Romanian traditional art - Romanian pottery

“The Romanians have preserved their national being and their specific civilization and they evolved their own highly original tradition, an ancient tradition, coming down from the Neolithic, developed by the Dacians and then enriched by the Greco-Roman world and the Byzantine one. Outstanding artworks with an archaic decoration featuring anthropomorphic, zoomorphic (the snake, the horse, the bird) and vegetal elements (the wheat ear, the fir tree, the tree of life) or else geometrical elements that once had sacred meanings related to fecundity and fertility rites. In Romania pottery has a millennial tradition, the museums boasting most valuable items dating back to the Neolithic. Evidence are the two anthropomorphic statuettes unearthed at Cernavoda and considered masterpieces, the Thinker and his spouse, as well as the famous Cucuteni painted earthenware. In 40 of the onetime 300 earthenware centers, potters still use traditional techniques to craft glazed or unglazed, red or black ware