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.

lay in House 2 (Kalicz-Raczky 1981, 5-6, PL 5. 3a-b). The best analogies to these finds are known from the Körös-Starőevo-Cris-Karanovo I-II complex, „although in these cases the animal figure serving as the pedestal is lacking and only the horn, the distilled quintessence of the imagery has survived" (Raczky 1988, 17). A horn fragment was found in a pit at Szentpéterszeg in the Körös distribution territory (Kalicz-Raczky 1981, 6-7, PI. 6.3). A four-footed animal figurine (probably a lamp), which presumably portrayed a bull, has been published from Endrőd-Site 3/39 (MRT 1989, Pl. 1. 6a-b). Examining the distribution of these finds and find assemblages, Pál Raczky noted that „the distribution of stylised bull horn depictions in South-East Europe furnishes additional proof for the links between the Starőevo-Cri§-Kremikovci-Gradesnica-Karanovo I and II complex and the Greek Early and Middle Neolithic, as well as for the many strands binding their religious beliefs, with the Greek pieces providing the link between the Balkans and the Near Eastern depictions (Raczky 1988, 18). Nándor Kalicz pointed out that the absence of bull horn pendants in the Körös culture is one reflection of the differences between the Körös and Starcevo cultures (Kalicz 2000, 298). The western (Central European, Transdanubian) Linear Pottery culture provided the ethnic and cultural basis on which the Lengyel culture evolved, under cultural impacts from the Vinőa culture transmitted by the Sopot culture (Kalicz-Makkay 1972a; 1972b). The circumstances under which the western Linear Pottery culture emerged in Transdanubia are by and large known; in contrast, there is little evidence for direct or indirect neolithisation in Central Germany. Dieter Kaufmann has argued that the earliest farmers arrived to the Elba-Saale region from the south-east, from the culture's birthplace, and brought the full Neolithic package with them.

24 It has also been suggested that local Mesolithic groups did not contribute to the emergence of the Neolithic in Central and Western Europe (Lichardus-Lichardus-Itten 2003, 73). Even though bovine depictions are not too frequent among the finds of the western Linear Pottery culture, they occur over the culture's entire distribution, reflecting the prominence of bovines in the life of the western Linear Pottery communities. Stockbreeding was based on cattle,

25 and the most frequently hunted game animal was „Die im kulturellen Inventar dieser ältestbandkeramischen Siedler nachgewiesenen Elemente der späten Starcevo- (und z. T. der späten Körös-) Kultur sowie der ältesten VinŐa-Kultur sind nicht als Einflüsse zu interpretieren, sondern als Bestandteile der bei der bäuerlichen Landnahme mitgebrachten Zivilisation" (Kaufmann 1991, 276 and 291). The earliest direct evidence for the use of cattle as draught animals comes from the post-Neolithic period (Wartberg, Baden and Bell Beaker cultures). „Am postcranialen Knochengerüst neolithischer Rinder sind Spuren lokaler Arbeitsbelastung bisher ebenfalls kaum beschrieben worden... Als Hinweise auf Zugleistungen gelten eine Schliffusur am Schambein einer Beckenpfanne vom Rind im bandaurochs (Kalicz 1998, 32).

26 However, hunting was subordinate to stockbreeding (Bökönyi 1974; Kalicz 1985, 6465; Dohle 1994, Abb. 62). A great variety of zoomorphic depictions are known from the earliest Linear Pottery period; these depictions became more pronounced under the cultural impacts from the Vinőa culture in the middle Linear Pottery period, and they also appear in Stroke Ornamented Pottery assemblages. No sanctuaries or repeatedly used ritual (sacrificial) pits have yet been uncovered in the western Linear Pottery distribution area (Kaufmann 1989, 125). Most depictions take the form of appliqué ornaments; figurines are less frequent. Many of these portray domestic species, but hunted animals occur among them too (Kaufmann 1999, 341-342). A clay figurine depicting a bovine was found in one of the pits beside House I of the SzentgyörgyvölgyPityerdomb settlement, the currently known earliest western Linear Pottery site in Transdanubia. The schematic figurine, showing recognizable traits of bovines, is decorated with finely incised lines and has a perforated nose. Eszter Bánffy has convincingly argued that certain features of this figurine, such as its decoration, can be derived from the Early Neolithic of the Balkans and SouthEast Europe, while others point towards Central Europe, and the figurine can thus be regarded as a symbol of the intermediary role of the Pityerdomb (and related) settlements in the diffusion of South-East and Central European civilisation. The figurine was probably used during rituals conducted in the house (Bánffy 2002, 205; 2003, 6-8, 15, Abb. 6; 2004, 276 and 284, Fig. 45, Fig. 146; Bánffy-Goldman 2003, 115, Fig. 23).

27 The moulded ornaments from Budapest-Aranyhegyi Road, an early Transdanubian Linear Pottery site, too portray bovines (Kalicz 1998, 32, Abb. 8. 1). The fragment of a stylised animal head with the stubs of the horns was found at Budapest-Mocsáros, a settlement of the early Transdanubian Linear Pottery (KaliczKalicz-Schreiber 1992, 58, Abb. 2a-d). Schematic applied ornaments, whose horns suggests that they probably portrayed cattle, have been published from Tác-Villa II and Sukoró-Tóradülő (Makkay 1970, 21, Figs 6-7). It seems likely that the lamp from Bina (Bény, Slovakia) modelled in the form of a highly stylised four-footed animal depicted a bull judging from the animal's posture (Pavuk 1980, 39, Abb. 14.2). In his publication of the animal head shaped knobs, lugs and various applied ornaments from Muzla-Cenkov (Muzsla, Slovakia) (Plate XVI, Fig. 24. 2a-d), Ivan Kuzma reviewed the zoomorphic finds of the Zseliz group of the Linear Pottery (Kuzma 1990, 440, 442, Obr. 12, keramischen Eilsleben..., die Verdickung am Metacarpus eines Michelsberger Rindes" (Lüning 2000, 140). For the frequencies of various species on the earliest Linear Pottery settlements in Germany, cp. Lüning 2000, Abb. 35. „we determined the species as cattle since none of the anatomical features contradicted this definition" (Bánffy 2004, 278).