Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 2.-3. 1961-1962 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1963)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: An Important Proof to the Prehistory of Shamanism. II–III, 1961–62. p. 5–10.
In an other study V. Diószegi deals with the Shamanism of the North-Eastern Soyots * He states that "the motives and pendants of the shaman costume placed above the single parts of the body are representing the respective part, as they bear the shape or the name of the appropriate part respectively. A number of these has been applied evidently to the shaman costume with the intention to cover and to defend the part of the body being under it. The desings of the various arm bones on the sleeves of the cloack "have protected the bones of the arms against the arrows of the enemy" in the view of the Soyots. Also the embroideries, appliquéd trimmings, metal and textile pendants, covering the boots of the shaman, were needed to avert inimical arrows from the bone." Fig. 2. Contrary to the observations made with the Karagas, here we find not only appliquéd trimmings cab led by the names of the bones and imitating their shapes but also such as "nipple", "sinew" and "shank". However, the majority of names is related to bones. Such are the breast-bone, the fingers, the scapula, the backbone, the spinal vertebrae, the ribs, the pelvis, the pelvis bones, the rump bone, the shin-bone, the anklejoint, the toes. We have to emphasize the follow : ng statement: , Rome pendants of the shaman cos+ume allude to different ideas. Such are the hair, sometimes thickly covering the cloak, the swimming wing or its cylindral stripe." This part was to be mentioned with empnasis, since the very dense hair and the tail are reminding us of the costume of the Palaeolithic shaman or sorcexer very .much. Now we have to state with astonishment that the shaman costumes described here and the conclus.ons following írom them respectively, are analogous to the costume of the man in tne cave Les Trois Frères to a high degree, nay they are almost indentical. We may discard the problem of the head-dress here ( as it is much simpler than the other. Namely designs with animal masks may be followed in the legacy of innumerable peoples and cultures from the Upper Palaeolithic Age up to our day. It was but recently that an exceedingly important find of Mesolithic derivation, illustrating the way of production and the shape of the animal mask worn by a man and decorated with a stag-horn, was uncovered in Germany 11 It is to be noted that its execution is essentially identical with that visible on the head of the portrait of Les Trois Frères. We have quoted V. Diószegi's explanation for the appearance of the human bone on the shaman costume in the form of appliquéd trimming, bone or iron plates. He is justified in holding this view, as he received uniform information from the persons furnishing his data, The question, however, is not so simple as this. This is revealed by an other passage of the mentioned paper by V. Diószegi, saying the following: "The albys prefers to live in sandy places. He appears to a man in the shape of a beautiful woman, to a woman in the shape of a beautiful man. He has the customary shape as seen from the front, but he lacks the body from behind, so that all his interior parts are visible". 12 (The albys is an imaginary being, a sort of a fairy of trie steppe.) This remark may be related to bones first of all. In the following we have to labour two points.. First, it must be asked whether we are entitled to regard the astonishing analogy between the portrait of Les Trois Frères and the shaman costumes of to-day as the expression of an essential indentity, and to draw the conclusion that the Palaeolithic painting preserved the memory of an ancient shaman. In the second place we have to deal with the factors giving life to such a portrayal, its essence and, if possible, its explanation. 1. Students of the Upper Palaeolithic Age often draw on the data of the material or spiritual culture of the Northern Eurasian, mainly Sibirian peoples. The connections of these peoples with the Palaeolithic finds are not proved and accounted for by the uninterrupted and cootiinuous development in the wide span of time between them in the first place. Research namely in the archaeological material of the Palaeo-Sibirian peoples is only in its initial phase. The numerous possibilities of comparison are rather offerred by the similitudes of economies and the ways of life, the occupation of hunting and fishing followed together with gathering for food. Making such comparisons in connection with the sh°man costume, we were aw*re that the mentioned peoples of our day did not follow the 10 v. DTÓSZEGT, Zum Schamanen glauben der nordöstlich РП Soio+en (in Hungarian with a summary in German). Ethnoeraphia. A Magvar Neural?! Társaság folyóirata (E.. jn—-~ai "f the Hungarian Society for Ethnography) 70 (1959) 107. n Ausgrabungen und Funde. Nachrichtenblatt für Vorund Frühgeschichte 3 (1938) 166, Abb. 10, 11. (Bernhard Gramsch.) 12 V. DIÓSZEGI, op. cit. 81. 7
