O značenju kvadrata i kruga u neolitskoj ornamentici
About the Meaning of Square and Circle in the Neolithic Ornamental System

Summary/Abstract: This treatise represents the result of author’s interest and detailed study of the phenomenon of the Early Neolithic painted pottery in the region of Southeast Europe. The author tried to resolve the chronological position of the earliest horizon of painted pottery and find its place within the wider Eastern Mediterranean context. The most intriguing phenomenon in the ornamental system of the early phases of the Neolithic is certainly a preference of geometrical motifs. Almost entirely, the contents of the decorative system comprises of geometric figures such as triangles, squares and circles, carefully studied and consciously applied on the surface of a pot. Although it seems that the triangles have been used more often than other shapes, it is proposed here that it is a square which represents the core of their system. The fact that a square was seldom actually presented on a pot, and sometimes merely hinted by the position of the ornament but is incorporated in the structure gives a symbolical value to the system. The analysis further revealed one part of the system in which the square (metope positioning of the ornament) emerges as an important cohesive agent in the ornamental systems of the entire region from north Central Balkans, across Macedonia and the river Struma valley to the southeast as far as Lake district in NW Anatolia during the Early Neolithic. The tendency of organizing decoration in quadrates or metopes, which are almost always related to the radius and the diameter of the pot is striking throughout this region.

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