Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 4.-5. 1963-1964 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1965)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: What was the Copper Age Clay Wagon Model of Budakalász? IV–V, 1963–64. p. 11–15.
arms etc., placed in the shrine of-a god in his honour, also clay wagon models were found. 11 The small vehicle of Tepe Gawra was doubtless offerred to the god in whose honour the sanctuary has been built. We are faced by the further question, however, why people found it necessary to offer the god or the goddess a small copy of a vehicle. Several students have devoted their attention to the problem and classification of the small clay wagons of Mesopotamia. 12 It is generally held that the four-wheeled specimens are representing vehicles of agricultural destination, in contrast to the two-wheeled ones, imitating war chariots, divisible into two main types: a) A two-wheeled type of vehicle with a curved, high parapet in the front, often showing an imitation of animal skin. This type went out of use in the archaic Sumerian times already. b) A model imitating a two-wheeled vehicle with a box-like body. It has a parapet in the front and a seat inside. One sees scales in the back. The general Sumerian vehicle type of the third millennium is an improved variety of this one. As a rule, the parapet of this type is decorated with reliefs of mythological contents in the front. 13 c) Small specimens imitating four-wheeled vehicles. Beside the small finds representing wagons of agricultural purpose, described above, also four-wheeled copies with parapets are known. 14 This is why E. Mackay thinks that the originals of the four-wheeled models may have served the purpose of military transports and the quick regrouping of the troops as well. 15 In his manuscript dissertation G. Brunnhuber classified the earliest forms of Mesopotamian vehicles or their tiny reproductions respectively, according to their original purpose in everyday use instead of a formal division. Among them he distinguishes freight wagons and war chariots, cultic and travel vehicles, finally four-wheeled instruments of military transport. 16 In his judgment all these forms, excepting the war chariot and the four-wheeled war vehicle, have reached prehistoric Europe. 11 L. LEGRAIN: The Culture of the Babylonians from their Seals in the Collection of the Museum. Univ. of Penns.. The Univ. Museum, Publ. of the Bab. Sect., vols XIV and XV (Philadelphia) 1925) p. 62. 12 L. HEUZEY: Petits chars chaldéo-bafoyloniens en terrecuite. Revue d'Ass. 7 (1910) pp. 115-120, was unfortunately inaccessible for me. 13 E. D. VAN BUREN: Clay Figurines of Babylonia and Assyria. Yale Oriental Series, Researches. Vol. XVI (New Haven 1930) p. lix, and E. Mackay: Note on a Bas-Relief found at Ur. Ant. Journal 9 (1929) p. 28. H V. CHRISTIAN: Altertumskunde des Zweistromlandes. ^Leipzig 1940) Pl. 22в. The two-wheeled war chariots, classified under b) in the system outlined above, have been dealt with most thoroughly by E. D. van Buren, 11 especially because their decorated parapets make them extremely valuable for research. All these finds are younger than the vehicle found in level VIII of Tepe Gawra, They are generally coeval with the models uncovered in layer VI. Among the embossed portraits on the parapets one sees Ishtar standing on the back of a lion as the "war goddes", or the man-god standing in the sanctuary, holding his symbolic weapon, the mace, in his hand. We notice a divine couple too, travelling by wagon, further a god or king in the act of trampling down a war prisoner triumphantly. One finds also a hero, vanquishing his enemy. A tiny vehicle found at Bay dad, dating probably from the era of king Ur Nammu (Third Dinasty of Ur, cca 2044—2021), is especially interesting. It imitates a ceremonial chariot of procession, in contrast to the others, endeavouring to give a true picture of the war chariots used by the kings generally. 18 The destination of these small models of war chariots has been illustrated by M. E. L. Mallowan. He regards the generally known portrayal of the Ur mosaics as the commemoration and symbolic expression of a triumphal procession. 19 (X. C. Woolley took the scene on one of the Ur reliefs, containing among others a vehicle, for the burial procession of a king or a high dignitary. 20 ) According to Mallowan, the most beautiful and the most suggestive expression of divine victory is just the clay chariot model found at Kish, showing the armed Ishtar, the goddes of Triumph and War. 21 From this he infers that the vehicle and the animals drawing it were symbols of the strength and the omnipotence of the gods as well. It is evident from vase pictures (e. g. Khafajah) and numerous portrayals on the seals that „the chariot is a mythological emblem, drawn by fabulous winged dragons." Thus travelling by a vehicle came into a close relation with the person of the gods, or, to put it punctually, their deeds. They often gain their resounding victories driving on chariots. On one of the most outstanding festivals of the Sumerian year, the so-called "akitu" feast, the statue of the chief god, e. g. Enlil or Enki, etc.. 15 hoc cit. 16 G. BRUNNHUBER: Die vierradige Wagen in Vorzeit und Antike. Diss. Wien, manuscript (1951) pp. 1-16. 17 ibid. pp. 92, 120, 142, 145, 161, 252-265, 278. 18 Ibid. p. 258. 19 A Copper Rein-ring from Southern Iraq. Iraq 10 (1948) pp. 53-54. 20 Excavations at Ur. 1926-27. Ant. Journal 8 (1928) pp. 18-19. 21 Ibid. p. 53; S. LANGDON: Excavations at Kish I. (Paris 1924) PI. VII publishes the find itself. 12
