CONTRIBUTIE LA ICONOGRAFIA CULTURII WIETENBERG
CONTRIBUTION TO THE ICONOGRAPHY OF THE WIETENBERG CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: The article proposes a completion of the iconography of the Wietenberg culture. There is mainly the presentation of a zoomorphic figurine made of burnt clay found in Reghin – Padurea Rotunda (Mures County). After the analysis of the forms of this fragmentary item one might conclude that it represents, in a rather realistic way, the head of an animal belonging to the Cervidae family – red deer (Cervus elaphus) or roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). Most likely, the figurine had been attached to an object of larger dimensions (mostly on clay wagons), in the form of a protome. In the Wietenberg culture, and not only, this animal must have been a very significant one. From this viewpoint we invoke both analogies from the same culture and related traditions, and examples which prove that this symbol is restricted neither geographically nor chronologically. The considerations at the end of the article approach the relationship between the abstraction and figurative in the art of the Bronze Age, paying special attention to themanifestations within the frames of the Carpathian arch (Transylvania). We also approach briefly the „hesitation” of the artists belonging to this period when dealing with anthropomorphism. These both stylistic and symbolic components, characterising the spirituality of the Bronze Age, will be presented thoroughly in a future study.

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