Pages: 103-110

The first anthropomorphous painted figures on the Cucuteni-Tripolye pottery were discovered about 100 years ago. Since then, this phenomenon has remained a magnet for different researchers. Nevertheless, some problems regarding the chronological distribution of the anthropomorphous design remain unsolved. The data published in the last 15 years may contribute to a new chronological repartition of these figures. Based on the existing data, the article proposes five steps in the evolution of human painted imagery in Cucuteni-Tripolye. These five steps have not only a chronological, but also an iconographical meaning, showing the development of the anthropomorphous painted figures from the appearance of this motif in the last phases of the middle Cucuteni-Tripolye period to its distribution, complication and schematization in the late Tripolje ceramic assemblage.