A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 3. - 1960 (Nyíregyháza, 1963)
Makkay János: Strange Prehistoric Finds in the Jósa András Museum
A detailed proof of the pot-lid 21 This type was already summarized by the author before. 6 By this time there are also newer finds publicated. From Dévaványa one gets to know a similar potlid of the finds of the line-ornamented pottery too. 7 All such finds belong to the Tisza-culture and the class of archeological finds equal in age with this 8-11 or to the horizon of the culture of Lengyel, of Bogrogkeresztur and of the painted Moravian pottery. 12-14 The southern relations of the type are well-known, 6 , 15 though the quoted analogy of Tepe Giyan is not a sculpture but a painted decoration. But a (lid)-handle from Ur, of the age of the third Dinasty of Ur already belongs to the plastic art, picturing a boar. 16 On an alabaster pot-lid from Byblos there is again a bull lying. Its age: 2000 or 1800—1750 b. C. 17 It is quite possible that it has relations to Crete though its age is far off that of the pot-lid of Mochlos. 41 Especially important are the flat lids of Kültepe and Tepe Hissar. 18 . 19 The former can be dated in the second half of the third millenium b. C. and the latter in the Hissar III-B. On the lid of Kültepe we see the embossed figure of a lion victoriously lying beside a downed man. On the find of Tepe Hissar there is similarly a lion lying, which, however, brought down a bull visible as fallen prostrate beside him. The two finds were created by conceptions identical almost totally and can be dated in almost indentical ages. This gives them cultural importance. They are important also for showing clearly the role of the beast on the lid, namely the symbolical guarding. They are expressing the flash when the lion won a final victory over the enemy (the man or the bull) seeking after the contents of the vessel. Accordingly we can't see but a dog, lion, panther-as a rule a beast of prey on every such a lid. Similar facts and figures, however, can't be got not only of the works of plastic art. While building the temples of the Near East there were stone lions often placed in or before the porch. They were cut out for guarding the edifice symbolically. On the well-known temple-model of Beisan too, one has again to see such a watching beast. There were also several similar statues discovered in the course of excavations. So was the portal of the temple of God Assur guarded by the statue of a pair of lions. 24 In Mari, at the end of third mill., there were too bronze lions who performed these duties. 25 Also written sources of Mari mention such statues of lions before the temple of Dagan. 26 In the age of the Dinasty of Larsa it was the temple of King Sumu-ilu (1824—1796) there were, two copper lions placed before. 27 This may have been a heritage of an ancient sumerian idea. In Lagash namely erected Entemena a wood-carving of lion before the temple of Ningirsu. 28 In Uruk, of the foundation of the White Temple, there were skeletons of a panther and a lion unearthed. 31 Also the entrances of the palace in Nimrud as well as from Khorsabad were guarded by stone lions. 29 , 30 All these statues, respectively beasts had to guard and to safe-guard the holy places from the evil spirits and other unpious visitors. Such a symbolical significance was attributed to the dog too. In the library room of Kish (built about 1800—-1700) there were three figurines of dogs digged beneath the floor. 32 On one of them there was an insription too „biter of his enemy". Nabukudurusur I. (1135—? b. C) stowed beneath the door-step of a temple gold, silver, and bronze figurines of dogs. 33 In a palace of Ur, built by King Nabonidus there were two small dog-figurines placed into the bottom of the wall. 34 At the entrance of the palace of Assurbanapli (668—626) in Niniveh there were five walled-in dog figurines watching. 35 Also in Nippur there were figurines of dogs stowed beneatli the floor. 36 All these dog-figurines had the same task: a symbolical guarding. Hittite texts let us know when these guarding figurines must have been stowed away to their destination. This had to happen in some distinct period of the building by determined ceremony. 37 From earlier sumerian texts is also visible that ,,a white and a black dog" are watching a temple. 38 Another text gives information on the temple in Isin having been watched by dogs. 39 This is meant symbolically and yet can be of real meaning too. Thus already in the sumerian period there were three modes of this kind of guarding developed: him wanted be achieved by setting either real living animals or vast animal statues before the entrance (porch), respectively, by stowing smaller figurines or bodies of animals in the foundation. So is it more than evindent that, in the third millennium, there was a wide-spread, general belief that statues or 24
