# The bird-shaped vessel from Poduri

> Stop 12, Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum 'Gheorghe Dumitroaia'

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.

- Where: Room 3: masterpieces of Cucuteni figurines
- Period: Cucuteni A (c. 4600–4050 BC)
- Material: Painted pottery
- Audio recording (1:07): https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.tesseramo.com/media/neamt/audio/muzeul-arta-eneolitica-cucuteni/en/cuc-12.mp3
- Stop page: https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.tesseramo.com/ghid/cucuteni-vasul-ornitomorf-de-la-poduri?lang=en
- On the indoor map: https://museu-cucuteni.neamt.tesseramo.com/harta-interioara?stop=cucuteni-vasul-ornitomorf-de-la-poduri&lang=en

## Narration

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.