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)

that depict their breasts and that their arms are folded across in front of the body but situated under the breasts. In the Balkans figurines are also known with both male and female characteristics. Were these representations depicted hermafrodites? Before the Sopot culture, at the end of the TLPC another archaeological unit appeared between the Drava and Sava rivers that is the Malo Korenovo type material culture, which is considered to be the Croatian variation of the Central European Linear Pottery Culture. In southern Zala the Malo Korenovo outlived the TLPC and was also contemporary and having some sort of relationship with the Sopot culture perhaps as a result of having continuous "inspiration" from its home land. An independent site of this cultural group is unknown in Hungary. There are two seated figurine fragments that show characteristic incised Malo Korenovo decorations often observed on vessels. THE BEGINNING OF LATE NEOLITHIC, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LENGYEL CULTURE (4900-4700 ВС) Rich human representations from Sé-Malomi-dűlő and Sormás-Török-földek Around 4900 ВС, slightly later than the beginning of the Sopot culture in Transdanubia a newly developed archaeological unit started to exist in western Transdanubia. The Late Neolithic started within this new cultural unit, which is considered to be the successor of the TLPC and was partly a descendant of the Early Sopot culture. This culture was named Lengyel culture after its first site in Tolna County by international archaeologists. In the emergence of the Lengyel culture, the Sopot culture also played a role but is considered to also be at least a partly contemporary. The Lengyel culture in western Transdanubia differs from the one in eastern Transdanubia. One of the most significant differences between the two regions is that in the western region there are no cemeteries or burial groups found so far. Burial habits can only be assessed for the whole western area of the culture by some burials situated within the settlements. There is one mass grave in Esztergályhorváti (Zala County) where 25-30 individuals were squeezed into a 1,5 x 1,8 metres sized rectangular pit. This was not a proper burial but supposedly represents some sort of tragedy perhaps an enemy attack. As opposed to the western group, within the eastern territory of the cultural group extensive settlements are characteristic within which several hundreds or even thousands of graves are found. In the western regions one important character, however, is that the earliest phase of the Lengyel culture emerged within this region. The changing living circumstances are represented in the material culture and in the particularly rich human representations. The mid-scale excavations in Se (Vas County) between 1973 and 1980 gave considerable surprise to the archaeological community. This was the first site where parts of a double ditch system, mainly characteristic to the early phase of the Lengyel culture, came to light in Hungary. This ditch system is dated to the oldest emerging or formative phase of the Lengyel culture. After this period, in the younger early-classic phase of the culture similar ditch systems were made in the whole distribution area of the culture. The main characteristic of the round ditches, that are also called rondel, is that they were not established to defend the settlements and, as opposed to earlier ditch systems, they do not have houses inside them. This phenomenon raises a question about their function. There are many assumptions about the function of the ditches but none of them can be supported by hard evidence. The most probable explanation is that the round areas surrounded by double ditches were sacred places separated from the profane world. At these sacred places groups of people perhaps from several communities occasionally gathered for some sort of ritual activities. Even though there is no hard evidence to support this assumption there are some signs indicating the sacred nature of these sites. It is true that the excavations at Sé were carried out in the immediate surroundings of the round ditches, and it is even surprising, but it is probably not an accident, that nearly 130 figurines and figurine fragments came to light within a relatively small area (approx. 1000 nr). At Sormás-Török-földek that also represents the western region of the culture a large-scale excavation of more than 50.000 nr revealed two large double ditch systems which have been partly excavated. Even though within the large excavated area the number of figurines were not even close to the number from Sé, but all of the 33 figurines were found in the immediate surroundings of the ditches. A significant site of the Moravian Painted Pottery, which is slightly younger but related to the Early Lengyel culture, is Tesetice where 300 figurines were found. The majority of these figurines were within the round ditch. According to this circumstance it is highly probable, that similarly to the phenomenon in Moravia, Sé and Sormás, there is a relationship between round ditches and the large number of figurines found within or near to them. A few small-scale excavations were carried out in western Transdanubia at sites that are contemporary with Sé but similar figurines to the ones from Sé were not present in the settlement features (Zalaszentbalázs-Pusztatető) or there was only one fragment (Letenye, Becsehely). At three sites that are situated away from each other Sé type figurines came to light in puzzling circumstances. At Nagycenk in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, within the excavated settlement there were two almost identical large figurines within the same pit.