A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 47. (Nyíregyháza, 2005)

Régészet - János Makkay: The Miracle Stag in Ancient Greek mythical stories and their Indo-Iranian counterparts

The Miracle Stag (LÁSZLÓ 1970/1974. 97.). It is quite easy to interpret his suggestion in the framework of present terms of prehistoric archaeology: hunting groups wandering to the North can surely be identified with Late Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic groups of the East Gravettian culture, or technocomplex, of the European steppic and forest steppic zones, and its Mesolithic descendants. The eastern part of this large cultural complex (between the Carpathian Range and Volga-Caspian area) can, at the same time, considered the genetic antecedents of the speakers of the oldest Indo-lranian dialectal group. It is my strong belief, that Proto-Indo-Iranian languages emerged in the western steppes after the end of the Ice Age, when periglacial groups moving North divided from their neighbours (or cognates), which had remained back on their former territories, and the dialectal differentiation of the IndoEuropean parent language had also its beginnings. Following this, the continuous and apparently unbroken archaeological and ethnic development east of the Dnieper from the earliest Pit grave (Kurgan) period to the appearance of the Iranian speaking Sarmatians help to understand, why such very old - Late Palaeolithic - religious beliefs had survived so a long millennia till Middle Iranian periods, i.e. Scythian and Sarmatian times. It is a well known fact, that the Scythians were a member of this long and unbroken developing chain of Indo-lranian - Proto-Iranian - Early Iranian - Old Iranian speaking tribes, which archaeologically can be described as the long sequence of the Pit grave - Catacomb grave - Timber grave - Kimmerian or Proto-Scythian - Scythian - Protosarmatian - Sarmatian/Alanian cultures i.e. periods (MAKKAY 2004. 95., with further literature.). The long and unbroken continuity of this sequence taken into consideration, it is no wonder why, and how, elements of the belief in miraculous stags and hinds were inherited from ancestral groups into later cultural phases of genetically and culturally related population groups of Iranian and Indo-Aryan tongues. In full accordance with these, and other, archaeological facts and linguistic premises, Gy. László added important details to his suggestions concerning Iranian beliefs and thoughts about pursued stags, and the image of the antlered hind. For example, he made reference to a Persian tale (a variant of one of tales in the Arabian Nights), in which one variant of the Hungarian saga (of the two brothers, i.e. Hunor and Magor pursuing the deer) can also be detected. According to this tale. 29 Fig. 28 28. kép