The Origins of Zodiacal Thinking: The Semantics of “Solar Waves” and Ornitho-Zoomorphic Imagery in the Religious Motifs of the Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture and Their Parallels with Göbekli Tepe
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This article reconsiders traditional views on the chronological boundaries and cultural-historical centers of origin of zodiacal thinking. The aim of the study is to substantiate the hypothesis that the astral-zodiacal worldview took shape several millennia before the emergence of classical zodiacal systems, based on material from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (5th-3rd millennia BCE) in comparison with the monumental Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of Göbekli Tepe (10th-8th millennia BCE). Through comparative and archaeoastronomical analysis, a universal iconographic formula is identified: "solar wave–pause–zoomorphic image." It is demonstrated that protozodiacal thinking evolved from the monumental-architectural structuring of sacred space in Anatolia toward the systematization of an astral-calendrical code on the portable artifacts of the early agricultural civilization of Cucuteni-Trypillia. The study reveals the consistent orientation of these images, their connection to phytomorphic motifs of the seasonal cycle, and the gradual closure of a linear sequence into a completed “animal circle” – a prehistoric prototype of the zodiac. A comparative analysis with Pillar 43 (Enclosure D) and 2 (Enclosure A) at Göbekli Tepe reveals a structurally isomorphic coding system, attesting to a shared iconographic language between the two traditions. The scholarly novelty of this work lies in identifying the phenomenon of Cucuteni-Trypillia “protozodiacal circles” on sacred vessels, where a closed procession of animals associated with the night sky forms the earliest materially attested prototype of the “animal circle.” It is concluded that the Cu-cuteni-Trypillia culture represents one of the earliest and most fully documented centers of origin of zodiacal thinking – both in its material embodiment (ceramics) and in its structural principle (compositional organization) – which later gave rise to the European “zodiac” tradition.
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