Zalai Múzeum 6. (Zalaegerszeg, 1996)

Közlemények - P. Baran Judit: A lengyeli kultúra tömegsírja Esztergályhorvátiban

156 P. Barna Judit blow - no other trace as a possible cause of death could be seen. The large-scale fragmentation of the find however greatly restricts possibilities for this type of observations. As regards the chronology we can state that the ceramics found in the grave indicate the age of the find quite accurately. Relying upon these grave-goods the time of the burial may have taken place in the formatting phase of the Lengyel Culture. The ceramics have good and close analogies - among others - in the materials of Sé and Luzianky which represent the Protolengyel - Horizon. There are two pieces suitable for closer dating: one of them is the small vessel with a tube-shape pedestal, decorated with red and yellow paintings, the other one is the deep dish with a mildly Sprofile. Both characteristics are usual in the material of the developing phase. The second part of the study deals with the question of the interpretation. Since we do not know any find parallel to the one found in Esztergályhorváti as regards its form we have to study its cultic aspects which are probable on the ground of the following phenomena observed in our object: 1. All deceases are men which fact reduces the probability of the natural causes of their death. 2. The burnt level must be the result of a hightemperature fire which could be a sacrificial pyre and in the same way the object can be considered as a sacrificial pit. 3. There were no personal grave-goods put beside the deceases. 4. The ceramics lying an the burnt level (with three painted ones among them) could be the properties of the sacrificial ceremony. 5. Grindstones are usual and typical finds of sacrificial pits as parts of the fertility rite. 6. We observed traces of violent death of the deceases in three cases which is important for the question of the ritual murder. 7. The common grave is a separate, solitary object so we can exclude the possibility that it could have been a settlement pit with subsequent burying in it or a foundation sacrifice. We quoted different kinds of cultic burying from the Lengyel-circle by way of examples, these are as follows: 1. the cult of the skull and buryings of skulls or heads; 2. buryings in wcssels; 3. ritual anthropophagy; 4. foundation sacrifices containing human skeletal remains. The closest parallels of our find probably are two buryings which do not belong to any of the above mentioned groups: 1. a grave of the Lengyel Culture found in Friebritz (Lower-Austria) which was brought in connection with ritual murder; 2. the common grave of the Ludanice-group excavated in Bajc-Ragona (Bohemia). On the basis of all these we can state the following facts as a summarising: raised up the possibility that we could consider the common grave found in Esztergályhorváti as the remain of a human sacrifice. However, a human sacrifice has an essential condition, namely the ritual murder and although we have notice some traces relating to violent death also in our find, the number of these are very low. In the predominant majority of the corpses any traces of violence cannot be observed. Consequently, neither the sacrifice of the people buried here can be established. In spite of that the cultic character of this common grave cannot be queried, but no closer conclusions can be proved. Translated by P.Barna Judit