In the context of this artwork, analyze the Outer fireplace of the Architecture.
The outer fireplace was almost a continuation of the internal central installation. Placed at the entrance, it also functioned as an obstacle ("fire serving as a door"). It probably served as protection against wild animals, but also for heating the house. The internal fireplace was too small for that purpose, and wood had to be cut and prepared for its small size. On the other hand, simply by bringing wood from the nearby abundant forests or utilizing large logs brought by the Danube into the bay, they would have been able to maintain large fires outside the houses. A ritualistic significance for the outer fire's location has also been proposed (keeping the shadows inside the house, ritualistic bypassing of the fire when entering the house, fire as the entrance into the world of the spirits, etc.). Srejović pointed out that location of the outer fireplace was actually quite logical, given the likely outlook of the inhabitants at that time. "The only building materials the Lepenians had was being used to replicate life in a cave...so their houses had a cave-like atmosphere". Cave dwellers also light fires at the entrances to the caves; otherwise they would be asphyxiated. The memory of cave dwelling was probably still vivid at the time, as there were contemporaneous humans in other parts of Europe still living in caves or natural shelters. The existence of a large outer fireplace along with and an apparently not very practical internal one, prompted Pavlović to conclude that the small hole in the house floor actually served to hold and maintain the fire or ember, which developed over time into a ritual. He compared it to the way the Pythian priestesses kept the fire at Delphi.
fireplace ritual Europe Pythian priestess Pythia Danube Delphi