This customer review has just appeared on Amazon, and I thought that visitors to this site might find it interesting if not somewhat amusing! It is hard to decide who the writer is slamming the hardest, me or Ian Hodder, but in this view we are both in cahoots in suppressing evidence for Goddess worship at Catalhoyuk. I will let readers make up their own minds, but want to correct one factual error: The female figurines at Catalhoyuk, while fascinating, are not in the least intricately designed or carefully fashioned, but actually rather crude in most cases. (I should also mention that The Goddess and the Bull has received a much kinder review from the magazine Goddess Alive! and other Goddess and women's spirituality publications.


CHEAP SHOT, November 25, 2005
Reviewer: J. Studebaker (Westbrook, Maine United States) - See all my reviews

First, this book is a gigantic cheap shot. One of the most spectacular aspects of Catalhoyuk is its intricately designed, carefully fashioned, other-wordly female figurines. Also remarkable were the original excavator's findings that most of the burials at the site were of women, implying that the settlement consisted primarily of women and children, and few men.

But the author of The Goddess and the Bull mentions almost nothing about these figurines in the book. So why does he use the word "Goddess" in his title? What's his deal? Is he simply a mercenary, or is he an inveterate stretcher of the truth?

The only thing the book does toss the reader about the Catalhoyuk female figurines is that the current excavator, Ian Hodder, definitely KNOWS they were NOT considered deities by the original Catalhoyuk inhabitants. If you want to meet a scientist about as dogmatic as a scientist could be, welcome to Balter's Ian Hodder. According to Balter, Hodder doesn't contend that the regal-looking, carefully made figurines at Catalhoyuk "may or may not" be Goddesses. No. Hodder is absolutely certain they are not. Whew! Heavy on the dogma, here. I'd place my bets on Mr. Hodder founding the first Church of Archaeology.

I do have to admit that Balter touches on some interesting topics: why did humans begin living together in sardine-packed groups? What's the latest fashion in archaeological theory? On the other hand, about 80% of the book reads like a soap opera starring the 100-plus Catalhoyuk excavation staff, their spouses, children, lovers and divorces.

Second: If Balter had treated the Christian religion with the respect he gives Goddess religion, no publisher would have touched his book. He plays up the most lurid details he can find regarding this latter religion.

Third: Balter feels the need to inform us of Hodder's astounding explanation for why more women than men are buried at this site: they died in childbirth.

What?!? If, say, over a 500-year period as many men as women were born at this site, then as many men as women would lie buried there. If the burials are predominantly women, then men were leaving the settlement and dying elsewhere, or they were buried elsewhere for some other reason. Give us a break! The fact is, this is a fascinating demographic that Hodder is suspiciously sweeping under the interpretive carpet.

In my opinion, the most valuable information the book offers is about Hodder's funding. Turns out it's from large corporations - something archaeologists never do. Why? Because you end up kow-towing to Big Power. And I mean BIG power. IBM, Boeing, and Shell Oil are among those financing Hodder's Catalhoyuk.

What do these Deep-Pocket Big Guys get for funding a site like Catalhoyuk? Good press. Hold up your hand if you think the suits at IBM, Boeing or Shell Oil are going to be happy having their names plastered next to pictures of exceedingly corpulent, obviously pregnant, nude mothers with bulbous breasts and oversized buttocks, some of them seemingly in the act of giving birth.

I'm giving Balter one star - only because he points to an obvious reason why Ian Hodder would deny and hide evidence of female deity at this very important ancient Middle Eastern site - he's afraid his Deep-Pocket Sugar Daddies will pull the plug on his funding.