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 near tumulus C, predate the LH. Three of the four horses were 13-17 years old stallions or geldings. No chariot remains were found beside them, although it must be noted in all fairness, that the position of the first pair in the grave suggested that they had been fitted with horse yoke, or horse collar (HIELTE- STAVROPOULOU 1994. passim.). 45 Hielte-Stavropoulo has discussed in detail all the early horse finds that have been found in Mycenaean Greece. Most of these came from burials, usually from graves in the Argolid: Nauplion, Dreiras, Lerna, Aidonia near Nemea (the fourteen horse remains from this site included ten skulls and a complete skeleton), Argos (Kokla 46 ) and grave IV of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Most of these date from the LH period, the earliest being the horse remains from Mycenae, Vrana and Dendra. The archaeozoological analysis of these horse remains has proven that, in contrast to Bökönyi's rash and mistaken opinion (BÖKÖNYI 1974.), these large horses were steppic, Przewalski type animals. 41 The legs of the horse from grave 3 of tumulus I Vrana had been cut off (the forelegs together with the scapulae) in order to fit the skeleton into the small cist grave, rather than out of ritual considerations. The two horses in the tholos had been sacrificed as part of the funerary ritual and they were intact. The horse from grave 3 can be dated to the early Middle Helladic period (perhaps to around 2000), since this burial is one of the earliest ones of the burial ground containing at least seven tumuli. The tholos, with its two horses, can be assigned to the LH II period, around 1500-1450. All these horse remains belong to phases long after the end of the Pit Grave culture. Horse sacrifice is rarely observed in second mill. B.C. archaeological material of Greece, and also rarely mentioned in Greek sources. Such remains - with only one exception — are related to simple horse burials. Achilles sacrificed a pair of horses over the funerary pyre of his dead friend Patroclus, and this custom is unique in the Iliad (II. 23.171-173.). The great part of the relevant finds can be considered horse burials in graves of nobility and warriors. Most of such burials - often called sacrifices - comes from the Argolid, and is well attested in the Late Helladic period (KOSMETATOU 1993. 31.). In most cases, they escorted the deceased to his resting place. The paucity of attested horse sacrifices in the Mycenaean period suggests that such a ceremony was not used very often. It is assumed that horses, which were intended for sacrifice, were yoked to the chariot which carried their deceased master. They were slaughtered after the body was interred, and were subsequently deposited in the grave along with the funerary vehicle. One funerary horse sacrifice was observed in Tholos tomb A at Archanes, Crete, and dates to the Late Minoan III period (SAKELLARAKIS 1970.). The horse was sacrificed in honour of a woman who was buried in the side room of the tomb. The six years old animal had been slaughtered and dismembered. The head was severed from the neck, the legs from the belly, and the sides from the backbone. The lower jaw had become detached from the skull and had been divided in two. Part of the thigh had also been divided. The shoulder bones of the animal also clearly retained marks of cutting, made by a sharp instrument, probably a knife. It is interesting that after it had been dismembered, all the pieces of the slaughtered horse were gathered together and carefully placed in position, as is clear from the legs, which are bent at the knee. The custom is known from both Mycenaean Greece and Cyprus (SAKELLARAKIS 1997. I. 263-264.). Both in the asvamedha-ntual 45 1 would here like to thank her again for kindly allowing me to read the manuscript of her dissertation. Although the dates are not given in radiocarbon years, they were nonetheless affected by radiocarbon dating and are early, i.e. high dates. - See DICKINSON 1994. p. 19. - This is again a tell-tale sign that there are attempts to reconcile the traditional view with the Kurgan theory since a date before 1900 is not as far from the date of 2200, around which the latest genuine Pit graves (kurgan or ochre-grave burials) in Hungary, the Voivodina and Bulgaria can be dated in the traditional chronological framework. This date of 2200, however, can be adjusted to 3000 using radiocarbon dating and in this case the arrival of the Proto-Greeks is not chronologically closer to the Kurgan period. 46 Four skeletons of horse and one dog were found here in a Mycenaean shaft grave. See BOESSNECK-VON DRIESCH 1984. 327-333 {non vidi). 47 The skeletons were not lifted from the grave, but examined in situ: MUHLY 1979. 1-2.
