“M”-like ornamentation in the Southeastern Europe and surroundings during VII-V Millennia BCE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52603/RA.XXI.1.2025_01Keywords:
Mesolithic, Neolithic, ornamentation, pottery, idols, social network analysis, Balkan-Carpathian regionAbstract
This article examines the use of the “M” sign in the ornamentation of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures, as well as ceramics and amulets, based on materials from Southeastern Europe attributed back to the 7th-5th millennia BCE. Its goal is to present and analyze how this sign was applied. We analyze those artifacts where the “M”-sign serves as a primary ornamental element rather than a secondary one. The patterns of the symbol’s usage, as well as the evolution of these patterns, were studied through social network analysis, nuancing how its features changed across space and time. These changes were interpreted using Peircean semiotic approaches. This made it possible to trace how, over time, the sign acquired its symbolic and conventional meanings. The “M”-sign was widespread in the ornamentation of early ceramics in Anatolia and the Near East but can also be found on stone and bone artifacts from the Northern Black Sea region dating to the 7th–early 6th millennia BCE. Later, it gained popularity in the Balkans and Carpathian regions. Scholars have previously attempted to interpret the “M” symbol in the context of the worldview of the first farmers in the region. However, its earliest manifestations are associated with the Mesolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers sites, where it is linked to the imagery of snakes and water. The presence of this sign is often connected with zigzag patterns and its double variation, consisting of parallel lines.
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