Later analysis of the discovery incorporated the entire setting in which these painted figurines were found, specifically that they were buried under an upturned ceramic vessel. Scholars compared this find with other similar discoveries from contemporary cultures in Isaiia and Poduri, and developed a theory that the tableau, being buried beneath the floor of the sanctuary with the four figurines facing outward to the four cardinal directions, represented a means to protect the sanctuary and settlement from evil. The black heads of the figurines were associated with death, and the red ocher was painted on the figurines on the precise body parts that the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture painted on the body parts of their dead before burial. They concluded that these figurines most likely represented departed souls or beings from the underworld (land of the dead); by enclosing them in an overturned vessel and burying this entire arrangement under the floor of the sanctuary, they protected the settlement from the evil influences these figurines represented by creating a magical sigil of protection.
