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)

Some figurines were made in a simple way. The body is almost rectangular-shaped, flattened or cylindrical but cloth representations also appear on them. In another cases the figurine is no more than a cylindrical column and its human character is only hardly represented. Moreover, there are over-schematized cylindrical Y-shaped objects when we can only hypothesize that they represent humans. Among the Se type figurines in some cases large heads appear with an elongated lower part and a hole. These heads were attached to a relatively large body made of organic material. This phenomenon sporadically appears within the whole distribution area of the Lengyel culture such as at Sormás-Mántai-dűlő or within the eastern group of the culture at Aszód. They also appear in Lower Austria and in eastern Hungary. The Se type figurines are never taller than 25 cm, they are always standing and their faces look straight ahead. From Se, however, there are figurine fragments that belong to one seated figurine with upright arms and from the fragment evidence it is assumed to be about 50 cm high. These differences may imply that they were used in different rites. The Se type figurines, similarly to almost all the figurines from the Neolithic and Copper Age, came to light in a broken form. We must concur that this is not an accident. Researchers agree that they were broken purposefully. Their fragmentation may have happened at the end of the ritual. The figurines were assumable made for individual use and at the end of the ritual they lost their value and strength and were destroyed together with their associated metaphoric meaning. One of their main characteristics is that in the majority of cases not all their fragments are found. The fragments also reveal the way they were manufactured. Most of them were made from two parts, the head was formed separately, or the lower body and the legs were attached to the upper body. They were usually broken by the head, upper body, lower body and legs but occasionally different fragmentation processes can also be observed. The gender of Se type figurines in many cases can only be assumed and only the gender specific features imply that they are females such as breasts, steatopygic bottom, an impression emphasizing the groin and the carefully executed breasts and hairstyle. An outstanding piece of the finds from Se is a 30 cm high anthropomorphic vessel which was placed in a small pit unbroken. It was situated close to the southern entrance of the double ditch system. It is assumed that it was placed into the pit dug for ritual reasons (offering or defending reasons). The vessel was lied down in a shallow pit and a quadrate-shaped stone was placed on it. For this reason the uniquely formed vessel only broke because of the weight of the stone. The lower part of the vessel is squat above which the upper body is cylindrical. On the top of the upper body the head is represented by a small cup with its shape characteristic to the period. The nose was applied to the head but broke off. The applied eyebrows remained. It is assumed that the eyes were painted but the mouth, similarly to other figurines was not represented. The breasts are plastically represented, the arms were also plastically depicted in a way that the maker represented the shoulders and the arms were bent at the elbows and placed on the stomach. On its back a shallow vertical impression marks the back bone and the same impression symbolically divides the lower body into two parts. The vessel gives an impression of a seated figurine. The unification of the vessel and the human body in a seated position was carried out in an artistic way. People living in Se type settlements in the formative phase of the Lengyel culture influenced strongly the following developed period mainly towards the west and northwest. They influenced less the eastern Transdanubian group because that region was effected by the Tisza-Herpály-Csőszhalom culture that lived in the Great Hungarian Plain. For this reason there are considerable differences between the western and eastern groups of the Lengyel culture. THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE DEVELOPING LENGYEL CULTURE, TRANSITIONAL PERIOD TO THE EARLY CLASSICAL PHASE (4700-4500 ВС) Remarkably rich human representations and cultic paraphernalia of Szombathely-Oladi plató Life on the site of Sé lasted for approximately 150-200 years. Its inhabitants left their settlement for an unknown reason around 4700 ВС and for a long time it was not known what happened to the community. A favourable large-scale excavation, which was not possible earlier, between 2005 and 2007, however, has helped to shed light on the community of Sé. It seems that at Oladi plató, which belongs to the town Szombathely and is situated around 1,5 km from Sé, the life of the Sé community continued under different circumstances on a 40-50 metres high natural elevation. Here the making of figurines was continued in a similar manner. It is assumed that the rites also remained similar but the uniform nature of the Sé figurines was changed into a slightly more varied form. The newly developed figurines style at Oladi plató spread in a uniform manner into southwest Slovakia, Lower Austria and southern Moravia representing the early classical phase of the Lengyel culture.