183 ODKRYCIA / DISCOVERIES Strictly speaking, figural representations (of people and ani- mals) on earthenware had not been common in Eastern Cen- tral Europe until the Hallstatt Period, when they were found in large numbers on the bellies and necks of urns, which were of- ten decorated with artistic representations of human faces and used by the people of the Pomeranian Culture. Somewhat ear- lier, in the younger stage of the Bronze Age, they occasionally appeared on vessels of the Lusatian Culture. In older periods they included absolutely unique finds, the oldest of them be- ing discovered in Bronocice, Pińczów County, Świętokrzyskie Province. It is dated to 3491 BC – 3060 BC, associated with the people of the Funnel Beaker Culture, and depicts a four- wheeled cart 1 . Another, much simpler drawing on a vessel of the same culture from the town of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, Świętokrzyskie Province is regarded to be another represen- tation of such a vehicle 2 . In 1992, a farmer ploughing a field at one of the most well- known sites of the Funnel Beaker Culture on Polish territory, at Gródek on the Bug 3 (site 1C), Hrubieszów Commune, Hru- bieszów County, Lublin Province (Fig. 1) 4 , caught his plough in a clay vessel, pulling large pieces out of it. He kept the collected pieces at home, where he reconstructed the vessel (Fig. 2). The artefact was made available to me for a brief moment, though I had sufficient time to draw up the basic documentation. It is a very large pot, 47 cm in height. This biconical form with rounded belly and prominent, characteristic thick rim bent towards the outside, with a modelled internal support for a cover, is typical of the inventories of the Funnel Beaker Culture. The diameter of the mouth is 27 cm, that of the bel- ly – 50 cm, and of the bottom – 20 cm. Below the rim there are four equally spaced knee-shaped handles (Fig. 3). Below each of them there is a schematic image of a quadruped engraved before burning the vessel according to an identical pattern: a horizontal line, which on the left is bent towards the bot- 1 J. Kruk, S. Miliskaukas 1981, 103–104, fig. 15:a.b; 1982; P. Kacza- nowski, J. K. Kozłowski 1998, p. 119, fig. 44. 2  A. Uzarowiczowa 1975. 3 ‘Gródek’ is a very common village and town name in Poland. The name ‘Gródek nad Bugiem’ (English: Gródek on the Bug) was intro- duced to help in unequivocal identification of the place famous for its archeological discoveries (cf. A. Kokowski 2018). 4  W. Gumiński 1989; A. Kokowski 1989; 1995. Andrzej Kokowski THE OLDEST GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF A HORSE IN EASTERN CENTRAL EUROPE Najstarsze wyobrażenie konia na wschodzie Europy środkowej Keywords: horse images on pottery, Funnel Beaker Culture, Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, Pomeranian Culture Słowa kluczowe: wyobrażenia koni na ceramice, kultura pucharów lejkowatych, epoka brązu, wczesna epoka żelaza, kultura pomorska Wiadomości Archeologiczne LXX, 2019: 183–195 https://doi.org/10.36154/wa.70.2019.09 Fig. 1. G r ó d e k o n t h e B u g. Findspot of the vessel. Ryc. 1. G r ó d e k n a d B u g i e m. Miejsce odkrycia naczynia. tom (tail), and on the right – first bent towards the top (neck) and then slightly slanted down (head). From the trunk line ex- tend two pairs of lines symbolising limbs, almost in every case bent slightly at the knees. The sizes of these representations