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.

tures (hunters, peasants). Further he accepts that some of its roots may reach a time as early as Late Palaeolithic, however, he does not regard the drum as an early element. In his judgment, Shamanism is the characteristic product of the relations between the Southern agricultural and Northern hunters' civilizations, without being an exclusive characteristic of any of them. At the same time it is younger than its components. The author emphasizes that „Shamanism cannot be older than the Bronze Age".

139 As it is seen at the first sight, our view and L. V a j d a's theory are essentially coincident in establishing a connection between the body of beliefs of the Southern village-farming communities and the Northern hunters. The difference of both opinions lies in the following: In our judgment, Shamanism as outlined according to present sources and the data derived from the peoples living to-day cannot be of earlier origin than the Bronze Age actually. (Unfortunately L. Vajda does not define his expression „Bronze Age" more exactly. This is a quite different period if we mean the Bronze Age of Siberia from that of the Caucasus region or even the Mesopotamian.) The ancient features, however, derived from the Palaeolithic Age, are no survivals of a different type of religion bequeathed to Shamanism; the latter was, on the contrary, the characteristic religion of the Latest Palaeolithic. Naturally we ought not imagine this "ancestral Shamanism" as identical to that existing in the recent past. Easy to understand if we are unable to define it with adequate accuracy as yet. But the hitherto observed characteristics of this system are connected to the ideas of to-day' s shamanistic peoples by conspicuously close links. As a matter of fact, this serves as a justification for our opinion.

140 At the same time the corresponding details of the story of the "huluppu-tree" show that L. V a j d a was right in recognizing a historical process, i. e. the "mixture" which has happened in the Bronze Age (in the Mesopotamian Bronze Age in this case). But is this instance we have to reckon with the extension (or only impact) of a Northern form towards the South instead of the spread of the spread of the Southern religions towards the North. A further problem is presented by the possibility of a connection of the mentioned process with an ethnical movement. In our judgment the shamanistic forms, recognized in the tale of the "huluppu-tree", are related to the ethnical move effected at the turn of the fourth and the third millennia, starting from the North or the North-East. At the same time, we may suppose two possibilities as regards the possible shamanistic features in Greek tradition. They are either very ancient survivals, subjected to changes owing to a process of interpretation; or their appearance may be connected to the Northern or Nort-Eastern, more precisely Balcanic or Caucasian origin of the Mycaenean horse-breeding population. Naturally these problems cannot be solved yet with the claim of finality at present. J. Makkay 42