{"title":"Neolithic vessels","description":"\u003cp\u003eOver 6,000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Neolithic Gumelnița culture flourished within a wider cultural complex that stretched from the Carpathians to the Aegean. These skilled communities produced finely made pottery decorated with incision, relief and graphite painting, alongside a distinct body of figurative art.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"romanian-ceramic-vessel-neolithic-motifs-goddess","title":"Decorative ceramic vessel · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Goddess","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHand-built ceramic vessel of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. Shaped freely from clay and decorated with ancestral anthropomorphic and geometrical motifs drawn from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture - one of Europe's earliest painted ceramic traditions. Such vessels are thought to have stood originally at the centre of solar rites and the cult of the Great Goddess, their painted imagery closer to devotional language than to ornament. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft. \u003c\/strong\u003eThis vessel is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, using the traditional coil technique, through which the form is built freely, in stages, with the successive addition of clay strips, so the widest point of the vessels can hold its own weight while still soft. The process demands patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the material. Once shaped, each object comes to life through decoration; the surface is painted with ancestral symbols and colour harmonies inspired by the Cucuteni world using \u003cem\u003eangobă\u003c\/em\u003e, a clay slip diluted to a workable consistency, which is the source of the piece's chalky, matte finish. This piece showcases anthropomorphic figures representing the matrix of life and fertility, and circles and crosses, symbols of the sun and the rhythm of the seasons. After the paint has dried, the entire surface is burnished with smooth river stone to allow the pigment to penetrate the clay, and fired in a kiln for about ten hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage.\u003c\/strong\u003e Over 6,000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent; the complex polychrome decorations – spirals, solar and lunar symbols, snakes, stylised human figures and crosses – were not merely aesthetic elements, but coded symbols of their beliefs, myths, and cosmic structure expressed in ritual practices of sacralisation and purification that such objects were part of. The Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization is now in the process of obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker.\u003c\/strong\u003e From their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779331481866,"sku":null,"price":85.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROICucuteniAnthropomorphicClayVessel01_9109a19b-e791-4115-a940-62d30c3e7246.jpg?v=1789978614"},{"product_id":"romanian-ceramic-vessel-neolithic-motifs-spirals","title":"Decorative ceramic vessel · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Spirals","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHand-built ceramic vessel of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. Hand-built with a flared neck and a wide body pinched by two small lug handles, the piece is decorated in a continuous double spiral - ancestral geometric motifs drawn from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, one of Europe's earliest painted ceramic traditions. Such vessels are thought to have stood originally at the centre of solar rites and the cult of the Great Goddess, their painted imagery closer to devotional language than to ornament. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft. \u003c\/strong\u003eThis vessel is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, the form being built freely in stages so its widest point can hold its own weight while still soft. The surface is painted in angobă, a clay slip diluted to a workable consistency, which is the source of the piece's chalky, matte finish. The vessel is decorated with geometric motifs – the spiral, symbol of the eternal cycle of life and death and regeneration – drawn freely by hand, and is fired in a dedicated kiln at not more than 1000 degrees to avoid vitrification. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage.\u003c\/strong\u003e Over 6000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent; the complex polychrome decorations – spirals, solar and lunar symbols, snakes, stylised human figures and crosses – were not merely aesthetic elements, but coded symbols of their beliefs, myths, and cosmic structure expressed in ritual practices of sacralisation and purification that such objects were part of. The Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization is now in the process of obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker. \u003c\/strong\u003eFrom their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779338101002,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROICucuteniClayVessel01.jpg?v=1789979187"},{"product_id":"romanian-ceramic-vessel-neolithic-motifs-wolf","title":"Decorative ceramic vessel · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Wolf","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHand-built footed ceramic vessel of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. Shaped freely from clay and decorated with ancestral zoomorphic motifs drawn from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture - one of Europe's earliest painted ceramic traditions. Such vessels are thought to have stood originally at the centre of solar rites and the cult of the Great Goddess, their painted imagery closer to devotional language than to ornament. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft.\u003c\/strong\u003e This vessel is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, using the traditional coil technique, through which the form is built freely, in stages, with the successive addition of clay strips, so the widest point of the vessels can hold its own weight while still soft. The process demands patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the material. Once shaped, each object comes to life through decoration; the surface is painted with ancestral symbols and colour harmonies inspired by the Cucuteni world using \u003cem\u003eangobă\u003c\/em\u003e, a clay slip diluted to a workable consistency, which is the source of the piece's chalky, matte finish. This piece showcases wolves, symbolising vigilance and protection, snakes, symbols of rebirth and protection and spirals, symbol of the eternal cycle of life and regeneration. After the paint has dried, the entire surface is burnished with smooth river stone to allow the pigment to penetrate the clay, and fired in a kiln for about ten hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage.\u003c\/strong\u003e Over 6,000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent; the complex polychrome decorations – spirals, solar and lunar symbols, snakes, stylised human figures and crosses – were not merely aesthetic elements, but coded symbols of their beliefs, myths, and cosmic structure expressed in ritual practices of sacralisation and purification that such objects were part of. The Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization is now in the process of obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker. \u003c\/strong\u003eFrom their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779395674378,"sku":null,"price":85.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROI_Cucuteni_Zoomorph_Clay_01.jpg?v=1789980557"},{"product_id":"romanian-vessel-neolithic-motifs-bird","title":"Decorative ceramic vessel · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Bird","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAviform ceramic vessel of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. Its footed cup form is fitted with a sculpted bird's head and neck rising from one side, and decorated with ancestral geometrical motifs drawn from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture- one of Europe's earliest painted ceramic traditions. Such vessels are thought to have stood originally at the centre of solar rites and the cult of the Great Goddess, their form and painted imagery closer to devotional language than to ornament. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft. \u003c\/strong\u003eThis vessel is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, using the traditional coil technique, through which the bird form is built freely, in stages, with the successive addition of clay strips, so the widest point of the vessels can hold its own weight while still soft. The process demands patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the material. Once shaped, each object comes to life through decoration; the surface is painted with ancestral symbols and colour harmonies inspired by the Cucuteni world using \u003cem\u003eangobă\u003c\/em\u003e, a clay slip diluted to a workable consistency, which is the source of the piece's chalky, matte finish. This piece showcases the bird, seen as a messenger between the celestial and terrestrial worlds and the spiral, symbol of the eternal cycle of life and death and regeneration. After the paint has dried, the entire surface is burnished with smooth river stone to allow the pigment to penetrate the clay, and fired in a kiln for about ten hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage.\u003c\/strong\u003e Over 6,000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent; the complex polychrome decorations – spirals, solar and lunar symbols, snakes, stylised human figures and crosses – were not merely aesthetic elements, but coded symbols of their beliefs, myths, and cosmic structure expressed in ritual practices of sacralisation and purification that such objects were part of. The Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization is now in the process of obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker.\u003c\/strong\u003e From their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779466649866,"sku":null,"price":85.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROICucuteniAviformClayVessel01.jpg?v=1789981486"},{"product_id":"romanian-ceramic-plate-neolithic-motifs-danse","title":"Decorative ceramic plate · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Danse","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHand-built ceramic plate of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. Its wide, shallow bowl is painted with stylised human figures arranged in radial symmetry - ancestral anthropomorphic motifs drawn from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, one of Europe's earliest painted ceramic traditions. Such vessels are thought to have stood originally at the centre of solar rites and the cult of the Great Goddess, their painted imagery closer to devotional language than to ornament. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft.\u003c\/strong\u003e This vessel is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, using the traditional coil technique, through which the form is built freely, in stages, with the successive addition of clay strips, so the widest point of the vessels can hold its own weight while still soft. The process demands patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the material. Once shaped, each object comes to life through decoration; the surface is painted with ancestral symbols and colour harmonies inspired by the Cucuteni world using \u003cem\u003eangobă\u003c\/em\u003e, a clay slip diluted to a workable consistency, which is the source of the piece's chalky, matte finish. This piece showcases anthropomorphic figures representing the ritual danse representing cyclical time, unity and abundance. After the paint has dried, the entire surface is burnished with smooth river stone to allow the pigment to penetrate the clay, and fired in a kiln for about ten hours.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage. \u003c\/strong\u003eOver 6000 years ago, across a vast area of what is now parts of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, an astonishing civilization that came to be named Cucuteni-Trypillia flourished for thousands of years before vanishing into the Bronze Age. It left behind some of the largest known Neolithic settlements in Europe, along with a body of painted ceramics unmatched elsewhere on the continent; the complex polychrome decorations – spirals, solar and lunar symbols, snakes, stylised human figures and crosses – were not merely aesthetic elements, but coded symbols of their beliefs, myths, and cosmic structure expressed in ritual practices of sacralisation and purification that such objects were part of. The Cucuteni-Trypillia civilization is now in the process of obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker.\u003c\/strong\u003e From their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779795771658,"sku":null,"price":37.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROI_Cucuteni_Humanoid_Clay_Plate_01_c269eea1-23ff-4240-9f91-ffe9568534fa.jpg?v=1790072035"},{"product_id":"romanian-ceramic-figurative-vessel-neolithic-motifs-goddess","title":"Figurative ceramic vessel · Cucuteni Neolithic motifs · Goddess","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHand-built ceramic vessel of Neolithic inspiration made by artisans in the southern plains of Romania. A wide, round body is rising into a modelled human face with closed eyes and pierced ears. Left unpainted in the natural tone of the fired clay, the piece follows a vessel type documented across Gumelnița culture- one of Europe's earliest ceramic traditions. For decorative display.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Craft.\u003c\/strong\u003e This figurative piece is shaped by hand, without a potter's wheel, using the traditional coil technique, through which a face raised directly out of the rim as the clay is built up, so the details have to be worked while the form is still wet enough to shape but firm enough to hold. The process demands patience, precision, and a deep understanding of the material. Decoration is done by incision, with fine cut lines and dots, rather than painting, after which the entire surface is burnished with smooth river stone to create a natural, glossy shine. The piece is then fired in a kiln for about ten hours at low temperature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heritage.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Neolithic Gumelnița culture flourished within a wider cultural complex (Gumelnița-Kodjadermen-Karanovo VI) that stretched from the Carpathians to the Aegean. These skilled communities produced finely made pottery decorated with incision, relief and graphite painting, alongside a distinct body of figurative art. Fertility appears to have sat at the centre of Gumelnița spiritual life, with recuring pregnant female figurines generally read as cult objects tied to a mother-goddess belief.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Maker.\u003c\/strong\u003e From their home workshop in southern Romania, Nicoleta and Ion Mitroi work with dedication towards the revival of a ceramics style lost in history. A trained engineer, Nicoleta changed course when she first encountered Cucuteni-Trypillia pottery in a museum and fell under the spell of its raw beauty and symbolic charge. Her husband Ion, a graduate of the ceramics department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, also embraced the style and together they have been shaping, now for decades, every piece without a wheel, working either as faithful replicas of excavated vessels or as personal interpretations of the same visual language. Beyond the workshop, they run demonstration classes, summer workshops, and traditional-craft circles in museums and schools, making the Cucuteni-Trypillia and Gumelnița heritage visible to a wider public.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Handmade in Romania","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53779951976714,"sku":null,"price":85.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0711\/1013\/1978\/files\/MITROIGumelnitaAnthropomorphicClayFigurine01.jpg?v=1789983078"}],"url":"https:\/\/omagoshop.eu\/fr\/collections\/neolithic-vessels.oembed","provider":"OMAĜO","version":"1.0","type":"link"}