Folia archeologica 27.

István Ecsedy: Két neolitikus idol Kelet-Magyarországról

Two NEOLITHIC IDOLS 47 representations, unearthed at the sites Füzesabony-Kettőshalom

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9 and Tiszavasvári-Paptelekhát;

3" a similar motif is to be found on the Kenézlő vessel.'" The conclusion may be drawn, that the idol type developed locally, in eastern Hungary, though the production of our figurines falls, in all probability, to the late section of the Alföld Linear Pottery culture, to the period, when, due to more and more intensive southern connections, Szakáihát idols, almost identical with some Vinca-Tordos types, appear.

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2 The two idols, published in the present paper, represent a most characteristicaltypeof the Middle Neolithic Age of the Alföld. Though the above mentioned effigy vases, objects decorated with typifyed motifs (symbolical signs) and flat figurines with incised ornamentation were not unearthed in an immediate connection, we can consider them, on the basis of identical motifs, as remains of a cult practice, homogeneous as for its main features, complementary to each other. Analogies of the mentioned face representations of Füzesabony and Tiszavasvári from the Balkans resp. Anatolia point undoubtedly to a cultural connection, going back to the Neolithisation process of northeastern Hungary.

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3 For the development of the idol form, to be connected with them on the basis of the Szeghalom idol, the research of the Early Neolithic period of the area gave an answer. In the course of the excavation of Early Neolithical objects at Méhtelek besides of characteristic "steatopygic" statuettes also several schematised, prismshaped figurines were unearthed.

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4 Everything considered it is no longer necessary to look for prototypes of the idol type in question in the Middle Neolithic of Bulgaria supposing that this form would spread from there through the VincaTordos and Bükk cultures.

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5 In connection with the flat idols the question of wooden prototypes, perhaps of large dimensions, was raised,

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0 in the case of the Méhtelek finds the possibility was considered, whether the local predecessors of the Linear idol type in question would, instead of being a peculiar element of the plastic art of the Early Neolithic Körös culture, preserve a local, preceramic tradition.

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7 It is doubtlessly a remarkable phenomenon that in the idol plastic of the Alföld Linear Pottery we find no figures, underlining the secondary sexual characteristics, or reflecting, even conventionally, the main features of female form, which occur in a very great number in the Körös-Starcevo circle and in the whole Early Neolithic complex of southeastern Europe.

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8 The ratio of the latter type in 2

9 Ka/icz, N.. Clay Gods. 33., Fig. 21. 3

0 Ibid. Fig. 22. 3

1 Tompa, F., Über einige ungarländische Denkmäler der prähistorischen Kunst. IPF.K 4(1928) 23.; See also: Lichardits, /., Studien . . . 57-59. "Höckmann, O., Andeutungen ... 188-189.; Banner, ].-Bálint, A., Dolg. 11(1935)84 94., Fig. 4., Pl. V. 5,8,11. 3

3 For these see: László, A., Vases néolithiques à face humaine, découvertes en Roumanie. In: Die aktuellen Fragen der Bandkeramik. 211-234. 3

4 Ka/icz, N.-Makkay, ]., A méhteleki agyagistenek. (Guide to the Méhtelek exhibition.) (Nyíregyháza 1974) 5-6. 3

5 Cf. Höckmann, О., Andeutungen . . . 189. (With further literature.) 31

1 Csalog, J., Arch.Ért. 84(1957) 208-210. 3

7 Ka/icz, N.-Makkay, J., A méhteleki . . . 21-22. 3

8 Ka/icz, N., Clay Gods. 30-31.