Folia archeologica 23.
Tibor Kovács: Askoi, Bird-Shaped Vessels, Bird-Shaped Rattles in Bronze Age Hungary
г6 Т. KOVÁCS the Zók, or Hatvan culture too, there seems to be no reason to doubt their organic connection. Thus, the large number of askoi emerging in the settlements of the late Hatvan culture deserve special interest. According to Nándor Kalicz, they do not directly connect with ethnic changes. It, nevertheless, underlines the justification of our supposition, that in the early phase of the Hatvan culture the bird-cult could not have been entirely unknown. It would be otherwise inconceivable that in the wake of influence from other parts, it could have become so considerable as the askoi from the late Hatvan phases make us suppose. 10 2 We believe that in this question —it also including the first emergence of bird-shaped vessels in our territory—no final results can be established before our researches in the history of the Tisza-region and Western Romania in the middle Bronze Age are complete. It is, therefore, difficult to take a stand as far as the origin of bird-shaped rattles is concerned, belonging to the people of incrusted pottery. It would seem obvious to look for the prototype of pieces made in the northern Transdanubian region —as conjectured by István Bóna as well —in vessels with a more enclosed body, more realistically conceived with a bird shape. This would involve pieces as the one which emerged from the Vucedol settlement, or the Starcevo copy, the emergence of which is uncertain. I wish to emphasize again that the rattles which emerged from the moor, near Ljubjana remind us that the roots for the emergence of the North-Danubian pieces may perhaps lead to other directions as well. Further researches may clarify the relationship in the beliefs of the North-Danubian group of the people of incrusted pottery between the two forms of the bird-cult, represented in the askoi, and the bird-shaped rattles. It seems that the bird-cult which had occupied such an important place in the varied beliefs of the Middle Bronze Age peoples in Hungary, stopped at the time of the tumulus culture. From that period we know but a few pieces of figurative art. 10 3 The forms of the Late Bronze Age represent the types of the Carpathian variety, the roots of which go back to the bird-shaped vessels of the urn-grave culture. In the second part of the paper, extending the field of our researches, we are dealing with the European connections of the bird-cult of Hungary, trying in this way to determine more concretely the content of various forms of this cult. 10 2 In this question the study of recent finds from Otomani culture would be desirable [cf. Kalicz, N-, Arch. Ért. 97(1970) 23fr. and Ordentlich, /., Die chronoligische Gliederung der Otomani-Kultur auf dem rumänischen Gebiet und ihre wichtigsten Merkmale. Dacia 14(1970) 8з£Г.] as well as a satisfactory clarification of origin and ethnic components of Füzesabony culture. юз We know of one boot-shaped dish from Egyek, two vessels from Zagyvapálfalva and Tiszafüred standing on four, resp. three human feet.
