Viola T. Dobosi: Paleolithic Man in the Által-ér Valley (Tata, 1999)

Fig. 33-34. Polished mammoth-tooth plate, a „chourounga" can classify the most specific object found on the site. The tooth plate of a grown-up mammoth (not the tusk!) was polished-smoothed into regular oval form, shiny and rounded. On its surface, traces of red mineral paint were also spotted. The object was identified as a chourounga by László Vértes. This strange-sounding name denotes a symbol of the faith of the Australian aboriginals. It is an oval or fish-form plate with mystical engravings. On the ceremonies of men, it symbolises the history of the tribe preserving the good will of the ancestors (men, living 58 beings, plants or animals, natural phenomena) for the community. We do not have to explain long that the hunters' community living in the former calcareous tuff basins could thank their lives, the preservation of the community and the continuation of life to the mammoth. To turn it to ordinary speech, probably they realised that mammoth as their main game is the basic condition of their survival and should be esteemed accordingly. We can conceive the mammoth-teeth plate as a symbol of this row of ideas.