Rosta Szabolcs szerk.: Kun-kép - A magyarországi kunok hagyatéka (Kiskunfélegyháza, 2009)
Fodor István: A sírszobrok szerepe a kunok halottas szokásaiban
„KUN-KÉP" A MAGYARORSZÁGI KUNOK HAGYATÉKA István Fodor Role of grave-sculptures in the death cult customs of the Cumans A large number of grave-sculptures (in Russian: kamennaya baba) were found in the Eastern European steppe region from the Volga up to the Lower Danube. These sculptures made of stone or wood were carved in the 11 t h-13 t h century and belong to the legacy of the Cumans. Already Rubruk, a 13 century traveller mentioned these characteristic objects. He suggested that these were sculptures erected above Cuman graves and depicted the dead. The great amount of special literature dedicated to this problem does not represent this view any more. The reason for this is that these sculptures did not stand above Cuman graves. They were erected on the top of earlier (Bronze or Iron Age) kurgans (mounds). Earlier research connected these sculptures with the Cuman cult of ancestors and suggested that they preserved the memory of former Cuman clan aristocracy. It became clear after 1975 that these sculptures were erected at so-called sanctuaries, sacrificial places enclosed in a square shape by stones. In the middle stone or wooden sculptures were erected, dug into the earth. In some cases the sacrificial place was covered by plain stones (fig. 6-8). In the pits situated beside the sculptures, remains of sacrifices were found: animal bones, remains of clothes, fragments of vessels, bronze cauldron. In one case two human skeletons were discovered (fig. 9). It was possible to reconstruct a sacrificial place near Rostov-on-Don (fig. 11). Several theories were published on the role of these sacrificial places in the world of Cuman beliefs. In my opinion, sculptures erected at these places were the shells of the dead person's soul. Even recently, ethnographers recorded that after the death, the widow made the shell of the dead's soul, the tul. Such a tul could be a Cuman sculpture that was made also after the death. The custom of the portrait of the dead (dead puppet or spear) clearly shows that these peoples practised the double soul belief that was attested by Ivar Paulson on the basis of the beliefs of North-Eurasian peoples (Paulson 1958.) According to these beliefs a human being has two souls: a body-soul (or breath-soul) living inside the breast that disappears after the death, and the shadow-soul (or free soul) that continues to live after the death, for a time being in the world of the alive. Later it also passes to the grave world, but can come back and disturb the living. That is why relatives arrange memorial celebrations in some periods after the death (the third, seventh, fortieth, hundredth day and one year). According to the beliefs, the dead itself, or more precisely: his/her shadow soul takes part at these celebrations. Cuman "sanctuaries" or sacrificial places served as scenes for these memorial celebrations (similarly to Inner Asian, 6 l h—8 t h century Turkish sacrificial places) where the sculpture with a cup in its hand (the shell of the free soul of the dead) also took part at the funeral feast, ate and drank together with the participants. That is why remains of the feast (animal bones, vessels etc) were placed into a pit beside the sculpture. Sometimes it also happened that humans were sacrificed on the memorial feast (fig. 9) - obviously to honour a distinguished head of a clan. In some cases it was observed that sculptures had been painted red, black or white. This facts also support that Cuman sculptures served as tul s which were also painted according to the age of the dead. Making of the portraits or shells for souls of the dead people was common not only among steppe nomadic people. Dead puppets were observed also at Finno-Ugric peoples. This custom has been living even recently among Voguls and Ostyaks of Western Siberia. So, it seems that this custom, together with the idea of double soul, was common at the inhabitants of the enormous areas of Eurasia. 56
