Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 13 (1968) (Pécs, 1971)

Régészet - Makkay, János: The Chalcolithic Male Relief from Villánykövesd and the Earliest Male Figurines in South-Eastern Europa

40 MAKKAY The earliest small relief know today has come to light on the side of a vessel at Nea Nikomedeia.

5 (For the sake of simplicity we shall apply the expression »small relief« to all similar finds in the following.) The mentioned piece shows a woman (Fig. 4 no. 6). This is easy to understand, as the overwhelming majority of small reliefs, just as that of the idols, deoicts females during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. According the accepted definition the specimen from Nea Nikomedeia presents the Goddess of Fertility (»Fruchtbarkeitsgöttin-«) herself.

6 The piece discovered in the Proto-Seskla stratum of Argissa magula may be but a bit younger.

7 It is lying on the neck of a vessel and its male or female character isn't defined exactly. But may it be a male or a female portrait, it furnishes a decisive proof for the fact that the small reliefs of the Körös culture belong (or may belong) to the earliest phase of the Körös-Starcevo complex beyond all doubt. This ought to be emphasized because some earlier scholars endeavoured to date the Körös culture to the late phase of the complex on account of its relief-like figures of men and animals.

8 The only imaginable reason for this attribution was that the reliefs on vessels found between the depths of 8,3 and 5,1 metres at Vinca (as far as the published and available data go), being mostly the finds of the Vinca culture, could be regarded as parallels of or connected to the already known and authentic finds of the Körös culture easier in this way. Knowing the individual character of the excavation technique at Vinca, one may suggest naturally that a part of the small reliefs belongs to the Starcevo period yet; there are no certain stratigraphical evidences for this assumption, however. It is both probable and natural that such reliefs were known all along the development of the whole Körös-Starcevo complex. It may hardly be doubted that we have to establish a connection between the two small reliefs from Macedonia and Thessaly on one hand and the similar finds of the Körös culture (PL 2, nos 2—4) on the other. In fact, the supposition of a direct genetic connection of small reliefs cannot be excluded either, parallel 5 R. J. Rodden, An European Link with Chatal Hüyük: uncovering a 7th Mill. Settlement in Macedonia, Part I. Site and Pottery. ILN April 1964. p. 566. 6 F. Schachermeyr, Archiv für Orientforschung 21 (1966) pp. 191—192. 7 V. Milojcic. Ergebnisse der deutschen Ausgrabungen in Thessalien (1953—1958). JRGZM 6 (1959) p. 9. 8 On this problem see our detailed account: Die wichtigsten Fragen der Körös-Stracevo-Periode. Acta Antiqua et Archaeologica 8 (Szeged, 1965.) pp. 5—8; and Acta Arch. Hung. 21 (1969) 13—31. to the southern relations of many components of the Körös culture (idol plastics, pottery, the shape of the dwelling, stamps etc.). This is supported by the »finger-tip and fingernail impressed ware« of Nea Nikomedeia, reminding us of the pinched and finger-impressed pottery of the Körös-Starcevo complex

9

. Consequently the appearance of the small reliefs in the KörösStarcevo culture is in harmony with the southern origin of numerous elements of the same. It is also probable that the custom of producing small reliefs in human shape is transmitted towards North-Northwest by the Körös-Starcevo and Vinca cultures. As a matter of fact, we know small reliefs in human (always female) form among the finds of Linear-ornamented Pottery in Hungary. However, we do not want to dwell on the problems connected with this subject at this occasion.

10 Also in the East, in Anatolia and the Near East, there are some known parallels. Newertheless, they seem to be later than the finds of Greece, the Balkans and Hungary, dated to the Proto-Sesklo, or the Körös-Starcevo periods. The reason is that in Anatolia we meet finds from Hacilar I

—II" and in Mesopotamia a much quoted figure of the Halaf period (PL 2, no. 1). We admit that the latter has also a very close Balkanic paralell from the Starcevo material, found at Sarvas (PL 3, no. 2). However, the eastern analogies are, all things considered, finds contemporary to the Sesklo period already. At any rate it is remarkable that the Near Eastern impacts, noticed in the Neolithic of Greece, are the strongest just in this time, the Middle Neolithic, nay definitely in the period and the material of Sesklo: in the so-called *Urfirnis« pottery, or the »whirl pattern« motif of the Middle Sesklo.

12 For the time being, however, the few data available to us do not allow us to risk more than the conditional conclusion that the small reliefs appeared independ9 R. J. Rodden, Excavations at the Early Neolithic Site at Nea Nikomedeia, Greek Macedonia (1961 Season.) PPS 28 (1962) pp. 284—285, PI. XL. w Cp. O. Höckmann, JRGZM 12 (1965) pp. 1—26; for the survey of the full material of linear ornamented potery in Hungary see N. Kalicz

—J. Makkay, A vonaldíszes kerámia Magyarországon (The Linear Ornamented Pottery in Hungary), I

—II. Manuscript. 11 J. Mellaart, Excavations at Hacilar. First Preliminary Report. ASt 8 (1959) pp. 146, 153. 12 S. S. Weinberg, The Stone Age in the Aegean. САН 36, (Cambridge, 1965) pp. 35—36; id., The Aegean in the Stone and Early Bronze Ages. Chronologies in Old World Archeology, ed. by R. W. Ehrich (Chicago, 1965.) p. 295; Id., Halafian and Ubaidian Influence in Neolithic Greece. Bericht über den V. Int. Kongress für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Hamburg, 1958. (Berlin, 1961.) p. 858; cp. J. Makkay. The Tartaria Tablets. Orientalia 37:3 (Roma, 1968.) pp. 272—289.