Prehistoric Europe

One of the more surprising discoveries from the ancient history of Romania and Moldova is the possibility of cult dissections, with the resultant examinations being described on pottery.

The Cucuteni-Tripolye culture flourished between about 5200-3000 BC. At its apogee between about 4000-3500 BC, its people had built up the largest settlements in all of Europe and Asia, some with thousands of structures, and with habitation levels of between twenty to forty thousand people.

At its peak the population of the Cucuteni-Tripolye has been estimated to have been around one million people.

Its organisation was apparently based on a form of proto-democracy which gave at least most of its people a voice, with the basis of its economy coming from peaceful agrarian cultivation (which in parts of Central Europe to its north-west could be anything but peaceful).

There seem to have been no tyrants here to build pyramids or palaces, a form of civilisation which to an extent was mirrored in the contemporary fourth millennium BC 'Uruk III' period in southern Mesopotamia.

Possibly not coincidentally, both that and the Cucuteni-Tripolye came to an end around the same time, 3100-3000 BC, their energy apparently spent.

Before that, though, both regions seem to find unity through a shared level of spiritual inspiration. In Mesopotamia that appears to have come from a form of urban evangelism.

In the Cucuteni-Tripolye it seemingly came from a deep and inspirational cult of fertility.

The 'Assembly of the Goddesses' from the Isaiia Cucuteni archaeological site is one such example of this cult, with its twenty-one stylised objects in the form of phalluses, as are the initiation vessel which displays an erotic act, and a pregnant woman from the Ghelaesti site. There are numerous statuettes which display the feminine attributes of fecundity.

Thanks to an astonishing number of archaeological finds the Cucuteni-Tripolye (or Trypillia) is one of the best-known prehistoric civilisations in Romania, Moldova, and western Ukraine, emerging in the late Neolithic and continuing into the early Chalcolithic (Copper Age)

But a new hypothesis emerged in the 2010s and 2020s which suggested that the Cucuteni culture held a level of cult curiosity for the 'crucible' of creation. The indication is that the people of the Cucuteni were aware of and knew the workings of the fallopian tubes.

That in itself necessitates the realisation that the people of the Cucuenti, or at least a few specialist members, had carried out a degree of dissection in order to discover the fallopian tubes.

Image originally used when the Museum of History and Ethnography in Targu Neamt opened on Tuesday 5 December 2023, with a temporary exhibition entitled 'Discovery Discovers Cucuteni from the peri-Carpathian area of Moldova'

The evidence for these suppositions comes from Cucuteni pottery, which is decorated to a level which is rarely found elsewhere in the Neolithic world.

As examples, shown above (one) and below (two) are three vessels upon which are female silhouettes which appear to be equipped with what could be termed 'pelvic tentacles', something which is entirely absent from the pottery of any other ancient archaeological culture.

Including the temporary exhibition image above, these three pottery vessels provide examples of female silhouettes which are equipped with 'pelvic tentacles', something which is entirely absent from the artwork of any other ancient culture

From this emerges the idea that these 'pelvic tentacles' are a hyperbolisation of the uterine or fallopian tubes.

It is also worth noting the association between the 'pelvic tentacles' and those on the fingers so that the following clue could be discovered (below), one which was discovered by archaeologists at the Cucuteni's Trușești site in Botoşani county in north-eastern Romania.

A unique pottery design as seen on remains from a find from Botosani in Romania, with illustrations to fill in the gaps in the original designs

With the supplied graphic to explain the pottery designs, the female silhouettes with six or seven 'fingers' are clearly shown, which transfigures the anatomical notion of a hand with five fingers so that one can migrate to the larger number of fallopian 'fingers'.

Another key artefact was discovered at the Poduri site in Romania's Moldavia region, with the fallopian tubes added in the correct anatomical position.

Female silhouettes with six or seven 'fingers', which transfigures the anatomical notion of a hand with five fingers so that the larger number of fallopian 'fingers' can be included

The idea cannot entirely be dismissed that the tassels or dress fringes which are painted on several Cucuteni ceramic vessels serve to extend the concept behind this displaying of fallopian tubes. Even the 'Eels dance' or 'Dance of the Rings' ('Dansul Ielelor', shown below) may suggest the same idea.

'The Dance of the Rings' ('Dansul Ielelor'), on a Cucuteni pottery vessel which is over six thousand years old, discovered in 1988 in a ceramic burnt furnace from the settlement of Chirileni III (in today's Bleeds district), attributed to 'Stage CII' of the Cucuteni-Tripolye

Main Sources

Luke Hutchinson - Growing the Family Tree: The Power of DNA in Reconstructing Family Relationship (2004, reproduced in the Proceedings of the First Symposium on Bioinformatics and Biotechnology BIOT-04)

Online Sources

Bisserka Gaydarska , Marco Nebbia, & John Chapman - Trypillia Megasites in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Images and text copyright © original owners and Christian Horgos respectively. An original feature for the History Files.