Savaria – A Vas Megyei Múzeumok Értesítője 34./1 – (2011) (Szombathely, 2011)

RÉGÉSZET - Károlyi Mária: A Sé - Malomi-dűlő neolitikus település festett kerámiájának díszítési rendszerei

KÁROLYI Mária Mária KÁROLYI THE ORNAMENTING SYSTEMS ON PAINTED POTTERY IN THE NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT AT THE SÉ-MALOMI SLOPE I led excavations in the Malomi slope of the village of Sé in several years between 1973 and 1996, with the Cooperation Nándor Kalicz and the Archaeological Institute of the Hungárián Academy of Sciences from 1975 to 1980. The findings of the excavation were exhibited in the Savaria Museum between 1982 and 2010 under the heading 'Regions-Ages-Settlements'. This excavation procedure was the first to unearth painted Neolithic pottery in Vas county and mainly female idols - as a further result. Among the settlement phenomenon we found a bent shaped (most probably oval) moat system. Even though the findings represent several eras, the richest material belongs to the Lengyeli culture, providing further means of research. Düring the inventory of the findings I held each and every item of painted pottery in my hands which made me attempt to find augmentation styles and systems among them based on the most characteristic motives. These systems are: spirál row of wheels, meander variations, windowed, triangle variations, organic and textile imprint styles. The symbol contents of certain motives are already known (spirál, meander, sun-cross), however, we were looking for further signs, based on the fact that these sign-like motives appear not only on painted or carved pottery but also on the idols. Most of the painted pots are fine pottery, in somé cases however, stripes of red colour were also painted onto rough pots. The special and usual character of painting is undermined by the fact that non-visible parts of pots, like the bottom, were painted both on the in- and outside with a thick, red layer of paint or were marked with symbols (grid, cross, rhomboid). On somé fragments we could observe that broken surfaces were painted red or yellow. This custom could also be seen on broken idols, which makes us assume that both pottery and idols, even when broken, played a role in the life of Neolithic communities. Ali items of pottery having several painted colours were made in situ, this is undermined by unearthed paint material which must have been coming from nearby sources. We also found colour palettes made of polished stone. The paintings in Sé can be considered as constructivist, because it has a disciplined system with a high emphasis on structures, in many cases the augmented surfaces are aligned along four verticai axes. A further examination of the related motives can reveal more about the ideological contents. The painted pottery at Sé must have been made for festive purposes and carry world-explaining beliefs of Neolithic communities and were parts of the religious life of these communities. They were unearthed mainly from sacrificial mounds along with other cultic objects: idols, phallic fragments and animal-shaped covers. A part of the painted motives (signs, symbols) on them can be originated in the religious art of the upper Paleolithic. Religious ideas of the Neolithic has - according to several researchers - its roots in the religion-like ideas of the Paleolithic period and was enriched by the new ideas, Gods and ever complex world of symbols of peasant communities involved in agricultural and animal husbandry. The movies, augmentation and symbols of the painted pottery, just like ancient scriptures, speak to us, however, their message coming from millennia still needs to be researched further and decoded. 172