The Bull and The Ram, A Forgotten Belief. Signs of The Vinca and Cucuteni in Europe and The Aegean

1: Ian Harling
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 2
Contents
1 - The Vina Script........................................................7 2 - The three-stroke comb: sheep/the ram.....................8 3 - The four-stroke comb: cattle/the bull........................20 4 - A unity.......................................................................31 5 - The lamb model........................................................44 6 - Bull and ram signs in Britain.....................................48 7 - Single and double-chevrons.....................................58 8 - The signs as clan marks or 'Tamgha'............,,..........64 References.......................................................................69
Please view in double-page mode for ease of reading.
As my research into these symbols is ongoing, I will continue to update it in light of further evidence. In one such update, published at the beginning of July, I voiced concerns that evidence from a culture that existed some two thousand years after the Vina may have used the triangle, a key bull symbol, as a sign for 'sheep'. I am happy to report that this concern has now been resolved, after the examination of further artefacts from this culture, which confirm its use in connection with cattle. Ian Harling July 2013 Introduction In the following document I will show that: 1) The Vina and Cucuteni held cult beliefs which were partially based on the idea of a unity of the bull and ram (or cattle and sheep), with each animal representing the masculine and feminine aspects of nature. The bull was signified largely by angular shapes, such as the zig-zag, lozenge; whilst the ram predominantly by a curl or spiral. How deeply this belief permeated these civilisations is unknown, but the symbolism which illustrates it is frequent upon a range of artefacts. 2) Comb signs are found frequently within the Vinca script. Those with three strokes represented sheep/the ram; and those with four strokes, cattle/the bull. In some instances spheres or dots of the same number were used instead of strokes. 3) Some signs found within the Vina script are composite ram and bull signs, which seem to have been used in some cases as clan marks (Tamgha) or personal marks. 4) A number of Vina signs for cattle and sheep had spread to much of Europe by the early Bronze age, and can be found at sites such as Newgrange in Ireland. However, I must stress that I am not suggesting that every later use of Vina bull
3: Ian Harling and ram signs means that they shared the same beliefs as the Vina, but noting that the same dual symbolism and the numerical representations for each animal continued to be used. The Vina The name 'Vina' comes from their type-site at Belo Brdo ('White Hill'), a mound or 'tell' in a suburb of Belgrade in Serbia, which is composed entirely of the remains of human settlement. It was occupied a number of times from c.5700BC until the medieval period, although the largest archaeological deposits found there are from the Vina culture, whose metal-refining skills helped drive the change in Europe from the Neolithic into the Copper age Eneolithic. This civilisation and entire region went into deep economic and cultural decline during the middle of the fourth millennium after a period of stagnation. (John Chapman, 'The Vina culture of South-east Europe: studies in chronology, economy
and society'. Oxford: British archaeological reports, BAR international series 117, 1981.)
Figure 1 Simplified map of extent of Vina culture, 4000 BC
Beginning I began by assuming that a culture that did not seem to have a complete writing system might need to communicate simple ideas, such as which pot was for milk, which for water, etc. using symbols. Ownership would also need to be conveyed by personal marks in what were sometimes large settlements, with other signs perhaps representing a rudimentary counting system. Key goods for the Vina included flax, wool, cattle, obsidian, and gold, and I felt that symbols for them must also appear within the Vina script with some frequency. In trying to identify the meaning of these signs I included material from a wide range of sources. As the Vina sign-system had obviously enjoyed some success, I reasoned that at least a few of their symbols may have been adopted by other cultures and also have survived into the Bronze age. With this in mind I looked for evidence of their use across a period of around seven thousand years throughout Europe, beginning by collating the symbols which appear at atal Hyk in Anatolia, c.7500-5700 BC., then moving forward in time out from the Danubian Vina heartland into the British Isles,
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 4 Cyprus, Crete and mainland Greece, up until the early Roman period, circa the first century AD. Threes The first clue came when I noticed that the gold grave goods of the Varna necropolis held many representations of the number three, and that it and multiples of it are found on Vina amulets and ritual figures.; but the problem was that they also appeared on simpler objects too, such as spindle-whorls and pots. One of the dichotomies of the Vina script is that the three-stroke comb and other signs were inscribed upon obviously important items in a way that makes them appear to have a 'religious' significance; but, they are also just as likely to be found marked carelessly on objects that have no ritual meaning at all. This pointed to the possibility that the signs represented ordinary things, perhaps produce, that the Vina were giving thanks for. Finding what I thought might be a three-stroke comb in the form of a belt around a Vina figurine gave me the first suspicions that the sign might represent a fibre, and the animal or plant that the fibre had come from. Following this line of thought I discovered strong evidence that showed the sign meant sheep or the ram. Cattle signs and symbols In the process of doing this research I also gathered quite a number of symbols that pertained mainly to cattle and the bull. Some of these were based on horn-shapes and easy to identify, whereas others seemed to represent these animals purely because they had been associated with them at atal Hyk, possibly indirectly. Symbols painted upon friezes and cattle skulls in shrines there may originally have been a mixture of individual clan marks, signs for the cow, the bull, the calf and other animals too, but somehow they seem to have become homogenised in Vina symbolism as meaning the bull, cattle and/or the masculine aspect of nature. In this way, designs from atal Hyk, such as the chequerboard pattern, came to signify 'the bull/cattle' as much as the bull's (or Auroch) primary symbol, the single dot, did. Once I had understood the meaning of the first handful of symbols it was obvious that, rather than them being inscribed on pots in rows like a written language, they were being used in a much more obvious way to decorate artefacts. This was for me the most important clue in deciphering the signs I go on to discuss - Vina communication of ideas was not just via the symbols that we call the Vina script, but also through the actual designs that appear so extensively upon their pottery and figurines. Opposites After I had deciphered a selection of signs representing sheep and a handful for cattle and the bull, I found many examples of Vina wares bearing designs made up of both sheep and bull motifs. In some cases one half of an object might be decorated with soft, curling designs that represent sheep (or their nature) and jagged bull symbols on the other. This was extremely helpful, as it allowed the identification of unknown symbols by their presence alongside a known symbol. This dual aspect was undoubtedly important to the Vina, and there are examples of it on what may be ritual items. Although I will illustrate a number of instances of this type of
5: Ian Harling sign use on anthropomorphic models, figurines and pottery in the following pages, they should be recognised as just a limited selection of those available. Elsewhere in Europe What became obvious and exciting during this exploration was that the same Vina dual-symbolism can be seen throughout Europe, both in Neolithic and Bronze age rock art and painted tomb decoration, including prominently in a tomb dating to 3500BC in Sardinia, and upon kerb-stones c.3200BC at Newgrange in Ireland. A later explosion of use came with the arrival of the Beaker culture in Britain c. 2475-2315BC; which brought, amongst other things, the ability to refine metal - a skill which had again originated with the Vina. More than a thousand years later the same sign-pairings were being used to decorate pottery and artefacts in the Bronze age by the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and later the Greeks too. How much these subsequent cultures knew of their original meaning will undoubtedly be limited - but that they were used over a large area for an extended period of time is certain.
Figure 2 Dispersion of the Vina haplotype.
...The people of Vina culture, are likely I2a1 in Haplogroup I, who may also have formed the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. I2a1 and are still living in the area today. This population reaching its peak in the Western Balkans, most notably in Dalmatia (50-60%) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (up to 75%), especially in the Croat population of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
(John Chapman, 'The Vina culture of South-east Europe: studies in chronology, economy and society'. Oxford: British archaeological reports, BAR international series 117, 1981.)
Figure 3 Simplified map of the cultures of Old Europe 4000 BC:
Green: Funnel beaker Culture (TRB - a descendant of the Linear Pottery culture) Blue: Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) Orange: Lengyel Culture Purple: Vina, including the Karanovo cultures of Bulgaria, c. 6200-5500BC Red: Cucuteni. Full later extents not indicated.
Vina symbols on pottery from mainland Greece

Proto-geometric style, c.1050-900 BC: These wares represent the return of craft production after the collapse of the Mycenaean Palace culture. Vina symbols, such as the roundel and chequerboard, began appearing. This pottery influenced much of the rest of Greece, especially Boeotia, Corinth, the Cyclades (in particular Naxos) and the Ionian colonies in the east Aegean. Geometric style, 900-700BC: Further Vina symbols came into use during this period, with a more frequent appearance of chevrons, zig-zags, triangles, the chequerboard motif, etc. breaking with the previous traditions of Minoan and Mycenaean design. Middle Geometric style, c. 850-770 BC: This style heralds the appearance of figurative decoration, where animals, often in pairs, are drawn between bands of Vina geometrical decoration in the style of the earlier pottery. Late Geometric style, 900-700BC. All of the symbols and characters from the previous eras become more tightly packed and stylised. Wild Goat style, southern and eastern Ionian islands, c. 650-550 BC: Widespread throughout Asia Minor, many of the animals and symbols found in previous eras are still present in this last major style of the period. There are few human representations, and the style is made up predominantly of wild animals, swastikas, roundels and other bull-signs.
7: Ian Harling
1 The Vina Script
Figure 4 A selection of Vina symbols. (Font by Sorin Paliga (sorin_paliga@mac.com) of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of Bucharest, Romania.)
In all, some 230 signs have been catalogued and are variously called: 'Old English Writing', the 'Vina-Tordos Script', the 'Danube Script', or, as I will term it here, the 'Vina Script'. At first thought to be a proto-writing system, subsequent analysis of the script has shown that this is unlikely. Although I had been swayed by that conclusion myself when I began looking at the signs, I have since seen examples where I feel that the intended meaning of some groups of signs may be more complex than we currently understand.
Figure 5 Drawing of a clay vessel unearthed near Vina. (Wikipedia Creative Commons License Nikola Smolenski. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vina_vessel.png)
We know that: The Vina created symbols by drawing on a limited sub-set of signs, rotating, repeating or mirroring a single sign to make a variety of others. Around 85% of inscriptions consist of one symbol. 28% of symbols are found on or near the base of pots. This would imply that these may be personal identification marks showing ownership and/or the intended contents of the vessel. (Winn S.M.M.- http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/inventory/danube_script/danube_script_01.htm).
2 The three-stroke comb: sheep/the ram
Figure 6 A selection of Comb variants. (Harling I. 2012)
As the comb-signs, above, form a large part of the Vina script, I first compiled a list of comb signs and variations in the 'Inventory of the Danube Script' (Shann M.M. Winn), finding that the most common comb signs have, in order of frequency, three, two, four, then five teeth. Being conservative, of the 230 signs in the OEW sign-list, around thirty four can be attributed to two and three stroke comb variants. As the two three and fourstroke combs were obviously of importance I focussed on collecting all instances of their use on Vina and Cucuteni artefacts to see if any useful comparisons could be made.
Figure 7 The 'Lady of Turdas'. (Winn S.M.M.1981 - http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/tartaria_tablets/tartaria_tablets_04.htm M. Merlini).
Looking at the above Vina figurine I noticed that it had a cord or belt around its waist ending in six vertical lines, which seemed too precise to be a random detail. I wondered if this indicated three fringes on each end of the belt, and if it might symbolise a threestroke comb of the type shown to the right of the figure. This was certainly a tenuous link, and just one of many that I was following, but the idea led to the identification of a series of signs.
On weaving related items

Previous research has shown that the Vina made cordage from a variety of natural fibres, including bindweed, nettles, hemp etc., but in terms of woven textiles they initially used primarily wool and a little flax, later turning to mainly flax (2 -Chapman J. 1981 pp.84-116) If the comb signs did represent fibres, then their use on loom weights and spindle whorls would not have been entirely decorative, as flax and wool need to be treated differently in the weaving process - one requiring a lighter loom weight than the other. Although there are Vina spindle whorls that are inscribed with complex markings that include two or three-stroke signs, the below shows a fairly unambiguous use of them in isolation.
9: Ian Harling
Figure 8 A loom weight from Valea Nandrului, Romania, bearing two-stroke combs. (Fig. 5.283, spindle-whorl VI.1059, Photo Merlini 2007)
Figure 9 Vina loom weight from Petretsii with two-stroke signs in the shape of a swastika on its main face, 5500-4800BC. (After Luca 2001a, fig. 10/7a-7b.http://www.flickr.com/photos/51449414@N07/6994813860)
The use of the sign both upon this weight and that in the previous illustration is prominent, and shows that the two-stroke comb and possibly the three-stroke comb too - may have had an important meaning with regard to the weaving process . I found other examples too from Neolithic Britain, Spain, and elsewhere. The following are from Troy, c. 1300-950BC. Although they might be taken as a random decoration, designs made from three lines are in the majority of comb marks used on spindle-whorls from Troy. Three examples below have a three-stroke comb and a swastika, the latter I discovered to be a bull or cattle sign.
Figure 10 After Schliemann (pp.816 Fig. 61 - pp.816 Fig.64. - pp 812 53 and 54; Wilson T.)
On animal models and in conjunction with animal depictions

Finding these and other spindle-whorls decorated with three-stroke decoration and motifs I looked for instances of two and three-stroke combs or dots on Vina and Cucuteni animal models, and within plant-like designs on pottery. I found both three and four-stroke combs (or dots of the same numbers) appearing in isolation upon animal models both bulls and sheep - too often for it to be chance. Finding examples of ram models marked solely with double-chevrons and/or three-stroke combs, and none with exclusively two/four-stroke combs, helped give initial evidence that the three-stroke comb represented sheep or a ram. Finding three-sphere marks and four-stroke combs together on items such as the bull model in Plate 5, Figure 94 added to other evidence
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 10 that showed that the four-stroke comb represented cattle or the bull. The following bowl from a tholos tomb, Almeria, Spain c. 3200-2600BC, has three dots over a horned animal. The horns seem to be made up of a double-chevron, an important sign that also appears upon many Vina and Cucuteni artefacts, such as on the chest of the large ram's head in the model beneath it in Figure 12, and in Figures 14, 16 and 18 on Plate 1.
Figure 11 Vessel from Almeria, Spain. (pp.57. Fig. 94. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 12 Gradesnica, NW Bulgaria, 5000-4500BC. (pp.76 Fig. 118 Gimbutas M.)
Further instances of three-stroke and double-chevron motifs can be seen in the examples in Plate 1, Figures 14, 16 and 18. Other sheep models are marked with three incisions across their noses, as the examples at Figures 13 and 15 on Plate 1. As mentioned in the introduction, many Vina and post-Vina artefacts bear both sheep and cattle signs; the examples at Figures 14, 15, 17 and 18 each have a lozenge a cattle symbol - upon them.
11: Ian Harling
PLATE 1
Figure 13 Ram/sheep model from Karanovo, Bulgaria, 5000-4500BC. (pp.118. Fig. 121Gimbutas M.) Figure 14 Vina, from Pristina, Kosovo, 5000-5200BC. (pp. 76, Fig.117,3. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 15 Vina sheep model (pp. 76, Fig.117, 2. Gimbutas M.) Figure 16 Vina vessel, 7000-3500 BC. Banat culture.
(http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net/virtual_museum/prototipo_en.aspType=1&Number=4&lingua=en)
Figure 17 Vina pot from Serbia.

(http://www.virtuelnimuzejdunava.rs/home/altar.i-83.208.html)
Figure 18 Vina model, c.5th millennium BC. Heavily restored.

(http://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/27124/page12)
Ram symbols in association with curls, spirals or 'ram's horn' shapes

As might be expected if the number three signified sheep, it can be found alongside designs that incorporate curling thread-like shapes that could logically indicate wool, as on the terracotta model, below.
Figure 19 Designs on a middle-Bronze age pot, Garla Mare culture, Romania, c1500BC.
Spirals at 'c.' are topped with a three-stroke design, others at 'b.' can be seen above a ram's horn design at 'a.'.
.
Figure 20 and Figure 21: Serbia Museum - European Virtual Museum : http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.it/Roteanti/roteante125.htm)
A three-stroke mark can also be seen beneath the neck of the animal head at the front of the model. Although the creature depicted looks very bird-like, it is a development of the lamb's head design found on many Vina models, which I will deal with in a later section on lamb figurines, which are very common in some Vina settlements.
Figure 22 Vina lamb model. (http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/lost/egypto-danubians/#jp-carousel-1381) Figure 23 Troy spindle-whorl. (After Schleimann. pp.822 Fig.86 Wilson T.)
13: Ian Harling The Vina standing lamb model, above, has curls inscribed upon its front, its shape stylised to represent a fleece. The spindle-whorl from Troy in Figure 23 also bears spirals and curl-shapes. The Bronze age figurine in the following example is decorated wtih a number of different curling signs and a set of ram's horns on the rear, with a stem that appears twisted and thread-like. There are also three lines around the top of the head and three more inscribed on each of its sides. The sign upon its chest, a curl emerging from a filled triangle, can be found both in and Vina and later Greek designs.
Figure 24 Early Bronze age grave goods from the Novo selo-Karna culture, Bulgaria. (Serbia Museum - European Virtual Museum: http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.it/Roteanti/roteante124.htm)
More spirals and three-stroke combs can be seen on the following two examples from Greece and Crete.
Figure 25 A black on red decorated dish from Dimini, Greece, c. 4500-4000BC (pp.94. Fig. 156, 1. Gimbutas M.) Figure 26 Middle Minoan. S. Crete, 2000BC. (pp.94. Fig. 156, 2. Gimbutas M.)
Spirals and a soft zig-zags can be seen upon the faces of this Neolithic ball from Towie in Aberdeenshire, with three depressions at the centre of the object between the faces. Other similar stones found in Scotland and dated to the late Neolithic c.3-4000BC, conversely bear exclusively bull chequerboard and roundels designs
Figure 27 (Sir John Evans. The Ancient Stone implements, Weapons & Ornaments of Great Britain. Longmans, Green & Co. 1897. P. 421. - Wikipedia Creative Commons License).
Vina signs in Crete and Cyprus

Decorated with Vina symbols, such as the roundel, spiral, chevron and chequerboard designs, the Cypriot style of pottery called 'Red-polished ware' was the dominant form of pottery on Cyprus from c. 2300 until1650. Minoan pottery too, from the eastern town of Gurnia and of a similar period, (roughly EMII/EMIII)*, was the first to use the same Vina signs and symbols on Crete. Also, metal seals found at the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex (or Oxus civilisation) of central Asia, dating to c. 2300-1700 BC, frequently bear Vina signs, many of which are later used as designs upon Minoan and Greek pottery. This contact with Vina art also gave the Minoans, and later mainland Greece, perhaps their best known architectural motifs, the 'Greek Key' and the swastika. Although I can not claim a connection, it is interesting to note that a second wave of Vina symbolism reached Britain via the Beaker culture at about the same time as appearing in Cyprus, Crete and central Asia, c. 24752315 BC.
*(Pre-Palatial (EM III/MM IA) 2300-1900 BC (Vasilike, Myrtos, Debla, Mochlos)
As Vina symbols form a good deal of the content of the first Minoan seal-stones, c.2300-2100 BC, it gives some indication that they may not have been thought of as mere abstract designs. '...In this part of the island (Cyprus) momentous changes took place around 2500 BC, perhaps precipitated by the arrival of refugees (the Philia culture) from southern Anatolia who were escaping from earlier catastrophes....'
Figure 28 Red polished-ware vessel. ( Illustration and text:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/gr/r/red_polished_ware_bowl.aspx
15: Ian Harling
Core Sheep signs

After a comparative study of these and other artefacts from cultures throughout Europe and the Aegean I arrived at the signs below as a selection of the key designs used by the Vina and others to represent sheep or the ram. Of these, none are leaps of logic in terms of design, as two are based on horn shapes (which can vary with locality), two on wool-curls.
Figure 37 Selection of primary sheep signs. (Harling I.)
Conclusion:
I would like to propose that the three-stroke comb or three dot/sphere mark signifies the ram/sheep for the following reasons: The three-stroke comb is found placed prominently on figures and rams/sheep models and images, signifying its close relationship to the animal. The sign is found marked on spindle whorls, showing that it may have had relevance to weaving. Three-stroke combs are found both inscribed prominently on Vina ritual objects, and also scrawled carelessly on the base of pots that are discarded in middens. Wool, or mutton are both something a culture might give thanks for, but that also had a more mundane meaning in the Vina day to day world too, giving a reason for this apparent dichotomy in sign usage. It is present on artefacts from other cultures contemporary with, and later than, the Vina, and used in the same context, i.e., in association with ram/sheep illustrations/signs etc.
The Number Three

The Varna necropolis, Bulgaria (c.5000BC) contains two-hundred and ninety-four graves, some containing the oldest worked gold ever found. Six of the graves did not contain bodies (so-called 'cenotaph graves), but were the richest in grave goods. A total of three thousand gold artefacts were found, with a weight of approximately six kilograms. Grave 43 from the site contained more gold than has been found in the entire rest of the world for that epoch. The abundance of groupings of three gold artefacts in these burials may mean that the grave goods interred there were dedicated to sheep/the ram or that the deceased is being conferred with the peaceful qualities of the sheep.
Figure 38 Grave at the Varna necropolis. http://viajeaeuropadeleste.com/2009/06/08/necropolis-de-varna-bulgaria-prehistorica/
As I have only been able to study these collections via photographs, in some cases the groups I list below may not be accurate representations of the numbers found, but the result of pairings made during the display of the objects.
Figure 39 Varna gold artefacts. http://old.omda.bg/engl/history/varna_necropolis_treasure.htm
Found at the Varna necropolis:

33 Half-spheres. 30 sheep symbols. 36 large beads are arranged (above left) as two bracelets. 9 beads make up the handle of the hammer. 2 vertical lines of 3 'buttons' were arranged at the waist. The domes in the lower part of the illustration were arranged in the grave in groups of 3 on the hips and elsewhere of the skeleton. 6 pieces in the axe handle (not shown)
17: Ian Harling 2 sets of three earrings for the lower ear. A bone 'plaque' with 9 holes, some with the gold domes that were originally inserted into them still in place.
The dominance of gold ram's horns found may further indicate that the goods found in some of the graves at Varna may have been symbolic offerings to the ram or sheep. Other items, from pottery to bronze goods, also bear groupings of three upon them, in some cases as a key part of a design, and in others as an additional motif inscribed on a pot near its base after it was made.
Figure 40 Vina potsherds gathered at Tordos or Parta. (Winn S.M.M. 1981 - http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/winn8.htm - http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/winn10.htm)
The first bears three and four-stroke combs, but also a design made up of three groups of three dots, creating a lozenge-shape which, as I will show, is a dual bull-ram symbol. This design is also found upon Minoan pottery and artefacts. The second example seems to bear the same design.
Figure 41 A bronze spearhead from Brandenburg, Germany, with a triskelis made up of sheep curls; also swastikas and bullseye roundels with three and four-dot designs. (pp.863 Fig.201. Wilson T.) Figure 42 Bone talisman with groups of three holes. Italy C.6300-5900 BC. (European Virtual Museum - http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.it/repertidettagli/Deepenings97.htm)
3 The Four-Stroke Comb: Cattle/the bull

Unfortunately, although again the Minoan seal-stones, below, and other similar examples, do show some evidence of a link between four dots/circles and cattle or the bull, as with the seals depicting rams, the complexity of signs inscribed can make the association less than certain.
Figure 43 Four spheres and bulls upon A CHIC XIII 011-1; c. 1700-1500. Figure 44 Two smaller seal stones with four-spheres in the facial designs. (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/?q=en/node/196)
However, by cross-matching uses of four-stroke combs and signs from atal Hyk it is possible to firmly identify at least some of the symbols that were used to signify cattle or the bull by the Vina. Many are obvious as they are created from horn-shapes: but, as in the case of the ram, these creatures and their horn-shapes are not the same across all cultures and eras, so identifying them can be less than straightforward on occasion. After gathering and analysing symbols found in close association with images of cattle and cattle horns I arrived at a core set of signs (Figure 46 & 47) used by both the Vina and Cucuteni. These symbols are surprisingly common, particularly upon CucuteniTrypillian wares, and are sometimes all found together in one form or another upon the same piece of pottery.
Figure 45 Cucuteni-Trypillian pot. (Museum of the Institute of Archaeology, Chisinau, Rep. of Moldova.) Figure 46 Cucuteni-Trypillian vessel with bull horns around a cross. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/cucuteni.html)
19: Ian Harling The above examples of Cucuteni-Trypillian pottery have a bull motif and roundel/eye design made from three concentric circles. This same symbol was used to represent the eye on many examples of Vina bucrania (bull heads made from clay, or clay-covered cattle skulls) of which around thirty have been excavated from Vina houses in Serbia over the years. (3). (Soasic M.) An important factor when identifying inscribed bull signs is the central bump between the horns, which can be seen to have its origins at atal Hyk. This protuberance is always present on later models, and can be seen on the Vina bucrania,below.
Figure 47 Bucrania. (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/oddities#5431051528553254722)
Beginning
The first group of signs I gathered came from the bull, bear and sheep shrines at atal Hyk. They and their derivatives were adopted by the Vina and Cucuteni, remaining in use throughout Europe until at least the end of the Bronze age.
Figure 48 Selection of atal Hyk signs. C7000BC (Harling I.)
The precursor of the chequerboard design, a frequently used bull-motif in later cultures, can be seen painted on the bull skulls, above. Other signs that endured include: the bullseye roundel (a circle with a dot in the centre), the cross and single line, which can all be found in the panel beneath them. In some examples these same signs are found drawn in a round space in the palm of a hand design. Although it is conjecture, I feel from the examples available that these each may have originally signified individual clans at atal Hyk, and that they were all later amassed together as signs associated with the bull by the Vina due to their use there.
PLATE 2
Figure 49 Shrine at atal Hyk c7000BC.

(pp188, Fig.286. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 50 atal Hyk.

(http://langkjer.dk/origin/1-01.htm)
Figure 51 atal Hyk. (pp.307 Fig. 486 Gimbutas M.)
21: Ian Harling
PLATE 3
Figure 52 Reconstructed designs on a bear carving at atal Hyk.

(http://www.sardegnastoria.it/node/23)
Figure 53 Shrines at atal Hyk. A bear figure with a protrusion on its stomach below the arch on the left. Figure 54 Another can be seen in the illustration on the right. (Both illustrations, 'Western walls' Mellaart. 40 & 37 (http://langkjer.dk/origin/1-01.htm)
Figure 55 A bear and a calf, both with bumps at the midriff.

(Excavation Report drawing of Shrine E.VI,10. atal Hyk. Anatolian Studies, XIV, p. 48)
Figure 56 Vina cattle and bull symbols. (Harling I.)
Figure 57 Selection of Cucuteni-Trypillian cattle/bull signs. (Harling I.)
The majority of Vina symbols, above, are simple developments of atal Hyk motifs The number of symbols representing cattle increases with the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, but again, most are derived from a small set of base symbols taken from atal Hyk and the Vina. The main signs at this point are primarily: the eye, four-stroke comb, horns, dotted-triangle, cross, lozenge and the chequerboard. The shrines at atalhyk may also give some understanding of the thinking behind these signs. In the following examples, a bear is depicted with a dot/protrusion at its midriff and also other bull symbols on it and around it. The aim seems to be to show that the power of the bull is at the centre of the bear and perhaps other animals too perhaps 'balancing' depictions of animals with a sign for the bull. In the following example, the lines around the dot are arranged in the same way as they appear on clay seals and friezes found in the area.
Figure 58 A clay stamp from atal Hyk. Figure 59 atal Hyk seals with dotted-lozenge designs. (pp.144, Fig. 222. Gimbutas M.)
As representing masculinity and femininity?

Though the bull appears to be dominant in some cultures, for the Vina and others to the west, the bull and ram seem to represent two aspects of a single whole, the ram feminine, the bull masculine. As an example, the female figure seated alongside that of a male at the centre of the Gumelnita dish has a sheep-spiral on her lap, and the male appears to have a continuation of the chequerboard design on his.
23: Ian Harling
Figure 60 This Gumelnita culture dish, called 'The Lovers', 5Th millennium BC, Romania. (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/173/388393541_d5cfd5cfae.jpg)
This idea may have spread along the Silk Road and led to the emergence of Taoism, as the same theme of balanced energies is also present within it. That the key sign for Taoists, the 'yin and yang' symbol', can be found on the sides of some Cucuteni huts and with the same connotations, many hundreds of years before Taoism's earliest known origins, may support this. The centre of each of the ram spirals bears a bull symbol, creating a sign with bull-ram equality.
Figure 61 Cucuteni model of a house, decorated with a Taoist 'Yin/Yang' symbol. 'Encyclopedia of the Trypillian Civilization', Dr. Burdo N., Dr. Videiko M. www.trypillia.com).
Figure 62 A ram model from the Danubian Boian-Gumelnita cultures of Bulgaria and Romania, 43003500 BC (http://www.flickr.com/photos/72746018@N00/2054727246)
A clear division can be seen on the body of the model, above, between angular bull symbols on the left, and soft sheep curves on the right.
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 24 It may have some relevance to note that Beaker burials tend to follow the same format in each case, where males are buried with their feet to the west and faces to the south; women are buried with their feet facing east and their faces again to the south. Could this type of burial be a reference to the masculine and feminine animals of the east and west?
Bull-marked artefacts
Figure 62b The Vucedol culture, classic (orange) and late (pink) phases, from Vucedol c.3000BC.
(http://my.opera.com/edwardpiercy/blog/2010/01/17/the-vucedol-culture)
Many items from the Indo-European Vucedol culture, who occupied parts of the Vina territory and further west onto the coast of the Adriatic from 3000BC to 2500BC, were decorated exclusively with symbols for the bull, particularly roundels and lozenges. Many of the same signs can be found both on Vina wares and on Minoan seal-stones some three hundred years later.
Figure 63 The Vucedol Vase.
25: Ian Harling
Figure 64 Vase Detail. (Both illustrations: http://www.naklikproductions.com/AncientChronology.htm)
Examples like this aid in cross-referencing signs, and identifying previously unknown types. The nested shapes at 2d and 7b are cattle horn designs.
The importance of the signs in earlier cave-art

A key aspect of many symbols that originated at atal Hyk is the dot or cupimpression, which is usually placed within a geometric shape, such as a lozenge, triangle or circle. There is a feeling with these dotted signs that the shape of the surround is to some degree unimportant, and that the design serves to focus or contain the power of the dot or dots within it. (Neolithic 'Cup and ring' designs found in Britain and elsewhere may be a reflection of this same idea). The research below gives an indication of how important the lozenge was in the Neolithic:
"...In 1992 a project named 'research and documentation of the rock art of UpperAustrian Salzkammergut' was started, sponsored by FWF (Fonds zur Frderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung)...in total 227 rock art panels at 44 sites (were studied)... Completed in 1999, the study found that, "...Among the great variety of signs only four of them occur more than a hundred times: simple crosses, cup marks, rhombi and ladders. With 13 % representations of rhombi range at the third place of frequency. I do not know any other rock art region with such a high frequency. In the research area of Upper Austrian Salzkammergut, rhombi can be found at 32 of 44 sites (73 %). Thus it is the sign with the widest distribution. Other frequent signs like ladders or Radkreuze are present only at 20 % respectively 25 % of the sites. Werner Pichler: (ALMOGAREN XXX/1999, Institutum Canarium, Institutum Canarium http://www.rupestre.net/tracce/?p=3398)
All of the symbols mentioned above can be seen at atal Hyk and within the Vina and Cucuteni sign-sets, and can be shown to have associations with the bull. In another study, begun in 2010, researcher Genevieve von Petzinger analysed all examples of cave art from 140 sites in SW Europe, finding that the four-stroke comb with a joining bar at one or both edges first appeared around 25, 000 years ago and made up over 15% of signs.
(Vonv Petzinger G. http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/geometric_signs/geometric_signs.php)
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 26 Crosses were found at 20 sites. Cross-hatching/chequerboard designs were found at 27 sites. Semi-circular horn shapes were found at 28 sites.
Other findings made by Von Petzinger show the regard for the signs, above:
...von Petzinger has found one set of five symbols "II ^ III X II" to be especially common, appearing on walls like a recurring motif. Intriguingly, she has recently found the sequence in another, unexpected location. "At St Germain de la Rivire, north of Bordeaux, the skeleton of a young woman dated as being around 15,500 years old was discovered with a necklace made of the teeth of red deer," adds von Petzinger. "Three of those teeth have markings on them: 'II ^' was on one; 'III' on another; and 'X II' on the third. We have our five common symbols appearing on a necklace...At this time, there were no red deer in France and it is thought the necklace teeth came from Spain, possibly as items of trade between different tribes..."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/mar/11/cave-painting-symbols-language-evolution)
Combs and dotted-lozenges

A common Vina combination cow and bull sign, a four-stroke comb and a dot or a four-stroke comb and a dotted/un-dotted lozenge can be seen upon many artefacts up until the late Bronze age.
Figure 65 Cucuteni figurine fragments c 4000BC(http://www.eidola.eu/images? explain=type&filter=Type&id=8&page=13 )
Figure 66 Dupljaja charioteer, Dubovac culture, Serbia c1500BC. (http://www.allposters.com/-st/Chariots-Posters_c115661_p5_.htm)
27: Ian Harling Above, one of the Dupljaja charioteers from the Dubovac culture, Serbia c1500BC. The four-stroke and dot design around its neck and the swastikas and roundels beneath it are also bull/cattle signs. Variations of this design can be seen on the two spindlewhorls from Troy, below.
Figure 67 Four-stroke and dot design inscribed as horned animals, fromTroy ( pp.826 Fig's.100, 101. After Schliemann).
Figure 68 Inscribed stone from Vadu Rau, Romania (http://aleximreh.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/surorile-tablitelor-de-la-tartaria-descoperite-la-vadu-rau/)
This inscribed tablet from Vada Rau, Romania, was found in a cache of similar items. It bears two dotted lozenges over a four stroke comb, a combined bull and cow symbol. It is easy to imagine in light of a society that may have venerated cattle that this would be an amulet. The same symbols four-stroke signs and a lozenge appear upon a tripod vessel from Macedonia, c. 5200BC.
Figure 69 Anza, Macedonia, Vina culture, c. 5200 BC. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/cucuteni.html)
Figure 70 Another stone from Vadu Rau, Romania. (http://aleximreh.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/surorile-tablitelor-de-la-tartaria-descoperite-la-vadu-rau/)
What may be natural holes in this stone would make it a powerful talisman. The round hole signifying the bull - the horn shaped scoop from its upper edge, perhaps bull horns or, if inverted, the ram. The lozenge (in white) and the sun (yellow) are both cattle related; the sign in red may be a hoof symbol. It also bears a sheep sign (blue), a 'plant' sign (light blue). The lozenge is flanked by lines (in green), perhaps personalisation marks. (see the section on 'Tamgha').
29: Ian Harling
4 A Unity
As I was verifying the cattle signs I found that I was continually seeing them alongside signs for sheep, supporting the notion that the beliefs of at least some of the Vina may have been based on a ram/bull unity, where images of one would frequently be used in conjunction with signs for the other. I am not suggesting that in every instance where ram and bull signs are shown together on items from later cultures that it means that they too followed the same beliefs as the Vina or Cucuteni, or even that it was prevalent amongst either of these two cultures themselves, but simply that the signs have been adopted and used in a similar way for thousands of years. With some evidence of a ritual regard for the bull and the ram as a unity found at the Vina sites in Parta (Serbia) and Vadastra (straddling Romania and Bulgaria), signs for both animals together should and do - occur quite frequently.
Figure 71 Vina altar at Parta, Serbia. (http://romanianhistoryandculture.webs.com/thedanubianculture.htm) Figure 72 Ram and bull model. Fired Clay Vdastra, 55005000 BC (National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/costi-londra/390029771/)
In Figure 71, Vina depictions of what may be a ram (left) and a bull upon an altar, c. 5000 BC, at Parta, Serbia. The second example is more obviously a ram and bull, and it has sheep spirals and a bull chequerboard design across the chests of both animals.
Figure 73 A Vina plaque, Karanovo 4500-4300BC. (pp.124, Fig.195 Gimbutas M.)
The spiral and chequerboard are repeated on the Vina plaque, above.ent pairing of the spiral and chequerboard motif. This same pairing can be seen in Neolithic tombs and upon carved stones from Sardinia to Newgrange in Ireland. The central sheep spiral is also off-set by other bull-signs: the chevron and the 'X'.
Pintadera
Numerous clay seals ('pintadera') have been found in atal Hyk and throughout the Vina and Cucuteni territories, which, on the whole, bear motifs that are either bull or ram-related, or both - although there are some notable exceptions, such as the 'labrynth' designs and bear paws both of which tend to contain 'bull dots'. Common themes include most of the signs previously illustrated as representing the bull and ram, such as: the spiral, concentric circles, zig-zags, impressed dots, parallel lines and the chequerboard, etc..
Figure 74 A Cucuteni seal-stone bearing sheep curls and cattle-signs to the left and right. http://www.flickr.com/photos/homemadejam/4569467720/
Combination symbols
Although obviously any sheep and cattle signs can be paired together, In Neolithic Britain, for example, artefacts and rock art in tombs favour the chequerboard and dotted lozenge as bull motifs, and use spirals to signify sheep. For the Vina, single and double-chevrons, or the bull-roundel and dual-chevrons might be used instead. The below is a selection of common pairings.
Figure 75 Vina and Cucuteni sheep and cattle signs.(Harling I.)
The designs below are a combination of bull and sheep symbols found on Vina artefacts. These also appear regularly upon Greek pottery in various periods throughout the Bronze age.
Figure 76 Combination ram and bull signs: the chevron and the curl. (Harling I.)
Whilst there are a number of individual bull and sheep signs, there are also many designs that were used to represent the bull which were created from two or three other bull symbols, as in the examples, below. The Vina signs below again appear in the British Isles, with the exception of the dotted cross and swastika.
Figure 77 Combination bull symbols. (Harling I.)
31: Ian Harling The following examples, below and in Plate 4, show the extent to which this dual symbolism permeated Vina and Cucuteni art. The late-Vina figurine, below, has a fourstroke comb on its stomach above a Greek Key design, and a three-stroke comb over a Greek Key on its rear.
Figure 78 Figurine from Predionica, near Pristina, S Yugoslavia, Late Vina Culture, c. 4500 BC. (http://www.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antiguauniversal/escrituras_antigua/escrituras_3__antiguas_balkan_danube-script.htm )
One of at least two similar figurines, the Karanovo model, below, is decorated with bull-lozenges on her thighs and buttocks; and her hair ends in a bull horn design. She also has ram's horns across her chest and arms, and a horizontal wool curl on her pubis.
Figure 79 Karanovo IV, Bulgaria, c.5000BC. (pp.143 Fig.220. Gimbutas M.)
More obvious uses of counter-signs can be seen in Plate 4, where sheep-curls are used together with symbols for the bull, such as the cross, roundel and chevron. The examples of Cucuteni figurines each bear a design made up of four dotted-lozenges to include a cross-shape. This motif can be seen repeated frequently upon Greek Geometric wares alongside other Vina symbols.
PLATE 4
Figure 80 Spiral and lozenge designs on Cucuteni vessel from Pianul de Jos, Transylvania, Romania. (pp145, Fig.223. Gimbutas M)
Figure 81 Cucuteni, NE Romania, c.3500 BC. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/zig-zag.html) Figure 82 Cucuteni dish, NE Romania, c.4000BC (pp8 plate 24. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 83 Rear of a Cucuteni figurine. (http://terraeantiqvae.com/profiles/blogs/cultura-de) Figure 84 Cucuteni figurine detail. (pp.145, Fig. 224, 3. Gimbutas M.) Figure 85 Fragmented terracotta Pre-Cucuteni-Tripolye A figurine, Western Ukraine. (Daniela Bulgarelli The Global Prehistory Consortium.://arheologie.ulbsibiu.ro/publicatii/ats/ats5/2merlini.htm)
33: Ian Harling Occasionally artefacts are decorated with extensive bull symbols, but will have one sheep-sign somewhere within the design. This pottery vessel from the Tisza culture, Hungary, 5200-500BC, bears extensive cattle signs, and just one single ram sign (below in red) on the right. The Dimini figurines beneath it are strongly themed with three-stroke markings, off-set by the four cattle lines around the base of each model's skirt.
Figure 86 Tisza culture. (pp.22, Fig. 34. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 87 Dimini Culture, Thessaly, c 5000BC. (pp.91, Fig.149. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 88 Karanovo, Bulgaria, 5000-4500BC. (pp.118, Fig. 121Gimbutas M.) Figure 89 A Karanovo sign for the bull and a Cucuteni combination sign for the cow and bull.
The front of this Karanovo ram model bears a sheep-spiral on its chest, and parallel diagonal lines on its sides, which are one of the Karanovo and Cucuteni symbols for the cow; and a pair of half-roundel horns (the bull) at two of its corners.
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 34 A lozenge and ram's horns make up key motifs in the design, below, from a Lengyel culture vase from Moravia, c. 5000 BC. The same design can also be found on the 'Lengyel Spoon'.
Figure 90 Lozenge and spiral/ram's horns design. Lengyel culture vase, Moravia, 5000BC. (pp.309, Fig. 490. Gimbutas M.)
Figure 91 Female Figurine, terracotta, Pilavo, v. Burilcevo, Kocani region, Eneolithic, Suplevec-Bakarno Gumno Culture, c. 4000BC (http://my.opera.com/ancientmacedonia/blog/show.dml/1219715)
A prominent bull-roundel can be seen on the buttocks of this figurine fragment, with lozenge designs around the knees (Gumno culture, c.4000BC.) The figurine from Hotran, Romania (Figure 92 Plate 5) has bull-roundels around its arms, and three and four-stroke combinations on its chest.
35: Ian Harling
PLATE 5
Figure 92 Figurine from Hotaran, Romania. (Marin Nica Romanaiului Museum. http://cimec.wordpress.com/tag/muzeul-romanatiului/)
Figure 93 A Vina ram model with four-stroke and three-stroke combs upon its chest. (http://www.artancient.net/servlet/the-161/Ancient-Vina-Ram-Idol/Detail)
Figure 94 Three-stroke and four-dot motifs upon a Linear Pottery bull from Estenfeld Mulhouse, a district of Wrzburg, Germany, 5500-4500BC. (http://cms.bandkeramik.eu/?p=69)
PLATE 6
The following Tisza culture figurine from Belgrade, (c.5000-4000 BC), has a number of both bull and sheep symbols within its decoration.
Figure 95 Tisza culture figurine. (http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/lost/hyperboreans/#jp-carousel-977)
Figure 96 Detail. (http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/lost/hyperboreans/#jp-carousel-977)
Tisza figurine detail:

* Nose and eyebrows in the shape of ram's horns; the arms are cattle horns. * The eyes are bull roundels, with sun variations at the mouth and shoulders. * Spirals of wool on the model's cheeks join at a roundel at its throat. * A bull chequerboard pattern and bull-triangles upon the skirt.
37: Ian Harling
Opposite designs
The idea of opposites sometimes extends to influencing designs on anthropomorphic figures too in some cases; bull models may bear large spirals rams, chequerboard patterns and diagonals, the opposite of what might be expected.
Figure 97 Cucuteni model cow bearing large sheep spirals.(pp.266, Fig.413. Gimbutas M). Figure 98 Vina ram or sheep model with cattle chequerboard designs. (pp. 87, Fig. 1&2. Gimbutas M).
The Swastika
Although the Swastika can be found at atal Hyk, its appearance there is predated by its use elsewhere in cave-art and artefacts dating from at least 25, 000 years earlier. It may be that the design is based on four single-chevrons, perhaps originally representing the horns of the animal. As with other symbols though, there is no certainty that the meaning of the sign has remained the same in that time. It can be found in Neolithic Ireland, and continues in use alongside bull 'suns' (a sphere surrounded by a ring of other, smaller, spheres) on some examples of British Saxon pottery.
Figure 99 One of the chariots found at Duplajaja.Zuto Brdo, Garla Mare, Serbia, dating to approximately 1500BC. (http://www.neokoolt.blogspot.ro/)
This artefact is usually described as a war chariot, but in stead it may represent the bringing of good luck and plenty. The charioteer has a torque around its neck with ram's horn finials; a necklace with an inverted ram's horn sign and a bull sign hanging from it; a curl of wool at each wrist. The creatures pulling it are stylised lambs (see a later
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 38 section), each with three bands around their necks. A second similar chariot model found with this one bears wool curls and swastikas upon its chest.
Figure 100 Stone from Kermarie in Brittany, with sheep-spirals beneath a swastika. c. 4000BC. (http://pohanstvi.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/svastika-v-keltske-kulture/)
Spirals and Chequerboards The pairing of a spiral and a chequerboard design is particularly striking in the Neolithic tomb discovered in Sardinia, shown in Plate 7. Bull's heads were also found carved into the walls alongside spirals. The same design can be seen below, carved into kerb-stones at Newgrange, Ireland, 3200BC.
Figure 101 Newgrange kerb-stone 67 NE side of the mound. Boyne Valley Ireland, 3200BC (Artistic Posterization by John Scarry. http://www.newgrange.com/newgrange-k67.htm)
39: Ian Harling
PLATE 7
Figure 102 A tomb found in Sardinia attributed to the Ozieri culture, dated to c. 3800-2900BC.
Figure 103 (Pictures copyright Antonella Porcu). http://www.scribd.com/doc/31138033/Neolithic-Rock-Art-Discovery-in-Sardinia#fullscreen:on
Subtle ram and bull signs on Cretan seal-stones

These signs also appear upon Minoan seals as 'secondary' signs (stiktograms'), such as one, two, three or four dots, ram's horns, bull-crosses, etc..
Figure 105 CHIC 295, face c with a cross and three-spheres. Figure 106 CHIC 295 bears a cross and ram's horns. (Metropolitan Museum of Art).
There are numerous other examples in the CHIC and CMS databases that are inscribed with secondary signs for the bull, ram, or both. I will describe their purpose in full in a following paper.
Notes
Interestingly, the designs on the following Cucuteni dish on the left seem to have some close parallels with the vessel shown alongside it, from Susa, Iran, c.4200-3800 BC. Most of the motifs are the same, with the addition of a man, a stylised scorpion at the bottom left, possibly a bird, and the chevrons.
Figure 107 Cucuteni dish. (www.amazon.com/Goddess-Lajja-Gauri-origins-Footsteps/dp/1...) Figure 108 Dish from Susa, Neolithic Iran, c.4200-3800 BC. (Louvre Museum - http://www.bridgemanart.com)
41: Ian Harling
5 The Lamb Model

The Vina figurines in Plate 8, following, are good examples of a ram or bull artefact being marked with 'opposing' signs. Many lamb figurines are marked with bull-signs, such as a lozenge-shape or a Greek Key. Variants of this model, usually a head or head and torso, are found in abundance in refuse pits at Vina sites, and many seem to have been made by children. The figure undergoes a great deal of development and variation to the point where it is no longer recognisable as a lamb at all in some cases. Research into the Tisza culture (4 - Voros I) showed that the majority of sheep were slaughtered before the age of two, with highest mortality in the winter/spring. Did the production of these figures coincide with or symbolically take the place of - a yearly ritual cull of lambs? If so, the custom may be the basis of the ancient Bulgarian custom of making and giving figurines called 'martenitsa'.
...Baba Marta is a pagan tradition borne out of the days when heathen peasants believed in higher forces at work affecting the weather, fertility and successful crop growth. Pagans worldwide celebrated the coming of the spring each year, thousands of years before Christ's birth. Spring was renowned as a time of renewal and fertility representing new life and a fresh start after the cold winter. In reality, this meant that food was scarce during harsh Bulgarian winters and people worshipped the spring in the hope that it would bring clement weather suitable for sowing and tending crops. In Bulgaria, "mart" is the word for March and "baba" means grandma. In old folklore "Baba Marta" was portrayed as a volatile and moody woman. It is believed that when she was happy skies were blue and the sun would shine, but when Baba Marta was disgruntled, she would bring rain and wind to the country. The colours of the martenitsa symbolise many things. The white wool represents the melting snow and the red twine represents the setting sun, which becomes more and more intense as spring advances. Other associations of the martenitsa's colours are that the white symbolises man and the red woman, or that they represent purity and life or health and strength. Many centuries ago, a martenitsa was regarded as an amulet to protect the receiver from evil and many people still quote the old saying that "if you don't wear your martenitsa, Baba Marta will bring evil to you"....
Adapted from; http://sofiaecho.com/2008/02/29/653749_reading-room-the-martenitsa-story
Figure 109 Bulgarian martenitsa. (http://www.martenitsa.com/)
Note that the first example in the following Plate, the model has a bull-lozenge in the centre of its forehead.
PLATE 8
Figure 110 A Vina lamb head, 4500BC (Ex-Hermann Ginczler collection. Royal Athens Museum) Figure 111 Vina c. 4500. (Ex-Hermann Ginczler collection.http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10233963)
Figure 112 Vina (http://www.trocadero.com/artancientltd/items/1065981/item1065981.html ) Figure 113 Vina (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/maskies#5547391799816301794 Figure 114 Vina (Ex-Hermann Ginczler (1895-1965) collection http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/10233962)
Figure 115 & Figure 116 Vina lambs. (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/maskies) Figure 117 Lamb's head with chevrons on its forehead. Gumelnita Culture, 5th mill. BC. (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/oddities#5439755889617662914)
43: Ian Harling Many of the full body lamb figurines have what may be the first use of the Greek Key design inscribed into their stomachs or lower portions. It is an angular version of a sheep-spiral, and a logical design if one were to try to make a sheep spiral into something that reflected the shape of other angular bull-symbols. However, it might also have come about through trying to represent the spiral in textile motifs. Although the example, below, is made of terracotta, the design is made up of wiggling lines that are meant to make the item look as though it is from a woven or knitted textiles. This effect appears through the use of an ancient form of weaving called Nalebinding, which was used to make hats, socks and gloves up until the middle-ages. This model displays the sign prominently, perhaps to off-set its ram nature. Other Vina models, such as the item below it, have a similar use of the Greek Key.
Figure 118 Ram model from Vadastra, 4200BC, SW Romania. (National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest.) (Photo: Marius Amarie. - http://peregrinacultural.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/antiga-civilizacao-europeiaao-longo-do-danubio-em-exposicao-em-nova-york/).
Figure 119 From Vadastra, Romania, c 4500BC. (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/oddities#5562086063693001394)
Each of the three ram's horn symbols on the above model has a raised single bull dotsign upon it, with equal space on the model given to both cattle and sheep symbols. The
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 44 centre of the model bears a large Greek Key design and a chequerboard containing X's constructed from triangles (b.) on its left and right, both cattle signs. Lamb figurines often bear a Greek Key, net/chequerboard on their lower portions to offset the lamb theme and to 'balance' its nature. In some models the bull signs might be on the figure's stomach or will cover its entire body.
Figure 120 Late Vina, 5000BC. (pp26. Fig39. Gimbutas M.) Figure 121 Vina, Yugoslavia, 4500BC. (pp.12, Fig. 18. Gimbutas M.)
Interestingly, many of the full-body models of this type excavated thus far have been broken in two, apparently separating the bull and ram (or cattle and sheep) aspect of the model before it was discarded. This Mycenaean krater, 1300-1200BC, shows how bird-like the ram could become in some cultures after stylisation. An actual bird is shown in a similar style below it.
Figure 122 Mycenaean krater, 1300-1200BC (British Museum. http://www.fergusmurraysculpture.com/cyprus/past-i-ancient-history/)
45: Ian Harling
6 Bull and Ram Signs in Britain

Common Vina symbols that appear at various sites in the UK from around 3,500BC include: The lozenge, with/without a central dot, or a second, nested lozenge. A lozenge quartered into four other lozenges A dot, or a number of dots, within a circle (cup and ring markings) Zig-zags Triangles Chevrons, double and single Four triangles which make up a square box and cross design.
Figure 123 A selection of British passage-tomb motifs. (After Herity 1974. http://mmtaylor.net/Holiday2000/Legends/Ancient_History/Episode.12.html)
I show a Vina tablet for comparison, below, which is inscribed with the same symbols as those found upon carved stones from the British Isles.
Figure 124 Vina tablet from Potporanj Kremenjak, Late Neolithic. (The Town Museum of Vrsac. http://www.arheologija.narod.ru/d1ustanove/vrsac/Prehistoric.html)
As there were Neolithic trade routes that led from Europe into Britain long prior to the
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 46 time when the main phase of Stonehenge was constructed, it is reasonable to suppose that its builders may have been exposed directly or indirectly to earlier, distant civilisations, such as the Vina. The following item was discovered in the floor of a tomb and associated with other finds dating to c.3600 BC.
Figure 125 Jadeite axe, Ireland.
...Jadeite axe from the Erris peninsula in Co Mayo, found 2003. It was established that the axe came from...a quarry high in Mount Viso in the Italian Alps....and it was already old the manufacture of these specialist axes ended around 4,000 BC ....It travelled first to northwestern France, where it was polished. Then it made its way, either directly or through Britain, to west Mayo. And similar jadeite axes from Mount Viso were being imported into Denmark and Germany. (http://www.newgrange.com/knowth-macehead.htm)
Three-sphere marks in Britain There is a limited use of three-sphere marks in the British Isles in favour of spirals, but that there is use of this sign at all there is significant. Figure 126 in Plate 9 shows bullroundels broken at the middle-left by a three-sphere sheep mark on a kerb-stone at Knowth, Ireland. There is no proof however that it signified solely sheep in Britain, and may instead have been a blanket symbol for sheep, deer and goats.
Figure 126 Kerbstone at Knowth with the engraving overlaid with one of Martin Brennan's drawings. (http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/boyne/knowth2.html)
47: Ian Harling This example from the Holm of Papa Westray chambered cairn, Orkney may be a three-sphere and ram's horn design.
Figure 127 Holm of Papa Westray, Orkney. http://thothistheibis.wordpress.com/tag/brodgar-complex/
Below too, between the chevrons, 'X's, and lozenge motifs on the 'Folkton Drums', the first and third examples again have two spheres below the horns, but in this case there is no third sphere near them. The ram's horns can be seen at the far right of each drawing.
Figure 128 'The Folkton Drums' from Yorkshire, UK. (http://www.celticnz.co.nz/Clandonwebsitefiles/Clandon2a.htm
The design on the centre drum, a ram's horns adjoining a bull-lozenge, is again at the right-hand side of the illustration. This combination symbol can also be found on the Lengyel culture spoon and vase (Figure 90) from 5000BC, also occurring later on Minoan and Greek pottery. Lozenges, chequerboards and spirals There was prolific use of a combination of a lozenge motif (sometimes dotted) and spirals in the British Isles, particularly in Ireland, along with regular use of bull roundels.
PLATE 9
Figure 129 The entrance stone to Newgrange in Ireland . Loughcrew, Knowth, Ireland.(Knowth.com) . Figure 130 Carved stone at Barclodiad Y Gawres, (Gimbutas M.)
Figure 131 The Westray Stone from Orkney, a lozenge with a dot in its centre at the middle of this picture. (Tankerness House, Kirkwall, home of the Orkney Museum).
Figure 132 Symbols on the Brodgar stone, Stetton, Scotland. (Orkney Library Photographic Archive) http://www.celticnz.co.nz/Clandonwebsitefiles/Clandon2a.htm
49: Ian Harling
PLATE 10
Figure 135 The front panel of the basin in the right recess of Knowth east. 3ttp://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/boyne/knowth1.html Figure 134 'An old photo of the stone basin in the right-hand recess, Knowth East.' (http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/meath.htm)
Figure 135 A Vina bucrania from Serbia. ((3) Soasic M. 2012 - 'Cattle to Settle, Bull to Rule: on bovine iconography among Late Neolithic Vina culture communities.' Documenta Praehistorica : 295-308.pp.307 Fig 7)
Figure 136 Bronze age carved rock at Glassonby, Cumbria. (http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/glassonby.htm)
Figure 137 The Knowth Mace Head.(http://www.newgrange.com/knowth-macehead.htm)
Made of flint, this elaborately decorated flint mace head from Ireland was found beneath the eastern chamber tomb at the great passage tomb at Knowth. Decorated with ram's horns and spirals, balanced with elongated bull-chequerboards on each end. The stone is extremely hard, and decorating such an item would pose a problem for anyone trying to replicate it without the help of today's power tools.
Incised Stone Slabs

A handful of stone slabs inscribed with Vina bull symbols have been found in the UK in the vicinity of, or within, Neolithic and Bronze age sites. At least two of these bear Vina-style chequerboard designs, and two others have bull-roundel 'eyes' that are indistinguishable from their counterparts on Vina clay representations of cattle skulls. It seems possible, based upon their shape, that even some round barrows may have been intended to mimic a bull-roundel design. Examples of the slabs can be seen below:
Figure 138 From a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in Cornwall, UK, 2012. (Image: Cornwall Council) Figure 139 Neolithic stone from Fylingdale Moors, Yorkshire. (http://rockartuk.wordpress.com/category/yorkshire/page/2/)
The stone slab in Figure 138 bearing a chequerboard design was found in a Neolithic causewayed enclosure in Cornwall, UK (2). The Neolithic stone beside it from Fylingdale Moors, Yorkshire, is decorated with double and single-chevrons isolated in a panel, surrounded by lozenges and dotted lozenges. Interestingly the item below from Romania
51: Ian Harling and dated to c. 11000 BC is inscribed with quite a similar design to that in Figure 139.
Figure 140 Carved horse bone with chevrons and lozenge designs from Cuina Turcului, Iron Gates of Danube, W Romania, 11000 BC. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/cucuteni.html)
Approximately four of these stones come from Salisbury Plain, with others from Yorkshire, Cornwall and Scotland. The 'Brodgar Eye' (Skara Brae, Scotland) and the Winterborne stone in Figure 174, found near Stonehenge, are both inscribed with a single bull-roundel design. Two examples were found in King Barrow Ridge: one inscribed with a Greek Key design with a 'tram-line frame', the other chequerboard within a similar frame, were mentioned by Harding (1988), carbon dating of other items in the pits dated the plaques to the early third millennium BC. ((Harding, P, 1988, 'The chalk plaque
pit, Amesbury. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society', 54, 320-27)
Another stone with a chequerboard design was found during excavations at the Ness of Brodgar site on Orkey in 2010. (The Orkney Jar Orkney Archaeological News:
Thursday, August 26, 2010.)
Good examples too of 'bullseye-roundels' dating to the same period have been found, one in 2009 at the Brodgar Ness site in Orkney.
Figure 141 Winterborne Carne 18b carving, one of two inscribed with bull-roundels from the same pit. Figure 142 The "Brodgar Eye" from structure 10 at the Ness of Brodgar site, Orkney. (http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/nessofbrodgar/excavation-background-2/stone-age-artwork/)
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 52 --------------------------------------------------------------Notes:
The Poulton Stone: '...A sub-rectangular fragment of limestone was recovered from a section cut through Ring-ditch II. The section was cut through the butt-end of the south-east entranceway, on its western edge. It was within the primary fill (L053), deliberately deposited on the base of the ditch. Several fragments of human cremated bone were closely associated with the stone....' '...The smaller of the two has marked similarities to that found at Poulton. However, such designs are both rare and difficult to parallel. They are found on rock art, as at Skara Brae (Orkney), but in plaque form are singularly rare. Cross-hatching is resonant of designs found on 'Grooved Ware' pottery, which is unique to Britain and Ireland. However, this pottery is almost absent from the archaeological record in Cheshire. One rare example was recovered from Eddisbury Hill (1851), a Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age hill-fort 25km from Poulton. The grooved ware pot was associated with several large fragments of' human cremated bone. It has been dated to 2700-2200 BC. The Eddisbury urn had horizontal lines of impressed whipped cord and zigzag lines...' http://www.poultonproject.org/plaque.htm The Poulton Research Project - http://www.poultonproject.org/index.shtml Cornwall : ....Among some of the remarkably well preserved finds are large sherds of Late Neolithic Grooved Ware pottery (a type of pottery that is first produced in Orkney at the opposite end of the UK) and an unusual slate disc which is engraved on both sides. One side has a distinctive chequerboard pattern while the other has lozenges with arrowhead decoration. It is apparent that this artefact has been deliberately placed within a pit, but it is too early to posit a firm theory about its function or deposition.... Past Horizons, October 2012 Winterborne Carne carving: ...On January 27, 1848, the great Dorsetshire antiquarian Charles Warne sent a letter to the British Archaeological Association about a series of three large tumuli he had explored south of Dorchester in Dorset: About the centre, at a depth of some three feet from the surface, was found lying flat a rough unhewn stone, with a series of concentric circles incised; this, on being removed, was seen to have covered a mass of flints from six to seven feet in thickness, which being also removed we came to another unhewn irregular stone, with similar circles inscribed, and as in the preceding case, covering another cairn of flints, in quantity about the same as beneath the first stone... (Photo and text, Megalithix.wordpress.com: http://megalithix.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/came-downcarving/) ...In 1882 a burial mound, located near Maiden Castle, Dorchester area, was excavated by Edward Cunnington and an assortment of valuable artefacts were found. These included a gold lozenge, very similar to the Bush Barrow Lozenge (which had been found 74 years earlier and only about 40 miles away at a mound grave near Stonehenge)....The similarity in style between the Bush Barrow Lozenge and the Clandon Barrow Lozenge, coupled with the relatively short distance between the archaeological sites where each artefact was found, has caused some archaeologists to comment that both lozenges were probably fabricated by the same artisan (See The Wessex culture: a minimal view, by John Coles and Joan Taylor, Antiquity, XLV, 1971, pages 6-13). http://www.celticnz.co.nz/Clandonwebsitefiles/Clandon1a.htm
Stone Circles
Neolithic artefacts and stone-carvings from Britain may also help us understand something of the beliefs of those who created stone circles. If they were building large bull-symbols into the landscape, we can imagine that the point at the centre of the ring might be regarded as having some power. It is purely conjecture, but it is interesting to suppose that the following stones from Ireland and Scotland may depict a circle of standing stones and how Neolithic man thought that power might radiate from the centre
53: Ian Harling of such a structure and be captured or focussed by the surrounding stones.
Figure 143 Neolithic carving Loughcrew, Knowth, Ireland. (Knowth.com)
Figure 144 Stone described as 'Pictish', but of unknown date, found in Banff, Scotland, near Neolithic sites. (http://www.webhistorian.co.uk/pages/index.php?id=137)
Again the design might show imagined lines of force radiating outwards from a central point. The reverse of the stone bears crescent horn-shapes and a roundel with a central depression. Even though not known to be Neolithic, on a purely personal basis it is very much what I would draw to represent the same idea. The Bull and the Goat-fish As Vina signs were able to reach Britain seemingly intact, it raises the possibility that other cultures may have had some influence there too. The Sumerian civilisaton of ancient Iraq had came to prominence some hundreds of years before the first Vina signs appeared in Britain, and its greatest city, Uruk, held some 50 to 80,000 inhabitants in a walled citadel covering some six square kilometres when it reached its peak c.2900 BC. Its history reaches back even further to powerful settlements and cities that were almost a thousand years older, and with Sumerian artefacts and evidence of colonies
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 54 being found as far afield as the Tarsus Mountains in Anatolia, in central Iran and the Mediterranean, it seems feasible that something of their beliefs managed to reach greater Europe and even Britain. Although the urge may be to see Neolithic Britain as being isolated from mainland Europe to some degree, it did not escape inclusion in those religions - which included the Sumerians - who venerated cattle in some way. There is hardly an early Bronze age civilisation that did not have some important inclusion of cattle in their rituals, and it is certain from the many finds over the years that they were held in the highest esteem in the British Isles too. Prehistoric barrows and later tombs almost always contain cattle bones or skulls, and some have been found to have been kept for some hundreds of years above ground before being buried with the dead. The first main outer ring at Stonehenge contained a handful of such bones, and other cattle skulls were found buried at key places around the monument. In a recent excavation, a baby Auroch, skinned and dismembered, was found placed carefully in a lozenge-shaped grave nearby. Stonehenge in later phases was constructed to view and mark the winter and summer solstices, and we also know that the Sumerian winter solstice was heralded by the rising of the constellation of Taurus (the 'Bull of Heaven') in the west, and the 'goat-fish' (Capricorn) as the summer solstice in the east. Though perhaps a coincidence, an ox skull buried due west of the 'henge and a deer skull buried to the east might be a reflection of these same themes. That beliefs in Neolithic and Bronze age Britain were shaped to some extent by the Vinca and other civilisations seems highly probable. This being the case, further investigation of the Vinca and contemporary cultures should help give us a new insight into our own forgotten history and rituals.
55: Ian Harling
7 Single and Double-Chevrons

Single and double-chevron motifs appear to be amongst the most important signs to the Vina. For example, they are the sign most frequently paired with other signs. (Winn S.M.M.1981) and, unlike other symbols, are never inscribed on the base of pots. Again, from the evidence it would seem that the chevrons denote some aspect of cattle and sheep. Vina ram models, such as the examples shown later below, frequently have a double-chevron around their necks. The single-chevron is often grouped with other signs for cattle, and has associations with the bull on Greek pottery. They can also be marked on some items in a way that makes them seem quite emblematic, both in their balanced construction and their prominent use.
Figure 145 An inscribed tablet from Varna. (Varna Museum) http://archaeo.museumvarna.com/en/category/list?category_id=7&id=8t)
This item is unattributed and undated, but within an article on Bulgaria in the Middleages. A chevron is associated with each sign, including the single line at the left of the tablet.
Figure 146 Vina clay dish. (Wikipedia Creative Commons License - Nikola Smolenski. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vina_vessel.png)
The Vina dish, above, bears two groups of three signs, each with a chevron at their centre. Each group is a visually balanced arrangement that has some of the qualities of the family marks I discuss in the following chapter. Does this particular design represent the joining of two families?
Figure 147 A Vina 'amulet' from Bulgaria, 7.000-3.500 BC (The Rousse Regional Museum of History http://www.europeanvirtualmuseum.net/Documents/IdentityCard/100/6004.JPG)
Above, ram's horns in blue are off-set by the bull dotted-lozenge design (in green) and in the shape of the artefact itself. There is also a single chevron marked in red as the main design, and an inverted chevron, in green, at its base. Primary designs The single and double-chevron motifs illustrated, below, are used on anthropomorphic models alone, or together within the same design. This motif can be seen upon the sides of the animal in Figure XX. The bull single-chevron, below in red, is often shown beneath a lozenge design as per the illustration.
Figure 148 Vina chevron symbols and variations.
Figure 149 Vina sheep model . Pristina, Kosovo, 5000-5200BC. (pp.76, Fig. 117A/b. Gimbutas M.)
57: Ian Harling The Vina ram model, above in Figure 149, has both a double-chevron around its neck and three lines under each 'arm' and four lines ringing each leg. The panel on its side contains both the double and single-chevron designs shown earlier in Figure 148
Figure 150 Vina model, c.5th millennium BC. Heavily restored. (http://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/27124/page12)
Figure 151 Vina ram model Rudna Glava, 5000BC. (pp. 70, Fig. 110. Gimbutas M.)
This ram model from Rudna Glavna (Figure 151) has a double-chevron around is neck and a symbol made from a combined ram's horn sign and an upturned single-chevron on its chest. This design is carried through onto the sides of the body in the way shown in black and red to the right of the animal. Single and double-chevrons are often inscribed upon artefacts in the following way:
Figure 152 Vina combination double and single chevron motif.
Figure 153 Early Vina, 5200-5000 BC. (Gimbutas M. pp.45. Fig. 75.)
Figure 154 Vina potsherds from Tordos or Parta.

(Winn S.M.M. 1981 http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/winn3.htm)
Above, Vina potsherds inscribed with double and single-chevrons. Note the threestroke comb in the right-hand example. As can be seen in the group of models below from
Ovrocovo, double-chevrons are used in conjunction with or in opposition to bull-roundels. There is a growing sense that each of these designs represents some basic division within
the Vina, and the idea that one represents sheep in some way and the other the bull fits in with all of the previous findings concerning the Vina. The signs may not have originally represented just the imagined polarity of energies of the two animals, but actual groups or families who once made up the Vina. Considering the evidence I go on to discuss in the next chapter, it seems possible that the chevrons are basic 'clan' signs the double chevron representing those who work with, or who once worked with sheep, and the single chevron, cattle.
Figure 155 Front and rear of the three draught screen models from the Ovcarovo site group, Karanovo VI, Bulgaria, c.5500BC. ( pp.72, Fig. 112. Gimbutas M)
59: Ian Harling One side of each of the three screens bears a sheep double chevron, the other a bullseye roundel. The edges of the screens bear two, three and four-stroke combs. Elsewhere chevron designs can be found both on Vina clay stamps and their much earlier Anatolian counterparts, and there a number of examples of spindle-whorls from Troy decorated with a double-chevron design - offset in this example by swastikas, a symbol for the bull.
Figure 156 Vina clay stamp gathered by M. Winn (1981) at either Tordos or Parta. ( http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/winn7.htm ) Figure 157 Spindle whorl from Troy. (pp.813. Fig. 53. Wilson T. After Schliemann).
Certainly with sheep-models and many Vina figurines, the impression is that the chevrons may have represented a collar, as in the following examples.
Figure 158 Bulgarian National Costume. (Painting by Stoyanka Ivanova) Figure 159 Figurine from Turdas. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/zig-zag.html).
Figure 160 Neolithic carved figure from the Gabon Cave shelter, Italy. (pp.85, Fig 139. Gimbutas M.)
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 60 This figurine has a double-chevron over an inverted single-chevron on its chest. Note that the carving, above, has a double and single-chevron mark on its chest; a doublelozenge and bull-roundel as eyes and mouth; ram's horns for eyebrows and nose.
Figure 161 The 'Urfa man', 11000 BC, Gobekli Tepe, Turkey, (Sanliurfa Museum). Figure 162 Lengyel culture, Moravia 5000 BC.
The Urfa man, the world's oldest full scale representation of a human has a doublechevron around its neck as does the Figurine from the Lengyel culture, c. 5000 BC.. Single and double-chevrons that might represent a woven collar or necklace, are found on many Vina figurines from different branches of the culture.
61: Ian Harling
8 : The Symbols as Clan Marks 'Tamgha'

I would like to suggest that a number of the symbols,below, may have been used to symbolise family divisions within the Vina. A chart of signs, as collected by Winn, Merlini and Gimbutas is shown below, but as the context that some of the following signs were gathered from is unknown, they may be wrongly included in this section. Clan/Cattle
Cattle
Cattle Sheep Cattle Unknown Unknown

Figure 163 (http://www.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antiguauniversal/ESCRITURAS_ANTIGUA/escrituras_paleohispanicas_Huelva%201.htm)
The symbols in this illustration are primarily made up of a cattle sign and one other sign, many are based on horn-shapes. Being tentative, of the 133 signs in the above, 61 contain a cattle reference and 30 sheep: Green two-stroke sign and Cattle: 15 Red Cattle and sheep: 13 Purple Sheep sign alone or with other sign (including other sheep sign): 17 Blue Two-strokes and other sign: 3 Black Cattle and single line signs (the single line is an alternative to a single dot); 11 Gold Symbols made from two cattle-related signs; 22.
The Ram and the Bull, a forgotten belief: Signs of the Vina and Cucuteni. 62 As with the chevrons in the previous section, many of these dual signs are presented in a way that is visually balanced, making them appear more emblematic than if they were being used to simply signify goods.
Construction
In the 'V' section at the top of Figure 163, many of the dual signs share the same basic signs. For example, some use just three chevrons, which are rotated or mirrored in each case to make the resultant sign different from others. This is what we might expect to happen if we were trying to create an original design from a limited number of symbols, and it gives the impression of family lineages who are using the same signs as their ancestors, but adapting them to establish their own identity.
Figure 164 A selection of Sarmatian tamgha
The Tamgha, above, from the North Pontic region of Iran (c. 300-500 AD) show similarities to the previous Vina signs, and way of construction, with regular use of the chevron and sheep signs. Not easy to recognise at first, examples such as 196/197/198 are birds standing on a horizontal line. (after Solomonik E., 1959)
...Since the time when the ancients, including the Mongol nations have developed into relative groups, origins, and ethnic groups, the symbol and belief of a clan have emerged, and a custom to distinguish their origins and relatives have been established. Consequently, when labor distributions within clans began to develop and people started to manage an economy, various tamgas, drawings, notes and earmarks have been used as an identification sign for labor instruments and utilities as well as in domestication of animals. Every time the clan branched off due to internal clashes, the number of derivative tamghas been gradually developed into personal, family, lineage, khans, and state tamghas. Those new tamghas were created through adding new markings on the original tamgha, in order to conserve the tradition...
This fits in very well with what we see of the way that Vina signs were used. However, if they are clan symbols they would be limited to use as family, not personal, emblems. For example, a family of four could not all use the same clan sign to identify
63: Ian Harling themselves as individuals, unless an extra sign was added to the basic clan symbol in each case to personalise it. If this were the case then we should expect to see at least one example of a clan symbol being used thought the years in the same form, with a second or even third sign connected to it to make it a personal mark. This is exactly what we see in the Vina examples, below.
Figure 165 A selection of chevron symbols collected by Gimbutas at Vina sites. (Harling I.)
In line 'a.' the users/creators of the symbol are tied to using dual-chevrons as their basic sign. At some point the possible variations run out and a second sign here in pink in line a. - are added to create a unique symbol. The same is true for the symbols in line b., which consist of single and dual chevrons. Once the permutations are exhausted new elements have to be introduced, as in the case of the last two examples on line 'b.' The illustrations, below, show other, more complex designs.
Figure 166 Variations.(Harling I.G.)
The Mufatlar caves Shown previously in Figure 145 and below in Figure 167, the IYI symbol, is a combination of two signs, the 'cattle' chevron and a sheep three-stroke comb. This variation survived the Vina and is found at a number of sites, but most prominently at the Murfatlar cave complex in Romania, dated tentatively to between 400 and 800AD.
Figure 167
Approximately 157 examples of this dual bull and ram symbol have been gathered from graffiti at Murfatlar. Many of these are accompanied by other signs that show the combinations may be a personalisation of a basic clan sign.
Figure 168 A selection of Murfatlar inscriptions.
Here the IYI is being combined with one or two other signs, one of these usually struck through with a dash, highlighted here in red. This is consistent with what might be expected of clan marks being personalised by the addition of one or more other signs. The second and third signs might signify what profession the user of the mark was involved in, so it became not just a form of identification, but also a way of stating profession and lineage. Signs that are struck through in the Murfatlar inscriptions, all of which can be found in the Vina script, are illustrated, below.
Figure 169 Signs that are struck through in the Murfatlar inscriptions. (Harling I.G.)
The Tartaria tablets

Of the three tablets c.5300BC found in Romania, the circular Tartaria tablet may provide an example of sign use as Tamgha.
Figure 170 Detail from the circular Tartaria Tablet. (Illustrations adapted from: http://storage0.dms.mpinteractiv.ro/media/401/321/5387/3343280/2/1tartaria-tablets-spoza.jpg?width=600)
Here the three-stroke sheep sign and chevron ('bull clan') are together over an
65: Ian Harling inverted 'U' (bull-horn sign) in a way that makes it appear very Tamgha-like. If this is the case, then the sign to the upper right detached, and perhaps struck through, as the signs found in the Murfatlar graffiti - would be a personalisation mark, meaning that that quadrant of the tablet contains a personal 'name' or identifying mark. Rotating the tablet clockwise, another variation of the same idea can be seen in the next quadrant. The symbols on the next quadrant of the tablet include dual sheep-chevrons on the right.
Figure 171 Tartaria tablet detail.
Although this examination of chevron designs is by no means conclusive, there can be no doubt of the importance of chevron designs to the Vina and that they are deserving of no little attention. It may be that, with further finds, we will be able to make a firm identification of them in the future.
Ian Harling e-mail: vincacucuteni@aol.com
___________
References
All illustrations attributed to 'Wilson T.': Wilson T. 1894 'The Swastika the Earliest Known Symbol & Its Migrations'. Kessinger Publishing Co (1 April 1999). ISBN-13: 978-0766108189 All illustrations attributed to 'Gimbutas M.': Gimbutas M. 2001 'The Language of the Goddess' Thames & Hudson. ISBN-13: 978-0500282496 All illustrations attributed to 'Banffy E.' Notes on the Connection between Human and Zoomorphic Representations in the Neolithic'. http://www.scribd.com/doc/32399760/Eszter-Banffy-Notes-on-theConnection-Between-Human-and-Zoomorphic-Representations-in-the-Neolithic All illustrations of Cretan seals marked A CHIC are sourced from collections held by the Central objectdatabase of the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture at the University of Cologne and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) - http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/?q=en/node/196 (2) Chapman, John (1981). 'The Vina culture of south-east Europe: Studies in chronology, economy and society' (2 vols). BAR International Series. 117. Oxford: BAR. ISBN 0-86054-139-8 (3) Soasic M. 2012 - 'Cattle to Settle, Bull to Rule: on bovine iconography among Late Neolithic Vina culture communities.' Documenta Praehistorica : 295-308. (4) Voros I. 1994. 'Animal husbandry and hunting in the Middle Neolithic settlement at TiszavasvriDekhalmi dl, (Upper Tisza region)' Magyar Nemzeti Mzeum 167-184. (5) Bradshaw Foundation, Genevieve von Petzinger, 'Geometric Signs in Rock Art & Cave Painting' http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/geometric_signs/geometric_signs.php (6) Younger J. 2005-2011. 'The Cretan Hieroglyphic Texts: a web edition of the texts based on CHIC with commentary.' http://people.ku.edu/~jyounger/Hiero/index.html Shan M.M.Winn 1981: 'The Old European Script. Further evidence' - http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/winn.htm
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67: Ian Harling

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Orkney Jar: Orkney Archaeological news - http://www.orkneyjar.com/archaeology/category/neolithic/ Pirjatelj A., 2007. 'Digging the Neolithic stamp seals from SW Europe from archaeological deposits, texts and mental constructs'. Documenta Praehistorica XXXIV. 231-256. Prehistory - Romanian History & Culture - http://romanianhistoryandculture.webs.com/prehistory.htm The Rock Art of the Eastern Desert - http://archaeology-easterndesert.com/index.html Romanian Archaeology, Prehistory, History: This site is to publicise the history and culture of Romania, and displays information from the Alexis Project Association. Alexis Project Filiasi/Romania in a partnership and contract with the Oltenia Museum, Oltenia Museum Craiova/Romania http://alexisphoenix.org/ Skeates R. 2008 'Embodiment and visual reproduction in the Neolithic: the case of stamped symbols' Documenta Praehistorica. 179-184. Winn, Shan . M. M. , 1981. Pre-Writing in Southeastern Europe: 'The Sign System of the Vina Culture ca. 4000 B.C.' Western Publishers, Calgary. Stone Circles.Org The Prehistoric Sites of Great Britain. http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/index.htm Turek J. 'Being a Beaker child. The position of children in Late Eneolithic society'. http://www.kar.zcu.cz/texty/Deti/deti.htm Trust For African Rock Art - http://www.africanrockart.org/index.php? option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=69 Tracce, Online Rock Art Bulletin - http://www.rupestre.net/tracce/?p=3398 Timeline Auctions - http://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/27124/page1 Waddington C. H. 1974 'Horsebrands of the Mongolians: a System of Signs in a Nomadic Culture'. American Ethnologist, Vol 1, issue 3 471-488. http://www.safarmer.com/Indo-Eurasian/mongolian.horsebrands.pdf The Richard E. Wright Research Reports: A compilation of notes concerning the nature and origins of textiles and Tamgha - http://richardewright.com/0905_tamga.html Gimbutas M. 1965 - 'Bronze age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe'. Mouton & co. Netherlands. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BvtRdigDtFoC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false Wienka M. 1969 - 'The Beulah H. Emmet Collection of Minoan Seals'. American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 73, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 33-38. Published by: Archaeological Institute of America

The Bull and The Ram, A Forgotten Belief. Signs of The Vinca and Cucuteni in Europe and The Aegean

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The Bull and The Ram, A Forgotten Belief. Signs of The Vinca and Cucuteni in Europe and The Aegean

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1: Ian Harling

Figure 1 Simplified map of extent of Vina culture, 4000 BC

Figure 2 Dispersion of the Vina haplotype.

Figure 3 Simplified map of the cultures of Old Europe 4000 BC:

Vina symbols on pottery from mainland Greece

1 The Vina Script

2 The three-stroke comb: sheep/the ram

Figure 6 A selection of Comb variants. (Harling I. 2012)

Figure 7 The 'Lady of Turdas'. (Winn S.M.M.1981 - http://www.prehistory.it/ftp/tartaria_tablets/tartaria_tablets_04.htm M. Merlini).

On weaving related items

On animal models and in conjunction with animal depictions

Figure 12 Gradesnica, NW Bulgaria, 5000-4500BC. (pp.76 Fig. 118 Gimbutas M.)

11: Ian Harling

Figure 17 Vina pot from Serbia.

Figure 18 Vina model, c.5th millennium BC. Heavily restored.

Ram symbols in association with curls, spirals or 'ram's horn' shapes

Vina signs in Crete and Cyprus

Figure 28 Red polished-ware vessel. ( Illustration and text:

15: Ian Harling

Core Sheep signs

Figure 37 Selection of primary sheep signs. (Harling I.)

The Number Three

Figure 38 Grave at the Varna necropolis. http://viajeaeuropadeleste.com/2009/06/08/necropolis-de-varna-bulgaria-prehistorica/

Figure 39 Varna gold artefacts. http://old.omda.bg/engl/history/varna_necropolis_treasure.htm

Found at the Varna necropolis:

3 The Four-Stroke Comb: Cattle/the bull

Figure 47 Bucrania. (http://picasaweb.google.com/byThemis/oddities#5431051528553254722)

Figure 48 Selection of atal Hyk signs. C7000BC (Harling I.)

Figure 49 Shrine at atal Hyk c7000BC.

Figure 50 atal Hyk.

Figure 51 atal Hyk. (pp.307 Fig. 486 Gimbutas M.)

21: Ian Harling

Figure 52 Reconstructed designs on a bear carving at atal Hyk.

Figure 55 A bear and a calf, both with bumps at the midriff.

Figure 56 Vina cattle and bull symbols. (Harling I.)

Figure 57 Selection of Cucuteni-Trypillian cattle/bull signs. (Harling I.)

As representing masculinity and femininity?

23: Ian Harling

Figure 63 The Vucedol Vase.

25: Ian Harling

Figure 64 Vase Detail. (Both illustrations: http://www.naklikproductions.com/AncientChronology.htm)

The importance of the signs in earlier cave-art

Combs and dotted-lozenges

Figure 65 Cucuteni figurine fragments c 4000BC(http://www.eidola.eu/images? explain=type&filter=Type&id=8&page=13 )

Figure 66 Dupljaja charioteer, Dubovac culture, Serbia c1500BC. (http://www.allposters.com/-st/Chariots-Posters_c115661_p5_.htm)

Figure 68 Inscribed stone from Vadu Rau, Romania (http://aleximreh.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/surorile-tablitelor-de-la-tartaria-descoperite-la-vadu-rau/)

Figure 69 Anza, Macedonia, Vina culture, c. 5200 BC. (http://library.thinkquest.org/C006353/cucuteni.html)

Figure 70 Another stone from Vadu Rau, Romania. (http://aleximreh.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/surorile-tablitelor-de-la-tartaria-descoperite-la-vadu-rau/)

29: Ian Harling

Figure 73 A Vina plaque, Karanovo 4500-4300BC. (pp.124, Fig.195 Gimbutas M.)

Figure 75 Vina and Cucuteni sheep and cattle signs.(Harling I.)

Figure 77 Combination bull symbols. (Harling I.)

Figure 79 Karanovo IV, Bulgaria, c.5000BC. (pp.143 Fig.220. Gimbutas M.)

Figure 86 Tisza culture. (pp.22, Fig. 34. Gimbutas M.)

Figure 87 Dimini Culture, Thessaly, c 5000BC. (pp.91, Fig.149. Gimbutas M.)

35: Ian Harling

Figure 95 Tisza culture figurine. (http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/lost/hyperboreans/#jp-carousel-977)

Figure 96 Detail. (http://shebtiw.wordpress.com/lost/hyperboreans/#jp-carousel-977)

Tisza figurine detail:

37: Ian Harling

39: Ian Harling

Figure 103 (Pictures copyright Antonella Porcu). http://www.scribd.com/doc/31138033/Neolithic-Rock-Art-Discovery-in-Sardinia#fullscreen:on

Subtle ram and bull signs on Cretan seal-stones