Folia archeologica 23.

Tibor Kovács: Askoi, Bird-Shaped Vessels, Bird-Shaped Rattles in Bronze Age Hungary

IO T. KOVÁCS quite complete, since a few pieces preserved in private collections or in smaller museums could not be studied first hand. It was VI. Milojcic who studied at great length the Balkan and CentralEuropean types of the askos, this specific vessel of the Mediterranean prehistory.

11 There seems to be no doubt today that the emergence of askoi here at the same time, point to the ethnic, political and economic relations between the SouthEastern and the above mentioned regions of Europe. In Hungary it was Nándor Kalicz who first dealt with the askoi.

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2 According to him it was during the Bronze Age that askoi emerged in Hungary in the Zók culture: at Hoss^üpálji (?); a piece from an unkown place of discovery (Nyírség group) ;

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3 Sövényháza (Makó group) ;

14 Zók-Várhegy (Zók group).

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5 In spite of the small number of finds, it is very likely than in the first half of the Early Bronze Age, askoi were made both in the Transdanubian region

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6 and in the Great Plain of Hungary. The above-quoted pieces of the Zók culture are primarily significant as the first representatives of the Mediterranean vesselshape and the adjoining cultic (?) content in the Bronze Age in this region. Yet, comparing the Hungarian pieces, we can find in them both in shape and ornamentation more dissimilar than similar features. This, indirectly, refers to the fact that they were most probably local products and they were supposedly made later than the earliesr period of Zók culture.

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7 We can suppose

—as stated by Nándor Kalicz

—no direct connection between the pieces made in the later phases of Hatvan culture

—and the early askoi above referred to.

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8 It is evident that the pieces recovered from the Hatvan culture represent a type different from the Zók one, or a variation of it.

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9 Accordingly more significance can be granted to a so far unkown askos from Tószeg described by Amalia Mozsolics, without accompanying data.

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0 The lengthened-shaped neck and rim of the askos (Fig. i. no. 4) is more or less identical with the top-part of a 1

1 Milojcic

, VI., Die Askoskanne und einige andere ägäisch-balkanische Gefäßformen. MDAI 3(1950) 105fr. 1

2 Kalicz, N., op. cit. 98-99., 171-172. 13 Ibid. 64., 75., Pl. XI. nos. ia-c., PI. XVI. nos. ia-b. 1

4 Banner, J., Dolg. 15

(1939) 84., Fig. 4. nos. 5a-b. 1

5 Tompa, F., 25 Jahre Urgeschichtsforschung in Ungarn 1912-1936. BRGK 24-25(193435) 61., Pl. XX. no. 6. 1

6 As to the history of the Early Bronze Age in the Transdanubian region, scholars do not seem to agree completely. We encounter many conflicting views on ethnic and chronological problems in the works of I. Bona [Alba Begia 4-5(1965) 39-61.], N. Kalicz (op. cit. 62-109.) a

nd G. Bandi [Alba Regia 8-9(1967-68) 23fr.]. Apart from them it can be stated that among the finds of the Early Bronze Age, only one askos is known (Zók-Várhegy). I. Bona refers only by means of indirect data that the Somogyvár group could have been familiar with the askoi (Alba Regia 1965. 56.) 1

7 More exact dating within cultures is made more dificcult, because they emerged outside authentic condition. 1

8 Kalicz, 'V., op. cit. 171. 1

9 Certain formal similarity may be observed only in the Sövényháza (Banner, J., Dolg. 1939. Fig. 4. nos. 5a-b.) and Tiszalúc (Kalicz, N., op. cit. Pl. LII. no. 10.) pieces. We mean first of all the handle starting from the rim which occurs in many pieces of the Hatvan culture.-Since the Sövényháza askos is not an authentic find, it is possible that later new askoi can change their dates. 2

0 Mozsolics, A., La stratigraphie, base de la chronologie de l'âge du bronze de la Hongrie. Origini 3(1969) 283., Fig. 4. no. 2.