‘Monumentality’, functionality, animality: on an unusual prehistoric clay head from central Macedonia, Greece, and its implications

Abstract

The paper studies a Neolithic zoomorphic clay head from the Vasilika area, Central Macedonia, in the Thessaloniki Archaeological Museum. The figure, apparently a wild animal or a hybrid, is exceptional from several points of view such as its important dimensions, the choice of the represented subject, and the fact that it probably had belonged to a complex structure. Various aspects of the artefact are considered: its size, particular morphological features, iconographic characteristics, potential practical functions, as well as the identification and probability of likely originals. Different approaches for interpretation are also attempted. Possible parallels are examined from the Near East and the Balkans.

Cattle to settle – bull to rule: on bovine iconography among Late Neolithic Vinča culture communities

“…Instead, a whole range of studies dealing with other aspects of animal symbolism in the Neolithic have proved to be very fruitful (cf. Peri≤ 1996;Russell 1998;Whittle 2003.79-106;Bori≤ 2005;Marangou, Grammenos 2005;Mleku∫ 2007;Nanoglou 2008a;Twiss, Russell 2009).…”