Sculptures from Lepenski Vir

Monumental sculptures found on the territory of present-day Serbia date to the 7^th millennium BC, and were created by a culture much older than the cultures of Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. The sculptures are the spiritual creations of early Danube River Djerdap area inhabitants.

Text & Photo by Courtesy of National Museum in Belgrade

The Lepenski Vir site (the ancient culture was named after the present-day location) is on the Serbian side of the Danube, not far from the city of Donji Milanovac. Systematic archaeological excavations have, apart from the famous sculptures, also uncovered numerous sacrificial altars, fire places and trapezoid architectural structures created according to a unique geometric pattern. All of these creations bear witness to Lepenski Vir as a complex and intriguing prehistoric culture.

Thanks to the efforts of academician Dragoslav Srejović, who headed the archaeological excavations at Lepenski Vir, we now know that 9,000 years ago the Djerdap gorge was the site of a complex Mesolithic settlement that is characterized by a special harmony achieved between its environment and architectural forms. Among other things, some 17 unique anthropomorphic sculptures were discovered in the course of the archaeological excavations at the Lepenski Vir find in the late 1960s.

The 7^th millennium BC sculptures – predating Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian cultures – represent an autonomous spiritual creation from the inhabitants of Djerdap. For all the community members, the sculptures were venerated objects that revealed the truth about the world that surrounded them and decreed a code of conduct in everyday life.

The monumental sculptures also represent an iconographic illustration of a complex myth and several theories have been put forward regarding their understanding and perception. According to one interpretation, by placing the sculptures behind the fire places in their homes community members connected with water and stone – eternal elements in immediate proximity to the community. A second interpretation holds that the anthropomorphic sculptures at Lepenski Vir represent a divinity’s individualized being, specifically the Solar Deity. In keeping with this theory, Ljubinka Babović in her books explains how these sculptures represent a gender division of the living world. The male principle (Danubius) is represented through the piscine (fishlike) forms, while the female principle is identified through the bee (Female Ancestors and the Water Fairy). The Adam sculpture represents man in fetal form and is the only sculpture with a body and head, while the Chronos sculpture is the only allegorical representation of the Solar Deity in anthropomorphic form.

The monumental sculptures discovered at the Lepenski Vir archaeological find are now kept at the National Museum in Belgrade, while part of the movable archaeological material uncovered during systematic excavation at the Lepenski Vir site may be seen at the Lepenski Vir Museum (in the village of Boljetin, near Donji Milanovac).