A TERRACOTTA ZOOMORPHIC FIGURE, STARČEVO CULTURE, EARLY NEOLITHIC PERIOD, 6200-5600 B.C.

Austrian private collection, Vienna acquired in the 1950s/1960s

Richter Gallery, Wiener Neustadt, Austria

acquired from the above by the present owner on December 19th, 1991

Early Neolithic terracotta figures are rare. The eponymous village of Starčevo is located on the north bank of the Danube in Serbia (Vojvodina province), opposite Belgrade. It represents the earliest settled farming society in the area, although hunting and gathering still provided a significant portion of the inhabitants' diet. The present figure has three close parallels from the Veluška-Tumba-Porodin group. See S. Hansen, Bilder vom Menschen der Steinzeit. Untersuchungen zur anthropomorphen Plastik der Jungsteinzeit und Kupferzeit in Südosteuropa I+II (Archäologie in Eurasien, vol. 20), 2007, pp. 149f, pl. 150, 9 and 11, and G. Naumov and N. Čausidis, Neolithic Anthropomorphic Objects in the Republic of Macedonia, 2011, pl. XXVII, 2.