Journal Analele Banatului N.S. Archaeology-History

Monica Monica Șandor-Chicideanu

O reprezentare miniaturală de încălţăminte descoperită la plosca-Cabana de metal, jud. Dolj / A Miniatural Shoe Reprsentation, Discovered at Plosca-Cabana de Metal, Dolj County

Jan. 1, 2012

Abstract

" e article discusses a terracotta fi gurine representing a shoe, an object founded during a surface research on the southern beach of Lake Bistreţ at Plosca-Cabana de metal, Dolj County. On this occasion is rectifi ed a regrettable confusion (owing to M. Neagoe in his recent article, see footnotes 3 and 6) made between this piece and other one discovered at Cârna-Ostrovogania, in Grave no. 46, in a Žuto Brdo-Gârla Mare cemetery. " e article is a good opportunity to re-discuss the other pieces representing miniatures of shoes or of human feet known in the area of Gârla Mare culture, most of them founded in southern Oltenia. Equally, older debates concerning the functions and possible signifi cances of these miniature fi gurines, sometimes confused with waterfowl protome, are resumed. " e author expressed her doubts that clay miniatures of shoes could be pendants worn around the neck, and believes that the low number of such pieces, in comparison with other fi gurines (anthropomorphic statuettes, waterfowl protomae etc.), on this way discouraged the idea that these pieces have any religious or spiritual connotations. " e author maintains a working hypothesis, expressed with another occasion that such pieces could be attached to any version of anthropomorphic statuettes belonging to I A2 variant characterized by a vertical channel that goes through the bust of the fi gurines. To this variant of fi gurines occurs, on the skirt or at the hip, some perforations with still unknown utility.