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.
Units -2.0 о КагЛЛ. 1-0 о LV Q Bgn Kar I о Vin о Gr-EN г- 2.0 1-° AVK SBK s^ Tri 1.0 о T-H 2.0 3.0 о Си J — ô—•LBK-W 4.0 _|2 о LK --1.0 --2.0 -3.0 TPKL-4.0 Tjpes: 2G Histogram: Finds of the bull and cattle cult in the Neolithic cultures of South-East and Central Europe Key: LV: Lepenski Vir, Kar: Karanovo, Gr-EN: Greek Early Neolithic, S/K: Körös/Starcevo, Ban: Banat culture, Vin: Vinca, A VK: Alföld Linear Pottery, T-H: Tisza-Herpály culture, LBK-W: western Linear Pottery culture, LK: Lengyel culture, Ci: Cicarovce, Tri: Tripolye, Си: Cucuteni, SBK: Stroke Ornamented Pottery, TPK: Tiszapolgár SUMMARY The Neolithic in South-East Europe began about one and a half thousand years later than in the Ancient Near East. Several regional groups can be distinguished in the Early Neolithic cultural complex with painted pottery. The Early Neolithic appeared in its fully-fledged form in South-East Europe, as it did in the Carpathian Basin. Religious beliefs and the many ways in which these were expressed (e.g. the cattle cult) were one of the supraregional phenomena of the Early Neolithic. The archaeological record and the observations made on excavations indicate a remarkable resemblance between the cults of Early Neolithic communities. It seems likely that similarly to other elements of the Neolithic package (both material and spiritual) adopted in South-East Europe, the origins of the cattle cult too can be traced to Anatolia, 40 where cult places and sanctuaries were established as „das frühestne europäische Neolithikum in Südosteuropa direkt aus dem anatolischen Raum übermittelt worden ist, und zwar in einer Zeit, als das Neolithikum dort bereit hoch entwickelt war" (Lichardus-Lichardus-Itten 2003, 65). early as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period. Bulls (aurochs) appear in the imagery of the period (Göbekli Tepe) and the cattle cult in Çatal Hüyük predates by far the Early Neolithic in South-East Europe. The Histogram shows the results of the comparative archaeological and seriation analyses for the find types of the South-East and Central European Neolithic and their cultural context. Disregarding the Palaeolithic cave paintings, the earliest manifestation of the bull cult in Europe is the incised schematic bull horn symbol discovered in the Sarakenos Cave in Thessaly dating from the period directly preceding the Neolithic. 41 The earliest European Neolithic finds reflecting the existence of a cattle cult are the realistic bull head depictions from Sesklo and Chalkiades, the clay horns from Nemea, the sanctuary model and Y shaped horn symbols from Porodin, the clay bull figurines from Kovaőevo, the clay horn symbols from Vaksevo and Koprovec and the slightly later finds of the Karanovo I—II culture (bull figurines, clay bull horns, horn symbols, bull pendants, T shaped pendants, clay bucrania). The Starcevo and Körös cultures were the northernmost groups of the South-East European Early Neolithic Palaeolithic (600,000-7000 ВС), Neolithic (7000-3000) and Bronze Age layers were uncovered in the cave (Sampson 2000). 29
