Before The First Cities of Mesopotamia Existed

In the Lower Danube Valley and the Balkan foothills, before the first cities of Mesopotamia even existed, people were making sophisticated pottery.

Three Chalcolithic ceramic vessels (from left to right): a bowl on stand, a vessel on stand and an amphora, ca. 4300–4000 BC; from Scânteia, Romania and displayed at the Moldavia National Museum Complex https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:%E4%B8%89%E7%8C%8E

The terracotta “goddess” figurines from Draguseni Romania were made by the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, which existed across what is now Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova during the transitional period between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

The Cucuteni-Trypillian sites such as Talianki had large populations of around 15,000, over an area of some 1100 acres.

These Eastern European settlements predate the Sumerian cities by more than half a millennium.

This wood-fired figure is a replica of a c.4050-3900 BC clay figurine.

Ceramic goddess figurine known as the Venus of Draguseni, dated ca 4050-3900 BC it’s 20 cm heigh and belongs to Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture. Found in the hills around Drăguşeni, northeast Romania. Exhibited at Botosani County Museum, Romania