Folia archeologica 23.
Tibor Kovács: Askoi, Bird-Shaped Vessels, Bird-Shaped Rattles in Bronze Age Hungary
IO T. KOVÁCS Unfortunately, the man did not collect other pieces from the urn-grave, so that they could not be identified at the time of an authentic excavation held in 1968. Where the vessel was recovered, the excavation unearthed graves representing earlier phases of the Vatya culture. In one of the graves a dish was found, covered by a lid, resembling the products of the Szeremle group. Parellels of the ornamentation of the bird-shaped dish of Törtei are not contradictory to the dating allotted to the neighbouring graves. The lengthened shape of the vessel and the existence of a lid to cover the opening bring the Törtei object into the closest resemblance with the Dunaújváros vessel (Fig. 3). But excluding two features, there is more divergence than similarity between them. Thus, for example, the Dunaújváros piece, has a definite bird-head, that the Törtei object has not. So, it can be presumed, that to the bird-shaped body is joined the stylized head of another animal, and the holes on the top served for the place of horns to be made from a different material. This was suggested to us by the birds with horns of the late Bronze Age which, according to H. Hencken are the most ancient copies of Eastern—(e. g. Ostrovul Mare), or of Central-Europe (e. g. Cicarovce, v. Fig. /). 10 4 This, naturally, can only be corroborated by the emergence of several copies from earlier periods. 10 4 Hencken, H., op. cit. 519-520, 530.
