For the month of February, in the spirit of the Transylvanian Design Week exhibition having its opening during this month, we have chosen a prehistoric "design" object from our institution's collection - pintader.

Pintadares or ornate clay stamps are artifacts found in both Europe and Asia and are typical of several prehistoric cultures. The function of pintaderas is not clear. Seals containing a wide range of decorative motifs, including spirals, waves and zigzag lines, could have been used to imprint on a variety of materials (textiles, leather, human skin, even bread). Another way of using them was to mark sealed grain silos with the owner's personal emblem. It is also interesting that the designs engraved on the discs closely resemble those painted on contemporary pottery and other decorated artefacts. 

There are 5 pintaderes in the collection of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc, which were discovered during the archaeological excavations (1962, 2022) in the prehistoric site Potovszky-kert (Potovszky garden) in Ciucsângeorgiu. These objects were made during the Eneolithic period, Ariușd culture (Cucuteni-Tripolje 4600-3500 BC). Three pintaderes are presented as objects of the month, thus highlighting the diversity of the motifs incised on them. Two of them are decorated with a spiral motif, while the third is decorated with zigzag lines; also, two of them have the handle parts intact, which are pierced, so the owner wore them strung.