Folia archeologica 5.
br. Ghillány Éva: A szurdokpüspöki szkíta lelet
53 In the following we shall examine the date of these finds and their place in cultural history. The upper part of the bone implement is decorated with a hooked-beaked griffin's head. The eye is large and protuberant and before it at the bottom of the beak is a transverse protuberance symbolising the horn. Below it the long, hooked beak is visible. The head of the griffin is unnaturally long. At the bottom an almond-shaped ear is attached to it. Underneath the ear there crosses a short piece which serves as a transition from the animal-motive to the body of the implement. Without doubt the ornament is a griffin's head. The animal-motive is clearly recognisable on numerous relics from the Russian territory : on a bronze cast coming to light at Olbia' and the Hungarian imitation of the former, 2 on two poleends from Ulszki aul, and on other, similarlyshaped gold and bronze birds' heads, 3 etc. This motive presents throughout an organic unity. The determination of the motive of the bird's head does not in itself prove much. Even in the following we shall see that beside the bird's head we may assume the remains of other motives too. So let us seek nearer analogies to this bone carving to be able more exactly to assign its place in the Scythian material and to acquire more reliable support for the determination of its date. I may mention a near analogy from Ananino (district of Káma) : a bone carving (Pl. I, 3) which agrees with our bone implement in that it also has a handle (knife-handle). Unfortunately its date is unknown, but so much is probable that it came from the South Russian territory. 4 The bird's head or rather the griffin's head is hear'also clearly visible. The eye is protuberant and large, the beak hooked and its rim is marked. The most striking difference between this bone carving and that of Szurdokpüspöki is that the head is not so long, the ear is in its usual place and hemispherical, while that on the specimen from Szurdokpüspöki is pointed1 Borovka, rScythian Art, London, 1928, PI. 9, p. 94. Dates írom VI t h century B. C. s Fettich, Adatok az ösgermán állatornamentumok II. stílusának eredetkérdéséhez (Data on the question oí the origin oî the II style oî the ancient Germanic animalornaments) AE. 1929, Pl. XV, 1. 3 Borovka, op. cit. Pis. 24-25 ; PI. 8 A-D ;«P1. 11 E—G ; etc. 1 Tallgren, L'époque dite d'Ananino. Helsinki, 1919. pp. 174, If; p. 43, iig. 2; p. 173, fig. 16; p. 174, Fig. 121, On the other hand the poise of the neck and the placing of the beak are so similar that we must assume the closest connection. Besides this on the knife-handle from Ananino the other parts of the animal's body is also portrayed, but here I do not wish to deal with it in detail. (See reconstraction of Tallgren, op. cit. p. 174). It is remarkable that the eye is so protuberant. Its reason may be that the eye- and ear-parts of the bone carving from Ananino join here, through which the eye increases, bulges and slightly slips backward. This can be seen very well on the photograph. Such a fusion is also on the tail of one of the pair of animals carved from bone, coming to light at Taman (Pl. I, 5 — 6). This pair of animal is connected with the find from Garcsinovo and with that from Zöldhalompuszta. It derives from the flourishing time of the Scythian culture ; it is not a very late specimen and is probably a saddle ornament. It represents a beast of prey ; according to the ancient style of woodcarving in several places the planes meet is sharp edges. The end of the tail is a rudimental bird's head ; its formation is resembling that of our find. The second piece is larger, but otherwise entirely the same, Its tail is broken, but assumably its formation was the same as that of its counterpart. 5 I have to mention, also for their texture, the ornaments of the bone harness from Kelermes ; these represent also griffins' heads, but with rams' horns. 6 But if the ear is fused with the eye what must the longish ear indicate, which is to be seen at the bottom of the griffin's neck ? Among others the bronze cast in the Museum fürVölkerunde in Berlin might help us to answer this, (Pl. 1, 8) but we do not know particulars about it. On it a stylised griffin's head is to be seen and below it an incomplete animal's head, of which the ear stretches far backwards. The griffin is apparently worrying this animal. The shape of the ear agrees roughly with that of the find from Szurdokpüspöki. The case is similar to the broze find from Voronesskaja st.' (Pl. I, 7), but on the latter the motives are more 5 The sketch was made after the original specimen by Dr. N. Fettich, (Berlin, Museum für Völkerkunde). Owing to the war conditions photograph was not obtainable as the material was stored away. 6 They are preserved in the Ermitage and date from 7 l h —6 t h century B. C. AÉ. 1929, p. 99. fig. 33 b-c.
