Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 34. 2004 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2005)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Zalai-Gaál, István: New evidence for the Cattle cult in the Neolithic of Central Europe. XXXIV. p. 7–40. T. I–XVII.

Few depictions which can be associated with bovines are known from Zengövárkony. One of these is a clay horn from the portrayal of an aurochs or domesticated cattle (Dombay 1960, 218, Taf. 90. 5); another is an animal figurine with broken ears and horns (Dombay 1960, Taf. 90. 4), while the third is a long-necked animal head fragment, probably an appliqué ornament, found above the pits of the „huts" (Dombay 1960, Taf. 89. l=Taf. 115. 1). The early Lengyel culture settlement at Sé in western Transdanubia yielded clay objects with a Y shaped upper part - interpreted as bull horns - which are more typical for the Vinca culture (Kalicz 1998, 67, Abb. 36.6-7).

4 The triangular, schematic animal heads applied on vessels too attest to the existence of the cattle cult (Kalicz 1983— 1984, Taf. 6. 9). The animal bone sample from the early Lengyel settlement at Aszód in the Gödöllő Hills „revealed an absolute dominance of cattle among domestic species with its 72.6 per cent, and its significance is enhanced by the fact that its meat yield exceeds by far the amount of meat provided by pig, the second most frequent species" (Kalicz 1985, 64-65). Although aurochs was the third most frequent game animal with 23.4 per cent, Nándor Kalicz pointed out that this could be misleading since it provided far more meat than other species, similarly to cattle (Kalicz 1985, 64-65). The cattle cult at this site can be associated with aurochs hunting. Skull fragments with horncores from aurochs bulls and cows were both found at Aszód (Bökönyi 1988, 16). Figurines modelled in the form of these creatures were absent; portrayals came in the form of rattles and animal shaped vessels, and a few vessel handles can perhaps be interpreted as depictions of bovine heads (Kalicz 1983-1984, Taf. 4.1-5; 1985, 73, Fig. 77. 5; 1998, Abb. 41.7). Grave 13 of the early Lengyel cremation burials uncovered at Györe in County Tolna yielded a jug with two extremities on its ribbed strap handle. These upward and outward curving extremities perhaps symbolised bull horns (Zalai-Gaál 2003, Abb. 2a-c, Abb. 3. 1). The same burial also contained a schematic zoomorphic lid handle, which most likely portrayed a bull (Zalai-Gaál 2003, Abb. 7. 3). The vessel fragment with a horizontally perforated handle, probably modelled in the form of a bull head, from Gutorfölde-Mogyorós in County Zala is a unique find, unparalleled among the late Lengyel assemblages. The forerunner of this handle type can most likely be sought in the Linear Pottery and Sece cultures. László András Horváth and Katalin H. Simon assigned this find to the same horizon as the cattle figurines from Phase I of the Moravian Painted Pottery, the similar Austrian pieces and the zoomorphic lid handles from Aszód (HorváthSimon 2003, Abb. 20.8). It is uncertain whether some of these Y shaped objects were anthropomorphic or zoomorphic depictions. The head of the broken zoomorphic altar (or lamp) from Balatonmagyaród-Kápolnapuszta, a late Lengyel (Lengyel III) site in County Zala, is V shaped; it seems likely that this object can be associated with the bull cult (Barna 2001, 61, PI. 4.4). Even though the head is missing from the four-footed zoomorphic vessel decorated with perforated lugs, Viola T. Dobosi and Judit Tárnoki suggested that it portrayed a bull in view of its posture (Dobosi-Tárnoki 1987, 10, Fig. 4a-b). One of the most remarkable bovine depictions in the Slovakian assemblages of the Lengyel culture was found at Santovka: a zoomorphic lamp with two round perforations on its back, long horns and a schematic, triangular head (Pavuk 1981a, 66, Abb. 61-62). The faunal assemblage from Svodín/Szőgyén (Slovakia) is dominated by bovines (Nemejcová-Pavúková 1986, 154). An aurochs trophy was found on a ledge 15 cm above the floor of a 280 cm long, 60 cm x 135 cm wide north-east to south-west oriented pit („Objekt 10/65") uncovered in this early Lengyel settlement (Plate VI, Fig. 8. I). The pit shares a number of similarities with a similar feature uncovered at Mórágy. In addition to the aurochs trophy, the pit contained vessel fragments and chipped stone implements made from obsidian and other lithics. The pit was interpreted as a sacrificial pit, „where the community's families performed annual rituals" (Lichardus-Siska 1970, 319, 343, Abb. 10, Taf. 1. 2). Pit 22/77 of the Komjatice-Tomásové site (Komját, Slovakia) contained an aurochs and a dog skull (Toőík 1986, 271). The finds from the settlement included a horizontally perforated clay object in the shape of a horn (Tocik 1986, 277, Abb. 5. 17). The find assemblage from the BrancVBerencs site in Slovakia can be assigned to the Nyitra-Brodzány horizon, i.e. the late Lengyel period. Jozef Vladár and Jan Lichardus noted that the fourteen oval pits narrowing towards their base found in pairs inside the houses had a ritual nature. One of them (Feature 85) yielded an aurochs skull with enormous horns, which lay with the os frontale upwards in the second layer in the pit's southern half (Plate VI, Fig. 8. 2). Other animal bones, vessel fragments and three silex were formed also part of this assemblage, which was interpreted as the remains of an annual ritual (Vladár-Lichardus 1968, 284, Abb. 36-37, 68; Vladár 1969, 506, Abb. 7. 2). The post-hole of Hut 17 yielded a clay house model depicting a sunken pit dwelling with a gable ornament in the form of a schematic bull horn. Jozef Vladár described the house model as a foundation deposit of an obviously ritual nature (Vladár 1969, 505, Abb. 9). A schematic zoomorphic vessel recalling a bull figure with an opening in its back is known from Brodzány (Novotny 1958, 37, Taf. 26. 2; Vladár-Krupica 1970, 354-355, Obr. 2, Obr. 4a-d). It seems likely that a similar 10