Religion and ritual of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture

Some are clay figurines or statues, many of which archaeologists have identified as akin to fetishes or totems, and are believed to be imbued with powers that could help and protect the people who care for them.

During an excavation in 1973 at the Cucuteni–Trypillia site at Ghelăiești near the city of Neamț, Romania, archaeologist Ștefan Cucoș discovered the community sanctuary, a house in the center of the settlement.

The central vase was turned upside down, covering another vessel with a lid, in which four anthropomorphic figurines were found, arranged in a cross and looking to the four sides of the world.

[4] Later analysis of the discovery incorporated the entire setting in which these painted figurines were found, specifically that they were buried under an upturned ceramic vessel.

[3] As evidence from archaeology, thousands of artifacts from Neolithic Europe have been discovered, mostly in the form of female figurines, and a goddess theory was formulated.

[clarification needed] The leading historian was Marija Gimbutas, whose interpretation is the subject of great controversy in archaeology due to the fact that this theory challenged the status quo of the patriarchal, male dominated world, established through erasing all history that did not suite this man-made scenario.

Females and children were found buried beneath the floor of the house, while men were missing, indicating some other practice was associated with how they dealt with the dead bodies of males.

The only conclusion that can be drawn from archeological evidence is that, in the vast majority of cases in the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, the bodies were not formally deposited within the settlement area.

[10]: 116 In Poduri Dealul Ghindaru, Romania, one of the few sites where researchers have found a significant number of human remains, analysis determined that children and infants could have been inhumed either near or under the house floor in early Cucuteni culture.