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.

koine. The earliest aurochs skull deposited in a human burial was uncovered at Lepenski Vir (Layer le). Other remarkable finds from this site include Y pieces (some of which were perforated), hom amulets, a ring shaped object with two homs on its upper part, and a broken animal figurine (perhaps a bull head). Various types of hom amulets clay Y pieces, homs modelled in relief on vessels, clay horns and „horns of consecration" and schematic bull figures were quite popular in the StarcevoKörös-Cri§ complex. Naturalistically portrayed bull figurines are known from this period. A female burial uncovered at Golokut contained a cattle skull and cattle bones. Similarly to the four-footed zoomorphic lamps, the bull figurines and bucrania of the Körös culture can be derived from the Neolithic cults of South-East Europe. On the testimony of the clay Y and V pieces, hom shaped reliefs, bull headed lamps, cattle figurines and bull shaped vessel, the population of the perhaps most important culture of the Balkanic Neolithic in terms of its cultural impacts too practiced the bull cult. The principal evidence for the bull cult of the Vinőa culture comes from the clay bucrania, often with genuine bull homs, found in sanctuaries dating from the culture's late period. The sanctuaries with bucrania uncovered at Parta (Banat culture) predate their counterparts in Vinőa. The prominence of cattle in the economy and religious beliefs of the Thracian Late Neolithic and Early Aeneolithic is evidenced by the realistically sculpted cattle figurines, bull shaped vessels and lamps, clay homs and T shaped bone idols, and the cattle figures and hom symbols of sheet gold found at Vama. The anchor shaped variants of cattle depictions can also be assigned here. Bull trophies deposited in pits and an astonishing variety of cattle heads in relief on vessels, painted hom and bull symbols all occur on the Transylvanian, Romanian and Ukrainian sites of the Late Neolithic painted pottery cultures (Precucuteni, Cucuteni-Tripolye). Bull head symbols carved from cattle bone, realistically modelled bull figures and clay ladles with a hom terminalled handle are only known from western Ukraine. Ladles of this type have also been found on Petresti sites. The sanctuary model with bucrania from Cascioarele and the burials of the Hamangia culture containing cattle skulls must also be mentioned among the significant Balkanic finds and find assemblages. It would appear that some form of the cattle cult was practiced by all Early, Middle and Late Neolithic, as well as the Aeneolithic population groups of South-East Europe, and that very often, this cult took an identical or very similar form. A similar phenomenon can be noted in the case of the cultures distributed in the eastern and western half of the Carpathian Basin, and of the cultures occupying the regions to its north and west. The Alföld Linear Pottery inherited the clay hom amulets with a Y shaped upper part from the Körös culture from which it had developed, together with the ring shaped homed symbols and „masked bulls", as shown by the finds of the Szatmár group for example. Triangular bull head reliefs on vessels, however, became quite rare. Clay Y pieces have been found on sites of the Tiszadob group. The earliest aurochs trophy (a skull with hom-cores) was brought to light at the Battonya-Parázstanya settlement of the Szakáihát culture. Finds related to the bull cult show a great variety at the tell settlements of the Tisza and Herpály cultures, which evolved from the Szakáihát culture. These include aurochs trophies and homs deposited in a pit and under house floors, clay bucrania decorating house walls and gables, sanctuary models, „homs of consecration", and miniature clay homs. The bull and cattle symbols on pottery range from the schematic to the naturalistic, taking the form of reliefs, vessel handles and bovine figures set in a bowl. The Late Neolithic vessel with schematic cattle heads on its rim found at Deszk-Ordos can be best compared to the bowl decorated with in a like manner from Aradac. The animal figurine (Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pityerdomb) dating from the earliest period of the western Linear Pottery (Transdanubian or Central European Linear Pottery, „Donau Linienbandkeramik"), the stylised bull head reliefs and bull shaped lamps or altars bespeak cultural impacts from the Early Neolithic cultures to the south and south-east. Schematic, rounded triangular and more lifelike cattle head reliefs on vessels became popular during the middle Linear Pottery phase and in the Notenkopf Pottery culture. The uncontested peak of this tradition was the unique imagery of the Zseliz culture, in which horned bull head protomes with V shaped incisions, lugs and lug handles appear alongside the earlier schematic depictions and the occasional four legged bovine figures. Finds associated with the cattle cult (schematic and life-like animal head and hom reliefs, bovine figurines, zoomorphic vessels, lug handles blending human and animal traits, cattle homs deposited in enclosures, an aurochs skull in a human sacrificial context) appear in the earliest phase of the Austrian and Central German distribution of the Linear Pottery culture {Elbe Linienbandkeramik). The typological development of these finds is not as striking as that of their Central European counterparts. The same types occur in the find assemblages of the Stroke Ornamented Pottery culture. Cattle skulls deposited in post-holes, aurochs trophies and horns, complete skeletons and skeletal parts placed in pits are only known from the eastern distribution area of the Lengyel culture. Finds of this type have been recovered from the culture's entire sequence, from the early to the late period. However, no such assemblages have been reported from the Moravian-Austrian Group of the Lengyel culture (MÖG) and Moravian Painted Pottery sites. Highly schematic, mostly triangular animal head reliefs appear from the Protolengyel period. Most of the animal figurines are simplified to the extent that the species of 30