Lecture Series »World Archaeology Seminars«

»Anthropomorphic Figurines in Neolithic and Copper Age Contexts: Insights from the Pietrele Site, Romania«

Michael Müller | Independent Researcher

This talk presents findings from over two decades of excavations at the Neolithic and Copper Age site of Pietrele in the Lower Danube region of Romania, spanning from the late 6th to late 5th millennium BC. A total of 638 complete and fragmented anthropomorphic representations were unearthed, showcasing a diverse range of materials, including burnt clay, bone, hard animal material, and marble, fashioned into various forms such as freestanding figurines, anthropomorphic vessels, applications, rattles, and ornaments.

Notably, figurines crafted from hard animal materials like bone, antler, and shell emerged in Southeastern Europe exclusively during the Copper Age, primarily associated with the KGK VI cultural groups in the Eastern Balkan peninsula. In contrast, burnt clay was also employed to fashion zoomorphic figurines within the same geographical and temporal framework, whereas hard animal materials were reserved exclusively for anthropomorphic representations.

While the figurines at Pietrele exhibited a widespread distribution within general activity zones of the settlement, differences in their states before deposition and their distribution suggest distinct object biographies for figurines made of different materials.

Of particular interest, alongside Copper Age artifacts on the settlement mound, Neolithic pottery sherds and figurines were also retrieved from certain layers in between the Copper Age settlement phases, prompting speculation regarding their origins. Subsequent discoveries of Neolithic settlement layers surrounding the Copper Age settlement mound, from which earth material for mound construction was sourced, support the inadvertent incorporation of Neolithic artifacts, including figurines, into the mound. It remains speculative whether the chance discovery of Neolithic figurines by Copper Age inhabitants influenced the depiction of their anthropomorphic representations.

This presentation aims to explore not only the distribution and contexts of Neolithic and Copper Age anthropomorphic figurines at Pietrele but also to elucidate their potential relationship across the two epochs.