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.

exists as regards animal figurines: only in rare instances can it be unequivocally determined whether the figurine portrays an aurochs or domesticated cattle because most of these figurines are highly schematised and in some cases it is also uncertain whether they depict bovines at all. All domestic cattle breeds can be regarded as descendants of aurochs (Boessneck et al. 1963, 117; Matolcsi 1982, 123). Aurochs first spread to Europe during the Pleistocene, becoming truly widespread and prolific during the Early Holocene in the 8th-4th millennia ВС; they were especially frequent in the Great Hungarian Plain, which boasted the largest aurochs herds in Europe (and the world) during the Neolithic (Bökönyi 1989, 63). The most striking craniological trait of primigenius type cattle is their large, long horn, often emphasized in prehistoric depictions (Matolcsi 1982, 123-124). The form of the homs is also quite characteristic: they curve outward and forward, with their tip pointing upward. Huge aurochs bulls with a withers heights of 155-170 cm often weighed as much as one ton (often even more), and there were sizeable differences between cows and bulls. The horncores of bulls often exceeded one meter; Sándor Bökönyi has aptly pointed out that these horns were formidable weapons (Bökönyi 1989, 63-64). Aurochs were first domesticated in the 7th millennium ВС in the eastern Mediterranean (including Anatolia). It has been suggested that in the Ancient Near East religious beliefs were associated with aurochs at an early date. „Seeing that aurochs bulls were imposing, strong and dangerous creatures, it is only natural that Neolithic man regarded them as symbols of power and perhaps masculinity" (Bökönyi 1974, 109110). There is abundant evidence for their local domestication from Neolithic sites in Anatolia, South-East Europe and the Carpathian Basin, e.g. from Çatal Hüyük and Argissa Magula (Bökönyi 1977, 3; 1989, 64-66). Secondary domestication can be assumed in the Carpathian Basin in the middle and last third of the Neolithic. From his examination of bone samples recovered from sites in various regions, Sándor Bökönyi convincingly demonstrated that the largest and most significant cattle domestication centre lay in the Carpathian Basin, and that what he described as the domestication fever was to a large extent determined by the natural environment: the hilly region around the Lengyel site at Aszód, for example, was not as favourable a habitat for aurochs as was the area around Herpály, the eponymous site of the Herpály culture (Bökönyi 1988, 15; 1989, 64-66). László Bartosiewicz noted that the many cattle and aurochs finds known from sites in the Great Hungarian Plain can in part be attributed to the extensive and systematic investigation of tell settlements, while in Transdanubia only at two sites, Zengővárkony and Mórágy, were excavations conducted over a larger area before the commencement of large-scale rescue excavation preceding the motorway constructions.

3 About 80-85 per cent of the known aurochs remains from the Carpathian Basin date from the Late Neolithic and the Early Copper Age. It has been suggested that the merciless hunting of aurochs during the Late Neolithic (Tisza, Herpály and Lengyel cultures) may have been motivated by the domestication of aurochs, the so-called domestication fever, and that this period coincided with the second major wave of migration of aurochs to the Carpathian Basin following the Ice Age (Bökönyi 1974). The archaeozoological and archaeological record both indicate that the very existence of a cattle cult and its nature strongly correlates with the species' local importance in the life of prehistoric communities. The two bovine species (Bos primigenius and Bos taurus) were the two principal sacrificial animals not only in prehistory, but in the ancient world too. BOVINES IN THE LENGYEL CULTURE László Bartosiewicz identified a total of 3826 animal bones among the finds of the cemetery and settlement uncovered at Mórágy-Tűzkődomb. The faunal sample was dominated by Bos taurus (27.7 per cent; 1028), followed by pig (11.3 per cent; 422). Remains of other domesticated species are represented by values ranging between 0.05-2.8 per cent in the faunal assemblage from the site. The significance of bovines is indicated by the frequency values of aurochs (22.8 per cent; 847) among hunted species, although deer (17.2 per cent; 639) and wild boar (15.4 per cent; 571) were also quite popular game animals (Bartosiewicz 1994, 66). Several settlement features uncovered at this site contained aurochs remains, which had probably been deposited as part of some ritual. 1. The dark patch of a pit complex was observed at a depth of 108 cm in the northern part of Trench B/XI. Pit 1, an irregular feature measuring 180 cm x 150 cm, lay in the centre of the pit complex. An aurochs trophy (right and left horn-core with the frontal bone) lay on large burnt daub fragments at a depth of 145 cm, oriented in an east-west direction (Plate 1, Fig I. 1-2; Plate I, Fig. 2; Plate II, Fig 3; Plate III, Fig. 4. 1-2). The pit contained a rich array of Lengyel pottery fragments, obsidian and silex blades, burnt daub fragments and various animal bones, as well as a human leg bone, one half of a clay altar (lamp) and a lamp modelled in the shape of an animal with two round depressions on its back (the head was missing). The pit was 175 cm deep. There were no burnt daub fragments above the aurochs trophy, only underneath it, and neither did we find remains or traces indicaLászló Bartosiewicz's kind personal communication. 8