# Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum 'Gheorghe Dumitroaia' > The most important collection of Eneolithic art in Eastern Europe: pots painted with red, white and black spirals and human figurines of the Cucuteni civilisation (c. 5000–3500 BC), housed in a neo-Romanian former bank in the old centre of Piatra Neamț. - Strada Ștefan cel Mare nr. 3, Piatra-Neamț - GPS: 46.93353, 26.368485 - Contact: 0233 226 471, secretariat@cmnn.ro - https://cmnn.ro/muzeu/muzeul-de-arta-eneolitica-cucuteni-gheorghe-dumitroaia/ - Part of: Complexul Muzeal Național Neamț (https://neamt.rdcopilot.com/) ## Opening hours Tuesday – Sunday: 10:00–18:00 (April – September), 9:00–17:00 (October – March). Closed on Mondays. **April – September: 04-01 – 09-30** - Monday: closed - Tuesday: 10:00–18:00 - Wednesday: 10:00–18:00 - Thursday: 10:00–18:00 - Friday: 10:00–18:00 - Saturday: 10:00–18:00 - Sunday: 10:00–18:00 **October – March: 10-01 – 03-31** - Monday: closed - Tuesday: 09:00–17:00 - Wednesday: 09:00–17:00 - Thursday: 09:00–17:00 - Friday: 09:00–17:00 - Saturday: 09:00–17:00 - Sunday: 09:00–17:00 ## Prices - Adult: 16 lei - Student / adult group: 8 lei - Child / pupil: 4 lei - Photography fee (exhibitions): 10 lei ## Accessibility Stepped entrance; staff help with access on request. ## Visit - [Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum 'Gheorghe Dumitroaia'](https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/index.md?lang=en) - [Tickets online](https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/bilete.md?lang=en) - [Audio guide](https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid.md?lang=en): 19 stops - [Indoor map](https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/harta-interioara.md?lang=en) - [Versiunea în română](https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/llms-full.txt) ## Audio guide ### 0. Welcome - Audio: 0:11 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-bun-venit?lang=en ### 1. Welcome: the Petrodava Bank Palace - Where: Room 1: a history of research - Period: clădire 1928–1930; muzeu din 24 iunie 2005 - Audio: 1:11 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-palatul-bancii-petrodava?lang=en Welcome to the Cucuteni Museum of Eneolithic Art! You are standing in one of the most striking buildings in Piatra-Neamț. It was built between 1928 and 1930 by the contractor Carol Zani, to a design by Roger Bolomey, once chief architect of Bucharest. Until 1948 it housed the Petrodava Bank, the town's first private bank, and after nationalisation it belonged to the National Bank of Romania. In 2004 the building passed to Neamț County, and on 24 June 2005, the town's feast day, this museum opened its doors. The timing was deliberate: it marked almost 120 years since the discovery of the Cucuteni site that gave the culture its name, and 70 years since the founding of the History Museum in Piatra-Neamț. Where the town once kept its savings, it now keeps a different kind of treasure: the art of communities that lived here more than six thousand years ago. Please begin in Room 1. ### 2. Discovering Cucuteni: a history of research - Where: Room 1: a history of research - Period: din 1884 până astăzi - Audio: 1:16 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-istoria-cercetarii-descoperitorii-civilizatiei-cucuteni?lang=en This room tells the story of the people who brought the Cucuteni civilisation to light. Its name comes from the village of Cucuteni, in Iași County, where the site was identified in 1884. The first large excavations there were carried out by the German archaeologist Hubert Schmidt in 1909 and 1910. For Neamț, the key figure is the priest Constantin Matasă, a passionate archaeologist and founder of the museum in Piatra-Neamț, who among other finds discovered the famous Frumușica Round Dance. Generations of researchers followed, and the Neamț museum became the Romanian institution that has done most to study this culture, through excavations, exhibitions and publications. The International Centre for Cucuteni Culture Research is based in this very building. We now know that the Cucuteni–Trypillia civilisation stretched across today's Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. Look at the portraits: each of these people added a piece to the puzzle you are about to discover in the rooms ahead. ### 3. The pedestal vessel with columns from Izvoare - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni A (c. 4600–4050 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:12 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-cu-suport-si-colonete?lang=en In front of you is one of the museum's best-known pieces: the pedestal vessel with columns from Izvoare. If you have noticed the logo of the Neamț National Museum Complex, you have already seen this vessel, because it became the institution's emblem. The site at Izvoare, in Neamț County, was excavated by the archaeologist Radu Vulpe. Look at how it is built: a bowl set on top of a stand, joined to it by small columns. Cucuteni potters had no wheel; everything was shaped by hand, yet the result has the balance of a piece of architecture. Then look at the decoration: spirals rolling out of one another, painted before firing, with no beginning and no end. This vessel form is found only in the Cucuteni civilisation and in no other prehistoric European culture. It was probably not a kitchen pot but an object with a ceremonial role. Remember that you are looking at it across more than six millennia from the hands that shaped it. ### 4. The crown vessel from Poduri - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Precucuteni III (Precucuteni: c. 5050–4600 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:14 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-coroana-de-la-poduri?lang=en This unusual vessel, whose rim rises into large, hollow projections, is called a crown vessel. Archaeologists gave it that name because its silhouette recalls a crown. It comes from Poduri–Dealul Ghindaru in Bacău County, the only tell-type site in the entire Cucuteni–Trypillia area. A tell is a mound formed as settlements were built one on top of another, generation after generation, on the same spot. Excavations there lasted almost three decades, led by the archaeologists Dan Monah and Gheorghe Dumitroaia. The vessel belongs to the Precucuteni phase, the direct ancestors of the Cucuteni people. Notice that the maker was not aiming only at usefulness: the perforated projections do nothing to help store food, but they turn the pot into a striking object. Crown vessels, along with binocular vessels, round-dance vessels and pedestal vessels with columns, are forms found only in the Cucuteni world. What exactly was it for? Archaeologists still debate it. Most likely it was used in ceremonies. ### 5. The Frumușica Round Dance - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni A2, c. 4500–4350 î.Hr. - Audio: 1:07 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-hora-de-la-frumusica?lang=en Here is the piece many consider the symbol of Cucuteni art: the Frumușica Round Dance. It was discovered in 1942 by Constantin Matasă on Cetățuia hill near Bodeștii de Jos, in Neamț County. It stands about 36 centimetres tall and was shaped roughly 6,400 years ago. Look closely: there are six female figures, seen from behind, joined as if in a dance. The maker did not model heads, arms or legs. Only the hips remain, clearly marking them as women, and the oval openings arranged in two rows create a sense of movement, as though the dance were turning before our eyes. Technically, it is a stand: another vessel probably rested on top of it, perhaps during a ritual. For Romanians the image has a special resonance, because the hora, the round dance, is still the dance that gathers a community into a circle. Perhaps this gesture of joined hands is far older than we ever imagined. ### 6. The binocular vessel from Ghelăiești - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:11 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-binoclu-de-la-ghelaiesti?lang=en 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. ### 7. The lobed vessel from Piatra Șoimului - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni A-B (c. 4050–3850 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:10 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-lobat-de-la-piatra-soimului?lang=en This vessel comes from Piatra Șoimului, just a few kilometres from Piatra-Neamț, and belongs to the transitional Cucuteni A-B phase. Notice the shape first: the rim is not a simple circle but is modelled into lobes, like petals or waves. Then the decoration: geometric bands, meanders and parallel lines covering almost the whole surface. In phase A, Cucuteni potters painted in three colours: white, red and black. In phase A-B the styles blend, and craftsmen experiment with new combinations and proportions. The pottery of this civilisation is considered among the finest in prehistoric Europe. Potters fired their vessels in kilns at high temperatures, or the colours would never have survived so well. See how precisely the lines are drawn on a curved surface, with no measuring tools at all. It is evidence that specialised craftsmen worked here, passing their knowledge from one generation to the next. ### 8. The amphora with human figures from Poduri - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:09 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-amfora-cu-siluete-umane-de-la-poduri?lang=en Most Cucuteni vessels are decorated with spirals, meanders and geometric bands. This amphora from Poduri is an exception: human figures are painted on its body. They are pared down to essentials: a torso, arms, sometimes a barely sketched head. We do not know whom they represent. Dancers, perhaps, or people taking part in a ritual, ancestors or deities. The vessel belongs to the Cucuteni B phase, the final stage of this civilisation. In this period painting becomes freer, and figurative images of people and animals appear more and more often on vessels. Look at how the artist organised the space: the figures are framed in registers, like a comic strip unfolding around the pot. To see the whole scene you would have to walk around it. Imagine how it looked in the hands of those who used it, turned slowly in the firelight. For them the images surely carried a meaning we can only try to guess. ### 9. The amphora with animal figures from Poduri - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:04 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-amfora-cu-siluete-animale-de-la-poduri?lang=en On this amphora from Poduri, the craftsman painted animals. You can see them running around the vessel, with long bodies, slender legs and raised tails. In the Cucuteni B phase such images become increasingly common. Studies of the bones found at Poduri show that its inhabitants knew at least 27 species of mammals, most of them domestic: cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. Hunting added deer and wild boar to the diet. The Cucuteni people were farmers and herders, and animals were part of their daily lives as well as their religious imagination. Look how dynamic the drawing is: a few lines are enough to suggest speed. Compare this amphora with the one next to it, painted with human figures. Together, the two vessels show us what mattered to this community: people, and the animals on which their survival depended. ### 10. The krater with bucrania from Târgu Ocna - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:07 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-craterul-cu-bucranii-de-la-targu-ocna?lang=en This large, wide-mouthed vessel is called a krater. It comes from Târgu Ocna, from the Podei plateau in Bacău County, where a Cucuteni B settlement was discovered. The houses there had walls of woven branches plastered with clay. Look at the decoration: archaeologists have identified bucrania in it, motifs that evoke a bull's head or horns. The bull is one of the oldest symbols of strength and fertility, found in many prehistoric cultures of Europe and the Near East. For the Cucuteni people, cattle were also a vital resource, providing meat, milk and pulling power. It is no surprise that their silhouette appears on important vessels. The pot was painted in black on the light background of the clay, the typical technique of phase B. If you look carefully, you will see how the horns almost turn into spirals. Here, symbol and ornament merge into a single design. ### 11. The anthropomorphic vessel from Trușești - Where: Room 2: the painted vessels - Period: Cucuteni A (c. 4600–4050 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:10 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-antropomorf-de-la-trusesti?lang=en At first glance it looks like an ordinary pot. But look at it as a body: it has shoulders, a rounded belly and hips. Archaeologists call it an anthropomorphic vessel, meaning a vessel in human form. It comes from Trușești, in Botoșani County, one of the largest settlements of the Cucuteni A phase, excavated by the archaeologist Mircea Petrescu-Dîmbovița. For the Cucuteni people, the link between vessel and body was no accident. A pot held food and seed, just as a woman's body carries life. Many of their cult vessels recall female silhouettes, and some even have breasts or arms modelled in relief. The painted decoration follows the curves of the body, like a garment or perhaps a tattoo. In fact, Cucuteni figurines of the same period often carry exactly the same kind of incised or painted motifs on their bodies. Perhaps, for the people of that time, vessel and figurine spoke the same language. ### 12. The bird-shaped vessel from Poduri - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Cucuteni A (c. 4600–4050 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:07 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-ornitomorf-de-la-poduri?lang=en 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. ### 13. The Thinker of Târpești - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Precucuteni III (Precucuteni: c. 5050–4600 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:01 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-ganditorul-de-la-tarpesti?lang=en Meet the Thinker of Târpești. It is a small figurine of fired, brick-red clay showing a man seated directly on the ground, elbows on his knees and palms pressed to his temples. His pose immediately suggests meditation, and the comparison with the famous Thinker of Hamangia is unavoidable. The figurine was found at Târpești, in Petricani commune, Neamț County, in a Precucuteni settlement excavated by the archaeologists Vladimir Dumitrescu and Silvia Marinescu-Bîlcu. Why is it so important? Because the sculpture of these communities depicts female figures almost exclusively. A man, rendered so expressively, is an exception. Some specialists believe he is not thinking but praying, hands raised towards a deity. You are looking at one of the oldest images of a person lost in thought, or in prayer. What do you think was troubling him? ### 14. The Council of Goddesses from Poduri - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Precucuteni, c. 4900–4750 î.Hr. - Audio: 1:10 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-soborul-zeitelor-de-la-poduri?lang=en Before you is one of the most spectacular cult assemblages in European prehistory: the Council of Goddesses from Poduri. There are 21 female figurines and 13 thrones, found together at Poduri–Dealul Ghindaru, in Bacău County, during excavations led by the archaeologist Dan Monah. They were shaped roughly 6,800 years ago. The figurines vary in size: 13 larger ones can be seated on the thrones, together with smaller figurines and two small cult objects. One seated figure, with her head and upper body tilted back, may have represented an important personage. Specialists think the assemblage depicts the pantheon of these communities, perhaps a single female figure in different stages of life: girl, maiden, pregnant woman and mother. If they are right, we are looking at an ancient meditation on the cycle of life. Just think: long before the gods of Olympus, someone arranged a council of goddesses right here. ### 15. The sanctuary model from Poduri - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Precucuteni III (Precucuteni: c. 5050–4600 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:01 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-macheta-de-sanctuar-de-la-poduri?lang=en This clay piece is a model, a building in miniature, which archaeologists interpret as a sanctuary. It comes from Poduri and belongs to the Precucuteni culture. Notice the wide opening at the front, which lets us look inside, like a stage set. Houses at that time were built of timber, wattle and clay, and survive only as burnt traces in the ground. That is why models like this one are so valuable: they show us volumes, openings and proportions we could otherwise only guess at. Perhaps figurines were placed inside such a model to re-enact real ceremonies. Near the model, in this same room, are the cult assemblages from Poduri and Ghelăiești, which show that these people's religion had well-established places, objects and gestures. These are not simple toys, but objects charged with sacred meaning. ### 16. The female figurines from Răucești - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Cucuteni B (c. 3850–3500 î.Hr.) - Audio: 1:04 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-statuetele-feminine-de-la-raucesti?lang=en Compare these figurines from Răucești, in Neamț County, with the older ones you have already seen. Here, in the Cucuteni B phase, the female body becomes almost a sign. The figurines are flat, the arms are reduced to two stumps, and the head is a disc with perforations. Anatomical detail no longer matters; what matters is a recognisable silhouette, almost like a letter of an alphabet. Why the holes? Specialists believe ornaments or threads were attached to them, perhaps even miniature clothing. Figurines like these are found in large numbers in Cucuteni settlements, inside houses, beside the hearth or in pits. They were probably used in household rituals, to protect the home and family, for fertility or for rich harvests. To us this stylisation looks strikingly modern, close to the work of twentieth-century sculptors who also prized the power of simple forms. ### 17. Incised female figurine from Trușești-Țuguieta - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Cucuteni A3, c. 4350–4200 î.Hr. - Audio: 1:11 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-statueta-feminina-cu-decor-incizat?lang=en This female figurine, 17 centimetres tall, comes from Trușești-Țuguieta, in Botoșani County, and was shaped around 6,300 years ago. Step closer and look at the surface: the entire body is covered with incised lines, and the grooves were filled with a white paste that makes the design stand out. What do these lines represent? Some researchers think they are garments; others see tattoos or ritual body painting. Either way, they tell us something important: the people of that time decorated their bodies and expressed identity through signs. Notice the proportions too: broad hips and joined legs, typical of Cucuteni sculpture, emphasise the idea of fertility. The head is small and stylised. The motifs on the body recall the spirals painted on the vessels in the ground-floor room. Cucuteni artists used the same vocabulary of forms on clay, on vessels and on figurines. ### 18. The cult assemblage from Ghelăiești-Nedeia - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Cucuteni B1, c. 3800–3600 î.Hr. - Audio: 1:09 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-complexul-de-cult-de-la-ghelaiesti-nedeia?lang=en We near the end of the visit with a discovery that preserves a ritual almost intact. At Ghelăiești, on Nedeia hill in Neamț County, archaeologists led by Ștefan Cucoș excavated a multi-layered settlement between 1969 and 1989. In one of the houses, labelled L5, they found a pear-shaped vessel, protected by a larger vessel covering it. Inside, four figurines were fixed to the wall, facing the four cardinal points. The vessel stood at the centre of a circle of six other painted vessels. Ghelăiești also yielded sanctuary models accompanied by human figurines, and even a hoard of knucklebones deposited in a pot. We do not know what words were spoken or what gestures were made. But the careful arrangement of the objects reveals an order of the world: the centre, the four directions and the circle. It is one of the clearest glimpses we have of the religion of people who lived almost 6,000 years ago. ### 19. The Brad Treasure - Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines - Period: Cucuteni A, c. 4200–4050 î.Hr.; descoperit în 1982 - Audio: 1:10 https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.rdcopilot.com/ghid/cucuteni-tezaurul-de-la-brad?lang=en Let us finish with a treasure in the literal sense. In 1982, in the Cucuteni settlement at Brad, on the high terrace of the Siret river in Bacău County, archaeologists found an askos-type vessel hiding about 480 objects. Here is what it held: two copper bar bracelets with twisted ends, two copper wire rings, a copper axe with crossed arms, more than 270 copper beads, beads of marble and of a blackish paste, 190 perforated deer canines and two conical gold discs. Gold is extremely rare in Cucuteni settlements, which makes these two pieces exceptional. The deer-tooth necklace tells a story too: each tooth came from a hunted animal, and their great number displayed the wearer's prestige. The treasure was carefully hidden, perhaps at a time of danger. Its owner never came back to recover it, and thanks to that, we can admire it today.