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Stop 12Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines
The bird-shaped vessel from Poduri
We have now climbed to the upper floor, to the room of sculptural masterpieces. We begin with a vessel that looks like a bird. Archaeologists call it ornithomorphic, from the Greek word for bird. It comes from Poduri and belongs to the Cucuteni A phase.
- Period
- Cucuteni A (c. 4600–4050 î.Hr.)
- Where it is
- Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines, first floor
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Narration text
We have now climbed to the upper floor, to the room of sculptural masterpieces. We begin with a vessel that looks like a bird. Archaeologists call it ornithomorphic, from the Greek word for bird.
It comes from Poduri and belongs to the Cucuteni A phase. Notice how the maker suggested the bird's rounded body, while the painted ornament seems to imitate plumage. Birds appear often in the prehistoric art of south-eastern Europe.
They may have been seen as messengers between sky and earth, or simply tied to the seasons: their arrival announced spring and the start of farm work. For a farming community, that sign mattered enormously. In this room you will meet three kinds of representation: anthropomorphic, meaning human; zoomorphic, meaning animal; and ornithomorphic, like this one.
What they share is that they go beyond mere usefulness: they are objects through which people expressed their beliefs.