Szőllősy Csilla - Pokrovenszki Krisztián (szerk.): Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis - Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei. C. sorozat 45. (Székesfehérvár, 2017)

Tanulmányok/közlemények - Régészet - Keszi Tamás: A nagyrévi kultúra szimbolikus ábrázolásokkal díszített urnái Kiapostag - Dunai-dűlő lelőhelyről. Alternatív javaslat a Budapest - Pannonhalmi úti edény ábrázolásának értelmezésére

Tamás Kes^i: Cinerary urns from the Nagyrév Culture ornamented with symbolic representations found at the Kisapostag — Dunai-dűlő site

cauldron from the 2nd—1 st century BC.90 A similar representation of Tuchulcha is known at the Etruscans.91

Owing to the spread of stone sculpture, an increasing number of representations of Cernunnos is known from the Roman times that depict the horned Celtic god with a serpent (e.g. as the one in Cirencester).92 Of course, it is not at all certain that all of these gods were called Cernunnos, and that completely identical ideas were associated to them. On the other hand, it is undeniable that, in spite of the differences (whether the deity has antlers or horns, holds a snake only in one hand or in both, whether the snake also has horns etc.), these similar visual representations are related to each other. Even some of the Gotland tombstones, dated to the 5—7th century AD, are linked to Cernunnos93 (Fig. 12, No. 3). A serpent held in the hand appears as an attribute of other deities as well. These include Verbeia, the Celtic goddess of the Wharfe River94 from Ilkley. Some think that snakes depicted in zig2ag lines symbolise water.95 Several deities associated with healing have a snake’s body wound around their wrist, such as Sirona96 and Damona97. Of course, in these cases it is difficult to decide whether we are dealing with old Celtic traditions or a more recent influence of Aesculapius, the god of medicine in Greek-Roman culture.

The concept of horned creatures holding a serpent in their hands lived on even after the spread of Christianity. Luxuria is most often depicted with serpents sucking her breasts. The persistent survival of this motif suggests that the idea of the supernatural creature in question was so widespread in prehistoric Europe, and the belief was so strong that the ideology shapers of Christianity considered it more expedient to incorporate this figure into their own religion rather than to attempt to completely eliminate it: the horned deity holding snakes became the symbol of one of the seven deadly sins.98

It is therefore indisputable that — occasionally antlered/horned — a deity holding snakes in their hands is a wellknown and common theme in Europe from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, even though no continuous connection can be detected between these due to the significant differences in time. On this basis, from an iconographie aspect, the most likely version is that the horned figure on the Pannonhalmi út vessel holds snakes in their hands. However, even the Cretan statuettes that are the closest in time are separated by a huge time distance from the Pannonhalmi út vessel.

Middle East

Middle Eastern representations, which were created roughly at the same time — in the 3rd millennium BC — but are spatially distant, already offer many examples of water-pouring scenes.99 A cylinder seal of uncertain chronological attribution found in Susa and dated to the Jemdet Nasr or the Early Dynastic Period I (i.e. the end of the 4th millennium or the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC) depicts a sitting deity with a horned crown. Two streams of water are flowing out of the vessel held in their left hand, and a fish can be seen above their raised right hand.100 There is a seal found in Girsu, originating from the time of Naram-Sin, representing the Sumerian goddess Nisaba, who holds a jug in her left hand from which water flows out101 (Fig. 12, No. 4). A similar representation — with horns and a jug — of the god Ea is known on a cylinder seal dating back to the era of the Akkadian Empire,102 or of Gilgamesh, pouring water from a jug into two vessels.103 The impression of a stamp seal of Gudea, from the 22nd century BC seal, features Enki

90 GREEN 2002,147-148, Fig. 6.18; NIELSEN et al. 2005; JOUTT1JARVI 2009.

91 PAT J.OTTÍNO 1975, XXXVII, 1.

92 GREEN 1992, Fig. 7.18.

93 ARRHENIUS - HOLMQVIST 1960, Fig. 7; HERMODSSON 2000.

94 GREEN 2002, 225, 227.

95 GREEN 1989,25.

96 GREEN 1989, 61-63; 2002,224-225, Fig. 8.17,18.

97 GREEN, 2002, 225.

98 Of course, there must have been several barely known ideas that mutually affected one another, one of which is, for example, the Eumenides, who are depicted with flowers in their left hand and a serpent in the right one (LARSON 2007,168). The shape of a woman breastfeeding a snake may be related to concepts associated with Zeus Meilichius (ROBERTSON 2003,221). The scene is known from the coins of Selinus, Sicily. Concerning the two-tailed mermaids of Romanesque ornamental art, the possibility arose that the motif can be traced back to two iconographie types known from Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. According to the hypothesis of Frances Pinnock, one of these originally depicted women sitting with legs under them, from which the idea of half-fish, half-human creatures developed. The other type is a woman sitting with her legs spread out, and sometimes touching her legs with her hands. The merging of these two representations and the appearance of the representation of two-tailed mermaids can be observed on a Luristan bronze pin. This motif could become a part of Romanesque art through the intermediation of Roman art: PINNOCK 2016.

99 I ignore those depictions, where water flows from a deity’s shoulder.

100 HENNING 1934, 3, 83, Fig. 668.

101 DELAPORTE 1920,11, T 103.

102 EISEN 1940, 45, 68-69, Fig 39.

103 HENNING 1934, 6, 26, Fig. 134.

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