Modes of Burial in Lithuania in the Iron Age

This fonds contains documents about Dr. Marija Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė (b. 1921 in Vilnius, d. 1994 in Los Angeles), known as Marija Gimbutas after her marriage to architect Jurgis Gimbutas in 1941, was the daughter of physicians Veronika Janulaitytė-Alseikienė and Danielius Alseika. Her mother was Lithuania’s first female physician and held a doctorate in ophthalmology; the couple ran a hospital in Vilnius together from 1918 but separated in 1931. Marija Gimbutas pursued a career in folklore and began researching Lithuanian beliefs and death rituals in the 1930s. She successfully submitted her Master’s thesis at the University of Vilnius, Laidosena Lietuvoje geležies amžiuje, in 1942, two years before she and her husband and young daughter fled Lithuania as refugees in 1944. She was working on her doctorate at the time and managed to bring her thesis on prehistoric Lithuanian burial rites with her as she fled to Germany and successfully defended her doctorate at the University of Tübingen in 1946. A few years later, she emigrated permanently with her family to the United States, where she enjoyed a very successful career as a university professor.