepts and Hellenic ingenuity. This work considers both the multicultural wellspring from which these ideas flowed and their ready assimilation by the Greeks, who embraced these hallmarks of civilization, and refined them to the level of sophistication that defines classical antiquity.
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