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.

Alba Regia XXXIV, 2005 ISTVÁN ZALAI-GAÁL NEW EVIDENCE FOR THE CATTLE CULT IN THE NEOLITHIC OF CENTRAL EUROPE Assemblages containing cattle and aurochs bones are frequently recovered from the Neolithic and Copper Age settlements and burial grounds of Central and South-East Europe, as are various objects depicting bovines (vessels, idols, applied ornaments, etc.). One of the pits (no. 4) excavated at Endrőd-Site 130 in 1993 contained three cattle skeletons deposited in a contracted position and the bones of two other skeletons (Plate X, Fig. 15). This find and eighty-four comparable assemblages from Central Europe provided a sound basis for a comprehensive overview of Copper Age cattle burials and the associated cults. The cultural contexts of the features from which these assemblages were recovered are the following: 40.9 per cent (34) came from the Late Copper Age Baden culture, 42.17 per cent (35) from the Globular Amphora (Kugelamphoren) culture, the rest from the Bernburg, Walternienburg, Funnel Beaker (Trichterbecher), Baalberg, Corded Ware (Schnurkeramik) and Tiefstichkeramik cultures. Dating from the Early Copper Age Tiszapolgár culture, the assemblage from Endrőd can be regarded as the earliest cattle burial in Central Europe (Zalai-Gaál 1998a, 545-548, Table 1). A study by Axel Pollex was published a little later, in which he discussed the role and significance of cattle burials/depositions in the European "Neolithic" based on roughly the same set of assemblages. He also addressed the question of the origins and development of cattle depositions and the cattle cult (Pollex 1999). The two studies appeared at roughly the same time and their authors, independently of each other, classified the relevant assemblages in more or less the same way and reached virtually identical conclusions regarding most questions. Another study must also be mentioned here: Robert Ganslmeier examined the occurrence of various animal species (including cattle) in archaeological features and their role in prehistoric cults. He noted that the origins of cattle sacrifices can be traced to the Early Neolithic („bloody sacrifices"), when skulls and trophies were deposited in sacrificial pits. Cattle only appeared in human burials as meat offerings. The widespread appearance of cattle remains in various assemblages can be interpreted as the reflection of some sort of bovine cult among prehistoric communities (Ganslmeier 2001, 135). In his overview of the archaeology of domestic mammals in Hungary, László Bartosiewicz mentioned that the complete skeleton of a young cattle had been deposited in a contracted position in a round sacrificial pit at the early Lengyel settlement investigated at Csabdi (Plate V, Fig. 7),

1 which would predate the find from Endrőd by some five hundred years. Aurochs and cattle finds and depictions have mostly come to light on the tell settlements of eastern Hungary (on the Great Hungarian Plain), where these animals played an important role in the beliefs and rituals of the communities living there, reflecting their prominence in the economy.

2 This study will focus on the evidence from Central and South-East Europe based on the finds of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture since recently uncovered archaeological finds and features suggest that the cult of bovines was at least as important in this region as in eastern Hungary and South-East Europe. The archaeozoological record will be quoted in order to illustrate the preeminence of bovines in subsistence. The expressions „bull cult" and „cattle cult" will be used in this study, even though the sex of the animal could not be determined in the case of most skeletal finds. A similar uncertainty Bartosiewicz 2003, 61, Fig. 27. Of the 1191 bones of domestic species identified in the animal bone sample, 852 came from cattle and only 236 from pig, the next most frequent species. As regards game animals, 402 bones came from Bos primigenius, 297 from deer and 153 from wild boar (Bartosiewicz 1984,47). Nándor Kalicz and Pál Raczky provided an excellent overview of the „horns of consecration" based on earlier finds. In addition to surveying the evidence and the Neolithic and Copper Age parallels of these finds, they also reviewed Bronze Age analogies from South-East Europe and Anatolia (Kalicz-Raczky 1981). 7