Little Cucuteni pots of hope: a challenge to the divine nature of figurines
Little Cucuteni pots of hope: a challenge to the divine nature of figurines

Summary/Abstract: Discussion of figurines is one of the most popular topics in the prehistory of Eastern Europe. They have been perceived as goddesses and gods, toys, individuals, dividuals, comforting miniatures, embodying personhood and more recently as “teaching devices”. Their relationship to fecundy and fertility is over-exploited but a safe haven for the majority of East European archaeologists. Here, we take on exactly the opposite view and try to build a case in which a set of figurines and a number of accompanying objects are interpreted as infertility aid-kits. The sets from Poduri-Dealul Ghindaru and Isaiia-Balta Popii are assessed in terms of recent tendencies in Western archaeological thought whereby representation and imposed meaning gives way to agency, action and performance.

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