Symbols and Signs of the Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture

Cornelia–Magda Lazarovici (Romania)

Abstract

This study offers a brief overview of the main categories of objects with signs and symbols from the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture in northeast Romania, Moldavia and western Ukraine. The categories of inscribed and painted artifacts include figurines, pottery, clay objects of various kinds, altars, models of sanctuaries and ovens. According to this research, the signs and symbols used by the Cucuteni-Tripolye communities are associated with a fertility and fecundity cult related to agricultural rituals and the Great Goddess of life and death. This deity, and others belonging to the same pantheon, are common to all Neo-Eneolithic/Chalcolithic civilizations.