Question: Truso, situated on Lake Drużno, was an Old Prussian (Pomesanian) town near the Baltic Sea just east of the Vistula River, in the words of Marija Gimbutas, "the name of the town is the earliest known historically in the Baltic Sea area", Gimbutas was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in which location?
Context: Old Europe is a term coined by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic culture in southeastern Europe located in the Danube River valley, also known as Danubian culture. The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory or Kurgan model) or steppe theory is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and parts of Asia.  It postulates that the people of a Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE).  The term is derived from the Russian "kurgan" (курган ), meaning tumulus or burial mound. Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians (Old Prussian: "Prūsai"; German: "Pruzzen" or "Prußen"; Latin: "Pruteni" ; Latvian: "Prūši" ; Lithuanian: "Prūsai" ; Polish: "Prusowie" ; Kashubian: "Prësowié" ) refers to the indigenous peoples from a cluster of Baltic tribes that inhabited the region of Prussia.  This region became the core of the later state of Prussia.  It was located on the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east.  The people spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology. The Great Goddess Hypothesis is that in Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and/or Neolithic Europe and Western Asia and North Africa, a singular, monotheistic female deity was worshipped prior to the development of the polytheistic pagan religions of the Bronze Age and Iron Age.  Having first been proposed as an idea relating to ancient Greek religion in 1849, it subsequently achieved some support amongst classicists.  In the early 20th century, various historians began to postulate about the theory applying across Europe, and it was widely propagated by the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas in the 1980s.  It has since been adopted by various feminist religious groups such as Dianic Wicca as a part of the mythology of their faith. The term Pomerania Balts, or rather Western Balts, refers to Baltic people, who as early as the bronze age may have inhabited parts of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, an area now known as Pomerania.  According to Marija Gimbutas, the Baltic culture of the Early and Middle Bronze Age covered a territory which, at its maximal extent, included "all of Pomerania almost to the mouth of the Oder, and the whole Vistula basin to Silesia in the south-west" before the spread of the Lusatian culture to the region and was inhabited by the ancestors of the later (Baltic) Old Prussians. Achilleion is an early Neolithic site in Thessaly, Greece.  It was partly excavated by the American archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.  Achilleion is a large site that is practically untouched by archaeologists which Gimbutas claims to be filled entirely with Neolithic debris and hundreds of Neolithic mounds.  An excavation was planned because the dig was expected to have a high yield of artifacts and if successful would possibly provide proof of an earlier age of European Neolithic settlement then was previously known.  Excavation was started because it was expected that they would find significant numbers of preceramic Neolithic remains.  The work started by Marija Gimbutas was stopped because the dig failed to yield any significant findings, but Gimbutas claims that the dig was interrupted by the political unrest caused by the Cyprus conflict. Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, FBA, FSA, Hon FSA Scot (born 25 July 1937 in Stockton-on-Tees) is a British archaeologist, paleolinguist and Conservative peer noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites.  He developed the Anatolian hypothesis, which argues that Proto-Indo-European, the reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European languages, originated approximately 9,000 years ago in Anatolia and moved with the spread of farming throughout the Mediterranean and into Central and Northern Europe.  This hypothesis contradicted Marija Gimbutas's Kurgan hypothesis, which states that Proto-Indo-European was spread by a migration of peoples from the Pontic-Caspian steppe approximately 6,000 years ago. Truso, situated on Lake Drużno, was an Old Prussian (Pomesanian) town near the Baltic Sea just east of the Vistula River.  It was one of the trading posts on the Amber Road, and is thought to be the antecedent of the city of Elbląg (Elbing).  In the words of Marija Gimbutas, "the name of the town is the earliest known historically in the Baltic Sea area".  The main export goods of Truso were amber, furs, and slaves, while blacksmithing and amber working were the major industries.  The beginnings of the town can be dated back to approximately the end of the 8th century, while in the second half of the 10th century, the town declined and was eclipsed as a trade center by nearby Gdańsk. The term Bird goddess was coined by Marija Gimbutas with relation to figurines attributed to the neolithic Vinca culture.  These figurines show female bodies combined with a bird's head.  The interpretation as "goddess" is part of Gimbutas' program of feminist archaeology depicting the European neolithic as a "gynocentric" culture which would be ousted by the "patriarchal" Indo-European cultures with the onset of the Bronze Age. Marija Gimbutas (Lithuanian: "Marija Gimbutienė" ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994), was a Lithuanian-American archaeologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of "Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis, which located the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic Steppe.
Answer: Pontic Steppe