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.

vessel from Bojnice also portrayed a bull (Novotny 1958, Tab. 26. 1). A schematic animal figurine from the early Lengyel settlement at Falkenstein-Schanzboden in Lower Austria probably depicts a bull in view of its traits (NeugebauerMaresch 1995, 103, Abb. 48, bottom). The prominence of cattle in the settlement's life is reflected by the results of the archaeozoological analyses, according to which about 95 per cent of the occupants' meat consumption was covered by cattle (Neugebauer-Maresch 1982, 14). The find assemblages of the Moravian Painted Pottery (as the Lengyel culture is known in Moravia) must certainly be mentioned since they include countless animal figurines, moulded ornaments and zoomorphic vessels portraying bulls (Schráníl 1928, 54, Taf. 7. 5, 10, 11). The Tësetice-Kyjovice site alone yielded some 205 zoomorphic figurai finds (Podborsky 1989, 179), 118 of which could be identified on the species level. Cattle was the third most frequently portrayed species after sheep/goat and pig among the 106 domestic animal figurines. The species of hunted animals could be determined in twelve cases, none of which depicted aurochs (Podborsky 1985, 213). The finds of the Moravian Painted Pottery include several realistic portrayals, such as the zoomorphic vessel with large, broken horns and an oval opening on its back (Podborsky 1982, 23, Obr. 3. la-b; Podborsky et al. 1977, Tab. 25. 8) and a broken miniature figurine from Nëmëicky (Balek 1999, Fig. 5. 9). Most of these representations, however, are schematic appliqué ornaments set on vessels or creatures with a long triangular head, incised eyes and a long neck, such as the ones from TëseticeKyjovice (Podborsky 1982, 23, Obr. 3. la-b; Podborsky et al. 1977, Tab. 25. 8) and Lesûnky (Kostufík-Kovárník 1986, 208, Obr. 60. 1). The buli figure found at Streike probably functioned as the handle of a vessel lid (Schráníl 1928, 54, Taf. 7. 18). The gable of the clay house model from this site (Stfelice-Sklep) was decorated with a bull trophy, resembling the specimen from Branë (Podborsky 1984, 49, Obr. 7). CATTLE CULT IN THE MIDDLE AND LATE NEOLITHIC OF THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN The many stylised animal heads and the horn and bucranium finds from the Middle and Late Neolithic of the Tisza region testify to the prominence of the cattle cult in the life of these communities. The Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás site yielded finds of the earliest, formative phase (Szatmár group) of the Alföld Linear Pottery. One unique find from this site is a small clay figurine with a flat human head and a four-footed animal body, which Nándor Kalicz and Judit Koós interpreted as a forerunner of later centaur depictions, noting that „in this early period, however, the animal depicted was a bull, rather than a horse" (Kalicz-Koós 2000, 67, Abb. 10. 5; 2002, 61, Abb. 13. 1-2). An animal figurine with a human face of the Szatmár group was brought to light at Mezőkeresztes-Nagy Tubulyka (Koós 2003, 147, Fig. 2.4, Fig. 4). Parallels to this imagery can be quoted from Kosovo, from the late Vinca culture (Tasic 19591960, 11-82, T. 23. 1-2, T. 24. 1-3, T. 25. 1-3). Marija Gimbutas suggested that these figurines were variants of the „masked bull" (Gimbutas 1974, 74, 237, Fig. 238). The articles assigned to the cult finds include a small bull figurine with a broken head (Kalicz-Koós 1997a, 128, Abb. 5. 7; 1997b, 32, Fig. 21) and clay horns with perforated tips, which can be traced from the Körös to the Herpály culture during the Neolithic of the Carpathian Basin (Kalicz-Koós 1997a, 128, Abb. 4. 9; 1997b, 32, Fig. 19; 2000, 59, Abb. 9. 9). Another remarkable find is a fragmentary round pendant with horns curving upward and outward on its upper part (Kalicz-Koós 2002, 74, Abb. 16. 1-3), whose closest parallels can be quoted from Lepenski Vir and Divostin, both Early Neolithic sites in the Balkans (Srejovic 1969, Abb. 37; McPherron 1988, Abb. 11.5; Kalicz-Koós 2002, 74). The Peder settlement of the Tiszadob group yielded a clay object representing a simpler variant of bull horn symbols (Siska 1989, 86, Obr. 28. 4). A triangular relief with horns on which the facial feature are indicated with incised lines on a vessel fragment brought to light in House 1 of the Szarvas-Malom-zugi-csatorna site, a settlement of the Alföld Linear Pottery, can probably also be assigned to bull head representations (MRT 1989, 440, Pl. 6. 6). A pit resembling the one found at Mórágy was uncovered in House 4 of the Middle Neolithic site at BattonyaParázstanya, whose occupants dug a 140 cm deep beehive shaped pit before they began the construction of the building. Deposited on the floor of the pit was an aurochs skull with the horn-cores and a Szakáihát vessel fragment under the right horn. Other pottery sherds lay by the tip of the horn, alongside a small heap of ash and charcoal (Plate VIII, Fig. 11). No traces of burning were observed either above or below the animal bones. It seems likely that the assemblage was a foundation deposit, performed as part of a ritual preceding the construction of the house (Goldman-Szénászky 2003, 183, 186, Abb. 1). An east-west oriented aurochs horn lay on the floor of a pit in a house uncovered at Zsadány-Püski-domb. The ritual nature of this find is indicated by the deposition of grinding stone fragments on both sides of the aurochs horn: one underneath the horn as if to support it, the other on the horn's inner side. Traces of burning were noted in the pit, suggesting that the assemblage represented the remains of a burnt sacrifice (Plate VIII, Fig. 12; Goldman-Szénászky 2003, 187, Abb. 6) The sanctuary model found at Öcsöd-Kováshalom, a settlement of the early Tisza culture, indicates that bull 11