Folia archeologica 34.

Viola T. Dobosi: Adatok a tatai középsőpaleolit ipar értékeléséhez

42 ISTVÁN VÖRÖS The alveolar breadth of left side I

1"

3 is 21.5 mm; the length of diastema is 45.6 mm; the alveolar length of the caninus is 27 mm. The greatest thickness of the corpus praemaxillae at the sutura incisiva is 17 mm. II. SE-EUROPEAN PREHISTORIC LION REMAINS Prehistoric lion bone remains are known till now from two areals of SEEurope. The first area is the SW-Ukraine. Prehistoric lion bone remains came to light from two Eneolithic settlements in the Odessa region of the NW Black Sea area:

1

3 Bo/çrad town (Gumelnita Culture, 1970) — 1 piece: ph II, sin. ant. (№ 17-2434. Fig. 8). Dated to cà 3500 B.C.; Mayakt village (Late Tripolye Culture, 1964) — 9 remains: mandibula sin. fr. (№ 4-844, Fig. 1), mandibula dext. fr. (№ 4-845, Fig. 2), caninus sup. sin. (№ 4-483, Fig,. 3), radius prox. sin. fr. (№ 4-846, Fig. 4), radius dist. sin. fr. (№ 4-1300, Fig. 5), mc, sin. (№ 4-849, Fig. 6), mc

5 sin. (№ 4-848, Fig. 6), ph. II

4 sin. ant. (№ 4-851, Fig. 7), ph. Ill, sin. ant. (№ 4-850, Fig. 9). Date: 645 2 390 ± 65 B.C.

1

4 The other area is the Peloponnesus. The first lion bone remain came to light in Tiryns Castle, Peloponnesus, Greece.

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5 Calcaneus dext. was found beside the human skeleton in grave № 67. at the western wall of castle Tiryns in 1978. Date: 1230 B.C.

1« The humerus dist. dext. fr. was found in a big refuse pit in 1980. It is dated to the Early Mycenaean phase, shaft-graves period, 16

l

h century B.C.

1

7 The presence and existence of Eastern-SE-European lion could be detected from the middle of the III

r

d millennium B.C. till the 13

r

d century B.C. It could not be accidental that "Heracles who was originally the popular deity and legendary hero of Dorian tribes of the Peloponnesus"

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8 in one of his myths conquered the lion of Nemea or Cleone. And he got this task (his first labour) from Eurystheus just in Tiryns (Apollodorus Bibi. III.5.1.). The lion is connected with another personality of Greek mythology; when the Centaur Chiron reared and educated Achilles, he fed the boy with bowels of lions and wild boars to be valiant and to hunt for these animals (Apollodorus Bibl. III.13.6., Pindar Nemean Odes III. 3. Strophe, Ilias XI. 831-832). The living lions of Greece must have been the models of the marvellous representations of lions of the Mycenaean culture like the Lion Gate at Mycenae or a bronze dagger representing lion-hunting found in a royal grave (shaft-grave № 4) at Mycenae

1"

— to mention only the most famous ones. 1

3 Bibikova, V. I., loc. cit. 1

4 Tringham, R., Hunters, fishers and farmers of Eastern Europe 6000—3000 B.C. (London 1971) Fig. 40. 1

5 Boessneck, J.

—

von den Driesch, A., loc. cit. (1979). 1

6 Ibid. 449.,' Figs, la—b.; lid., loc. cit. (1981). 1

7 Ibid. 257., Figs, la—b. 1

8 Hahn, I., Istenek és népek (Gods and peoples). (Budapest 1980) 200. 1

9 Evans, A., The palace of Minos at Knossos. (London 1964) 118—., Fig. 71.