Pages: 48-61

This article contours main archaeological sources for the evaluation of the semantics of dog in the spiritual life of the population of the Cucuteni-Tripolje culture. The main emphasis being made on the context of discoveries, the symbolic trajectory of the dog symbolism in Cucuteni-Tripolje is traced, together with the critical re-assessment of some previous approaches. The main manifestations of the dog symbolism are discussed, including burials of skulls and complete skeletons of dogs under houses, in pits or in barrows and multiple painted dog figures in the late Tripolje ceramic ornamental systems. The proximity of these manifestations in different cultural domains may therefore point to the important role of the zoomorphic signs, as part of a developed symbolic system, in communication and identity preservation in the Cucuteni-Tripolje tribes.