Southern connections. Metamorphosis of a particular type of anthropomorphic vessels in the area of the Cucuteni civilizatio

Abstract

The paper presents four fragmentary anthropomorphic vessels discovered ca. 60 years ago on the territory of Botoșani County, at Cervicești – La Morișcă (Mihai Eminescu commune) and Drăgușeni – Ostrov (Drăgușeni commune), left unpublished in the collections of the Botoșani County Museum. Starting from the presentation of these artefacts and integrating similar discoveries from the Gumelnița, Stoicani‑Aldeni and Cucuteni cultural areas, the work analyses the metamorphoses of a particular type of anthropomorphic vessel in the area of the Cucuteni civilization. More precisely, the paper follows typologically the transformation of the base of the vessels from the anthropomorphic silhouette naturalistically figured, with the anatomical profile correctly rendered, with the soles and feet clearly indicated, to the intermediate rhomboidal sole and then to the ovoid or circular base. Confirming the hypothesis of Gumelnița influences penetrating the Cucuteni environment, the analysis of the new materials and the typological connections illustrate and highlight the role of a transmission vector and intermediary between the North and the South that the Stoicani‑Aldeni cultural environment played for contemporary or immediately subsequent Eneolithic communities during the second half of the 5th millennium BC

Keywords

• anthropomorphic vessels
• gumelnița
• stoicani‑aldeni
• cucuteni
• rhombic sole