Budapest Régiségei 36. (2002) – In memoriam Rózsa Kalicz-Schreiber (1929-2001)
Poroszlai Ildikó: A plastic ornamented vessel from Százhalombatta-Földvár : Vatya-Koszider phase = Plasztikus díszű edény Százhalombatta-Földvárról : Vaty-Koszider fázis 281-290
ILDIKÓ POROSZLAI often there are horizontal parallel incised lines, hatched triangles on the long neck, or the neck is undecorated and vertical triangles go around the belly (Fig. 3)7 Besides this vessel type the cylindrical pots with four knobs on the rim, 8 undecorated urns with everted rim or decorated with incised lines, garland, pendant ornaments or fluted knobs (Fig. 4), 9 dishes with everted rim, 10 deep bowls with truncated cone shape and arched rim, 11 lids, strainers and cups are regarded as the most frequent pottery types. 12 The best parallels of the cups - with or without omphalos base, spherical body everted rim, handles coming from the rim, rising above the rim - can be found in the Mogyoród pottery depot 13 but it must be emphasised that the forms of the cups in pit No. 2 are more varied. There are cups which are the smaller versions of Ráskopalota jugs with long funnel-shaped neck and its tyipcal decoration (Fig. 5). TWO-HANDLED JAR SYMBOLIZING FEMALENESS The most important find of pit No. 2 is a dark brown biconical two-handled jar with a funnel-shaped neck and everted rim. The handles - connecting the neck and the belly - are vertically channelled. There are two arms with bended elbow at the bottom of the handles. 3 and 5 incised lines represent bracelets on the wrist. The fingers are also represented with incised lines. Two channelled warts symbolizing breasts can be seen between the two handles. Under the arms two parallel incised lines are running around, under these lines the belly is decorated. (Fig- 6). Bottom: 10, 5 cm in diameter. Rim: 19, 3 cm in diameter. Height: 29 cm. Inv No: With its plastic decoration this unique vessel is considered to represent femaleness. Looking through the most important finds bearing plastic decoration (mostly a weapon or parts of the human body: face, arm, hand etc.), it must be stressed that they occur at the end of the Middle Bronze Age both on settlements and cemeteries. 14 The number of these vessels and their fragments are too few to draw considerable religious conclusions. On the other hand very little is known about the meaning of symbolism of the Middle Bronze Age. In any case they belonged to a special person (perhaps a warrior) in case of a grave good (e.g. Dunauj7 SCHREIBER 1967. Fig. 1.1-6.; TOMPA 1942. XL 1.16. 8 BONA 1975. Taf. 49.L 9 BONA 1975. Taf. 46. 2, 4. 10 BONA 1975. 68.; POROSZLAI 1990. Fig. 4. 8-9, Fig. 7. 6. « BÓNA-NOVÁKI 1982. Taf. XVII. 2-3. 12 POROSZLAI 2000. PL V X 7., PI. VII. L 2, 5., PI. X. 1, PI. XL 5., PI. XIV 3., PL XXI. 5. » KOVÁCS 1978. 217-221. « KOVÁCS 1973. 7-31. város, K Izsák 16 ) or they may have had a special role (to defend the crops, to belong to fertility rite) in case of a settlement (e.g. Mende, 17 Százhalombatta 18 ). However it may have been, one thing can be stated: this type of vessels was made to express respect and honour toward somebody something or a belief. If we take into consideration the plastic ornamented pieces (Mende, Igar, Dunaújváros, Pákozd, Tószeg, Tiszafüred, Izsák) 19 and also a new vessel fragment with dagger representation from Százhalombatta, 20 it can be established at first sight that all finds symbolize a male. Another important fact that the sites these finds came out - except Tiszafüred and Tószeg - belong to the territory of the Vatya Culture. For the most part when the position or stratigraphy of the objects is known - they came from late Vatya-Koszider level (14 th century B.C.). Until now the first and only vessel - belonging to this Vatya-Koszider plastic ornamented vessel group - is the Százhalombatta two-handled jar that symbolizes femaleness. Investigating prehistoric art, antropomorh and zoomorph representations can be found all over Europe, from Anatolia to the Carpathian Basin. Recent researches tried to prove the Anatolian or Mediterranian origin of some motifs, decoration or vessel types. From time to time the appearance of them were explained by wandering or trade on the one hand and by local origin and development on the other. The stylistically similar finds from Troy 21 are dated to the 3rd millennium B.C., such as a hand representation fragment from the Bulgarian Nova Zagora Ezero site. 22 So they are much older than the Hungarian pieces and more resembling to the urns of Ozd-Center both in time and form. The dagger representations on the Mende, Dunaújváros and Százhalombatta jars have also quite distant parallels: the predecessors of the triangular daggers can be found in the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean 23 but not in the Carpathian Basin. 24 The craftmen having made our vessels wanted not only represent a dagger on a jar but rather to copy it which means that these dagger types (the Pákozd type too) were used in the Vatya territories during the 15 th-14 th century B.C. It is considered that the Aegean influence - reaching first Transylvania and spreading » KOVÁCS 1973. Fig.6. « KOVÁCS 1973.12. 17 KOVÁCS 1973. Fig. 1-2. 18 POROSZLAI 2000. Fig. 6. 19 KOVÁCS 1973. 7-21. 20 POROSZLAI 2000. Pl. XII. 21 BOSSART 1942.11. t. 54.; BLECEN-CASKEY-RAWSON 1951. Pl. 168, 37. 1023 22 GEORGIEV-MERPERT 1965.145,156, Pl. 16. 23 SANDARS 1961.15,18,22, Pl. 2,19,1. 6-7. 24 KOVÁCS 1973. Fig. 10. 2,14. 282
