Cucuteni-Tripolye kitchenware featuring symbolic figures of animals

The paper is devoted to symbolic figures of animals on Cucuteni-Tripolyekitchenware. It has systemized information on 132 vessels of various types coming from settlements in Ukraine, Moldova and Rumania. Artifacts dating to the TripolyeBII-CII period, i. e. the time when Group C ceramics persisted, predominate (Fig. 1a).The ratio of pots to bowls featuring symbolic figures of animals in this group may specifya proportional rarity of symbols. Parametric analysis of flat-bottomed pots in the sampleshows that these symbols are present on vessels of various sizes (Fig. 1b). Figures onGroup C ceramics match the figures on painted vessels compositionally and, apparently,semantically. Both have protomes placed along the perimeter, paired heads (depiction ofpartial teams of animals), single heads (generalized zoomorphism) (Fig. 2, 3). Bovinespredominate among zoomorphic heads placed on kitchenware; rams and stags are presentin substantially fewer cases, and there are some rare depictions of horned animals ofunclear biological species. One third of the sample consists of flawed figures. The numberof kitchen vessels featuring symbolic figures of animals for most settlements is close tothe number of the dwellings examined. It is quite probable that kitchenware with suchsymbols formed part of the first consumer set in new dwellings.