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Stop 6Room 2: the painted vessels
The binocular vessel from Ghelăiești
Archaeologists have a sense of humour: this object is called a binocular vessel simply because it looks like a pair of binoculars. The name has nothing to do with how it was used.
- Period
- Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.)
- Where it is
- Room 2: the painted vessels, ground floor
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Narration text
Archaeologists have a sense of humour: this object is called a binocular vessel simply because it looks like a pair of binoculars. The name has nothing to do with how it was used. It is made of two cylindrical bodies, open at both ends, usually joined by three bridges.
It had no base, so it could not hold liquids or grain. What was it for, then? Most specialists believe it was a cult object: perhaps a stand for other vessels, perhaps a kind of drum with a skin stretched over it.
The form appears only in the Cucuteni world. This example comes from Ghelăiești, in Bârgăuani commune, Neamț County, a site excavated systematically between 1969 and 1989 by teams led by the archaeologist Ștefan Cucoș. It belongs to the Cucuteni B phase, the last stage of this civilisation, when painting was done mainly in black on the vessel's light surface.
Look at the perfect symmetry of the two halves: it was achieved without a potter's wheel.