Folia archeologica 26.

István Ecsedy: Vinca finds in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum

10 I. ECSEDY modelling of the feet, was unearthed during the excavations of Vasic from a depth of 6 m.

4 A good analogy is furnished furthermore by a fragment of an altar, found previously to the excavation, whose meandering decorations are identical with those of the above published piece, with the exception that the female figure does not sit on the rim of the altar but on a smaller stool or „throne"

5 There seems to be no doubt about it that in the case of the present fragment we can speak of the representation of a ritual act or scene. The fragments found also at Vinca, where there are kneeling figures on altar-like platforms before a cylindrical indentation, are to be regarded as representations of a similar character, respecting their formulating and object.® Whether they are representations of a sacrifice, or some other cultic act, connected with a cultic object, inserted into the said indentation, these objects extant from the beginning of Vinca C, reflect an extremely developed ritual practice; as it is highly probable that they 4 Vasic, M., Preistoriska Vinca. III. (Beograd 1936) 106—107., Fig. 510. 5 Ibid. 121., 123., Fig. 555; see also ibid. Pl. CX, CXI. The form of the altar and the decoration described — without the sitting female figure — often occurs in Tordos. Cf. Roska, M., A Torma Zsófia gyűjtemény (Die Sammlung Zs. v. Torma). (Kolozsvár 1941) Pl. XCVIII. 3—11. 6 Vasic

, M., op. cit. 513—514.