Ilon Gábor: Százszorszépek. Emberábrázolás az őskori Nyugat-Magyrországon (Szombathely, 2007)

Kalicz Nándor: Az őskori agyagszobrászat kezdetei a Nyugat-Dunántúlon (Kr. e. 6000–Kr. e. 3000)

affected by the Near East and does not show a relationship to Western-, Middle- or Eastern European Palaeolithic figurine making. Figurines reached the Balkans in the 7

th millennium ВС as a result of the movements of farming communities to this area. The figurines in Greece show characteristics similar to the ones found in Anatolia. These types of figurines, that are reminiscent of those from Anatolia, spread further north to the middle and north Balkans with the movement of the Starcevo culture. The northern border of the Starcevo culture reached from southern Transdanubia to the Lake Balaton region and northern Zala County. The Körös culture in the Great Hungarian Plain, apart from its characteristic figurines, also acquired peculiar rectangular-shaped figurines through its different communication routes from Bulgaria. It is not surprising that because of the larger number of sites in the Great Hungarian Plain there are many more figurines found there than in Transdanubia. Apart from a few exceptions, the number of figurine at each site in the Great Hungarian Plain is not very high either. Méhtelek in the northeast Great Hungarian Plain (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County) is considered to be the most outstanding where 65 figurines were found within a few features. LINEAR POTTERY CULTURES (THE 2ND HALF OF THE 6TH MILLENNIUM ВС) Figurines from the beginning to the end of the period The oldest phase: Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pityerdomb At the end of the Starcevo culture, as a result of its spread towards the northwest, around the middle of the 6

,h millennium ВС the beginning of an agricultural subsistence appeared in the northern and western part of Zala County. As a result of the relationship and gradual mixing between the local and newly arrived southern communities the material culture in this region differ only slightly from the one in the south. The result of this interaction was a new archaeological community, a new archaeological culture. This region, from southern Zala to the area of Vienna in the north, was the cradle of a cultural group, which within a considerable short period developed into a uniform cultural group over a very extensive area in Central Europe. From its characteristic way of vessel decoration it is called Linear Pottery Culture. According to its Hungarian distribution it is called Transdanubian Linear Pottery Culture or "TLPC". The oldest known settlement of this cultural group is at Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pityerdomb where a mediumsized excavation revealed a considerable part of a settlement with details of two buildings. The material culture strongly reveals characteristics of the Starcevo culture. This excavation made it possible to distinguish the oldest phase of the TLPC in Hungary. In the western region contemporary sites are found in Zalaegerszeg-Andráshida-Gébárti tó and Tapolca-Templomdomb, but at these sites figurines were not found. At Pityerdomb a small figurine fragment came to light from the filling level of one of the buildings. This figurine is the only one so far from this period in Hungary. Unfortunately its fragmented nature does not allow us to assess its shape, therefore it can only be assumed that it belongs to the same group of figurines within the southern origin. Next to Vienna at Brunn am Gebirge a large-scale excavation revealed a settlement from the same period where several houses and two figurine fragments were found. The two figurine fragments belong to large figurines that are unusual for this period. The artistic details of the larger figurine fragment render it admirable. The main features of the figurine such as steatopygic bottom, elongated body and perhaps that the arms were individually formed suggest a southern origin. The older phase: Zalavár-Belterület Until quite recently the whole Transdanubian region was assigned to the older phase of the LPC. Moreover, the material culture of all Central Europe that showed less Early Neolithic Starcevo characteristics was also assigned to the older phase of the LPC. After the excavations at Pityerdomb and Brunn, however, the dating of the LPC had to be reconsidered and for this reason the previously dated sites assigned to the "older phase" now are considered to be slightly younger. It must also be noted that at this stage of the research it seems that in the majority of Transdanubia and essentially in all Central Europe this phase represents the oldest Neolithic. Its chronological position lies between approximately 5500 and 5300 ВС. The first site of this period in the western region was found in 1954 at Zalavár. The chronological position of the site within the LPC only became clear decades later, when it was revealed that the material culture and chronological position of this site are similar to the characteristic finds of Bicske and the Slovakian Bény/Bína. Later, in the 1970's several small-scale excavations in western Transdanubia revealed finds and features from this period as well, such as at Keszthely-Fenékpuszta, Becsehely II and Sé.