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
46 MAKKAY decided at present, which was the role of the inheritance of Palaeolithic art and which part was played by the creative activity of the new way of life in the production of the statuettes and other ex voto figurines of Chatal Hüyük. It is doubtless that Palaeolithic art shows much less figures represented males than females and that the representations of men appear mainly in incisions and paintings, similarly to the early periods of Chatal Hüyük. At any rate, the situation of both sites decisive for male statuettes, Hacilar and Chatal Hüyük, becomes interesting from our point of view. No small plastics have been found among the pre-ceramic material of Hacilar yet, nor are male representations of other . character known there. 49 Among the Neolithic finds of Chatal Hüyük those of the levels VII and VI are significant for us. In the levels earlier than those, numbering XIII by now 50 , agriculture is just beginning and hunting seems to be the main occupation. This fact is reflected in the wall paintings. Man's work was decisive in hunting, correspondingly he is playing the chief part in the subjects of the painted panels as well. The sex ratio of stone and clay idols uncovered in the levels VII and VI seems to be develooped through the impact of this circumstance. 51 Mellaart is doubtlessly right in concluding that agriculture has won a final victory over hunting in the way of life corresponding to level II, and this fact has resulted in the decay and later the disappearance of the previously wonderfully flourishing wall paintings (just textile patterns and the characteristic painted hands have survived) and in the recession of male representations (both in frescoes and plastics). Among male statuettes the plastics presenting one or more persons have disappeared as early as after level VI already. Otherwise they occurred in the following forms: the son as the »father« or »master« of the animals with his mother, the »mistress« of the animals; the same with his sister; the adolescent divine child, and finally the male consort of the goddess. 52 Such a group of the goddess, her son or her male companion unquestionably reminds reserve.; the problem, i. e. the relation between the Palaeolithic and Neolithic female representations of steatopygic character, is quite clear for B. Goldman, JPEK 1960—1962, p. 8 ; according to K. J. Narr the continuity of female figures cannot be proved even in the Near East yet but the probability of general connections cannot be discarded either: Antaios 2 (1960) p. 154. 49 J. Mellaart. ASt. 11 (1961) p. 73. 50 J. Mellaart. ASt 16 (1966) pp. 167—168. 51 J. Mellaart. Catal Hüyük, op. cit. pp. 176, 180, 181—182. 3i Ibid. pp. 202—203. us of two almost life-size statues, presenting the mother, the father and the child, found in Jericho PPN В as early as in 1935. 53 For the rest the later centuries of Chatal Hüyük have chosen the bull and the ram, or their horns possessing their power, respectively, and also their plastic presentments as the symbols of man and his fertile power. 54 In Mellaart's view it is probable that the process of the disappearing of male plastics, observed in the levels of Chatal Hüyük, is continuing or felt, respectively, in the material of the Chalcolithic Hacilar as well. 55 Here the stratum VI has yielded the figure of a male god, probably an adult. Otherwise the famous idol groups of levels VI and VII do not contain but statuettes of a male child or of the paredroi of the goddess. The productivity of the man was symbolized in a manner familiar also at other places, by the clay phalloi. 56 Eventually Mellaart concludes that until the arrival of the Hittites the entire Anatolia was dominated by the cult of the Great Goddess, followed by her subordinates, her son, the divine child, or by her companion and paramour. 57 This prominent role of the female deity, reflected in the sex ratio of our male and female representations materially, is interpreted by Mellaart in a remarkable way. He believes that in a Neolithic society such as is represented by levels VII and VI of Chatal Hüyük, the number of females was higher than that of males for general reasons. Among other proofs this is borne aut also by the ratio of sexes in the uncovered cemeteries. (Let us remark in passing that we are not bound to explain the more important role of women in some fields of that society by their numerical strength in the population, nor is it justified that the number of females surpassed that of males.) As agriculture became a general occupation, the majority of work was put on the shoulders of the women; to quote an example, at the beginning the men were busy in hunting large game, providing the basic material of living, evidently often far from the village, therefore the women were obliged to take up the modest agriculture and the raising of small animals near the settlement, whether they wanted or not. All this has influenced the social standing of the woman too. At the same time, parallel with the activity of man in creating a new main source of his living, a fundamental change is effected in the 53 J. Mellaart. Earliest Civilizations ... op. cit. p. 42. 64 Id., Catal Hüyük, op. cit. p. 202. 65 Ibid. p. 176. 56 ASt 11 (1961) p. 47. 57 J. Mellaart. Archaeology 16 (1963) p. 30.
