Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 6.-7. 1965-1966 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1966)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Some ancient sources to the Shamanism. VI–VII, 1965–66. p. 27–42. t. XV.

ethnology, he adopts the results of the Kulturkreise school for drawing an outline of the religions, immediately preceding the most ancient civilizations, schematically. In the present case he utilizes the conclusions drawn of the myths and ways of life of some Polynesian and Melanesian ethnical groups which have existed in the recent past. In this process he puts forward some suggestions, among them the view that the oldest form of human agriculture, prior to ploughing, was hoeing with the result of producing tuberous plants and fruit. We must not omit to remark that the correctness of this statement has not been borne out by even a single archeological observation so far. At the same time we may notice that as regards implements revealing agriculture, the sickle (in the shape of sickle-blades) is appearing and extending much earlier than the stone axe or the tiller-weight.

132 On the other hand, the main characteristic of the most ancient, so-called Preceramic sites is the occurrence of corn seeds, without any hint at the production of tuberous plants or fruit-trees at these places.

133 Further the archaeological material of these earliest Neolithic sites allows us to deduce religious beliefs of a quite different character. There are two centres essential for this problem. The site Jarmo in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq, has yielded about 5000 clay figurines. A considerable part of them represents various animals, an other significant part shows nude women.

134 These female figurines are the immediate precursors of the later clay or stone figurines in Northern and Southern Mesopotamia. Essentially we may come to the conclusion that in Mesopotamia the cult of the Mother Goddess, i. e. of female fertility has come to being, parallel to the extension of settled life and the development of agriculture. There are no proofs for the belief in dema-like beings or their cult. Such phenomena cannot be deduced from speculative comparisons as to the ways of life either. The other point of crystallization is Southern Anatolia. Here our conclusions may be based on the Neolithic finds of Hacilar and Gatal Höyük in the first place. Similarly to the situation in Mesopotamia, here too wee find the proofs for the gradual evolution of a female goddes and of fertility cult. But here one has to reckon with the staunch survival of Late Palaeolithic traditions. This is shown by two 132. For the earliest history of the sicikle see in detail J. MAEKAY: Acta Arch. Hung. 1(6 (1964) pp. g. seqq. 133. E. g. R. J. BRAIDWOOD—BRUCE HOWE: Prehistoric Investigation in Iraqi Kurdistan. SAOC 31 (Chicago 1960) p. 38 seqq., 51—54, etc. 134. Ibid. 135. J. MELLAART: Anatolian Studies 13 (1363) passim. '- phenomenon mainly: skull burials and the use !- of wall paintings. The former may be related it to the veneration of ancestors or their cult, e respectively. As to the latter, it may be obsers ved that parallel to the growing number of signs, alluding to female fertility cult, the quann tity and significance of wall-paintings, esped cially of murals "of Palaeolithic, Epipalaeoliit thic character" are decreasing.

135 But the ar0 chaeological material of the mentioned two sites does not enable us, according to our present knowledge, to reconstruct a religious system similar to "dema-religion" by any means. e We may safely accept A. Brelich' s stateEl ment that the figure of the „dying gods" is s derived from social structures or ages alien to e classical ancient civilizations and prior to them in time. In our judgment, however, the correct e definition of the religious structure and period r in which their figure has come to being makes further research necessary, possibly in an other direction too. э All this leads us to a crucial point. Dealing t with the representation of the steatite amulet of Cyprus, also R. Reitler emphasized that s its suppesod magical-religious meaning cannot t be brought in unison with the religious forms of the ancient village-farming cultures of the Mediterranean, centred around female fertility, at , all.

136 The same is valid for those survivals of Shamanism which, being subjected to a thorough critical examination, will be proved as i phenomenon of shamanistic character actually. In the first place we mean the treated details i of the events concerning the "huluppu-tree" and the briefly summarized motives of dismemberment in Greek lore. We think we have succeeded in pointing out the similarities betî ween them and present-day Shamanism con1 vincingly. If our suggestions will hold good in î the course of further research, we shall be able i to regard the tale of the "huluppu-tree" as the oldest written document on Shamanism or a i shamanistic belief, respectively. This would be especially important in the i present phase of research, witnessing an ever 1 growing attention devoted to the evolution of Shamanism. According to one of the opinions, the roots of shamanistic beliefs are reaching the Upper Palaeolithic Age immediately.

137 An • opposite view is put forward by L. V a j d a in i a recently published paper.

138 He states that ; the elements of Shamanism are derived from 1 diverse periods and societies of various struc136. R. REITLER: JPEK 1960-4962 (1963) p. 25. 137. We have summarized the most important problems in this respect in Alba Regia 2—3 (1968) pp. 5—Kill. See also M. ELIADE: History of Religions (Chicago 1961) l/l. 138. L. VAJDA: Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 31 (1939) pp. 456— 485. 139. Ibid. p. 479. 140. See our paper quoted in note Ш. 41