Folia archeologica 54.

Judit Lebegyev: A Stag from Mycenae and the Greek prehistoric Sherd collection of the Hungarian National Museum

Foi JA ARCHAEOLOGICA LI!. 2008-2010. BUDAPEST A STAC, FROM MYCENAE AND THE GREEK PREHISTORIC SHERD COLLECTION OF THE HUNGARIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Judit LEBEGYEV In the spring of 2003 a box of Greek prehistoric sherds was re-discovered in the reserve of the Prehistoric Collection of the Hungarian National Museum. An interesting pictorial fragment with a representation of a stag was also included in this material. This study aims to present in detail this pictorial fragment followed by a catalogue of the sherd material.

1 THE ACQUISITION OF THE MATERIAL The material was donated for study purposes to the Archaeological Department of the Hungarian National Museum by the British School at Athens in 1930 in exchange for Hungarian prehistoric pottery.

2 The fragments are dated between the 1 I wish (o express my warmest gratitude to the following persons who had helped me in various ways during the preparation of this study: András Márton who had found the material and called my attention to it; Tibor Kovács, Tibor Kemenczei, Viola Dobosi, Hargita Oravecz of the Hungarian National Museum for permitting me to study and publish the material, László Szende for help in the Archive of (he Hungarian National Museum; Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan, for granting me access to the ASCSA archive and sherd collection, Eleni Hatzaki for granting me access to the BSA sherd collection and archive. Prof. Miklós Szabó, Elisabeth French. David Gill, Joost Crouwel, Joseph Maran and Vassiliki Pliatsika for helpful thoughts and advice. I warmly thank to László Mátyus for making the photographs. The drawings were made by the author. 2 Fhe official correspondence of the exchange was documented under the number 149/1930 in the Archive of the Archaeological Department, the folder with the original documents is kept in (he Main Archive of the Hungarian National Museum. The exchange was initiated by Lajos Márton, who was the director of the Archaeological Department of the Hungarian National Museum between 1923 and 1934. Iii 1930 he asked W. A. Ileurtley for prehistoric sherds from Thessaly and Macedonia for comparative purposes with Hungarian prehistoric - mainly Neolithic material. In his answer (29/12/1930) W. A. Hein (lev wrote that he collected a small sherd material from the Collection of the British School at Alliens for the Hungarian National Museum. I present here some relevant extracts from his letter: „/ have made a representative collection of 1) Thessalian and 2) South Greece sherds. I have not been able to include examples of oil Thessalian categories, since they are very rare, and we ourselves in some cases (e.g. 'crusted ware') do not possess any specimens. I have not been able to send Macedonian (except one example of the 'Danubian'fluted bowls) since I require them while I am preparing my book on Macedonia. / hope to he able to send you a collection oj specimens later. I look forward to receiving the sherds you and Dr. Tompa are kind enough to send me. (...) I atn afraid the sherds I am sending you are not very good ones, but I hope they will be of some service to you." In exchange for the Greek material (in his letter he had labelled them erroneously Macedonian') Lajos Márton had sent a small collection of Hungarian Neolithic (Bükki and Tiszai culture) sherds to (he British School at Athens in the spring of 1931. The arrival of this material was documented in the report of I he annual meeting of the subscribers of the years 1930—1931 as "Gifts of pottery to the School Collection were made by Dr. Marton, Director of the National Museum [sic!], Budapest (sherds from Hungary)", BSA 31 (1930-1931) 195. - In the letters il is mentioned that the material is made up from two separate parcels, and in W. A. Heurtley's letter reference is made to Thessalian sherds ( Fluted ware ), but the material which I will present here, comprise from only one box which includes pottery only from Southern Greece (SE Peloponnese). Despite the thorough investigations in the National Museum the box containing the Thessalian sherd material was not recovered.