Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 13 (1968) (Pécs, 1971)
Régészet - Makkay, János: The Chalcolithic Male Relief from Villánykövesd and the Earliest Male Figurines in South-Eastern Europa
54 MAKKAY male idols occur in such cultures for the first time which reveal very intensive Near EasternAnatolian impacts. In some cases the best proofs of such Near Eastern influences are furnished by the male representations themselves. 125 As we have pointed out elsewhere, these influences are partly effects of Near Eastern origin, extending in the usual way, relatively slowly and universally; in the case of the male idols this means that our finds may be regarded as the parallels of male statuettes appearing in the period of the al'Ubaid culture, and also as the paredroi of the fertility goddess under the given circumstances. However, at the end of the period Vinca-Tordos Bl, also in connection with the Tartaria tablets, those Near Eastern effects are joined by Mesopotamian influences arriving more directly, possibly carrying with them the idea and iconography of the self-standing chief male god, developped in that time only there. This is proved firstly by the cult statue from Szegvár. This statement is in accordance with the observation that the male idols are essentially disappearing from archaeological material as soon as the Late Neolithic South-East European cultures, developped under intensive Near Eastern influences, become dissolved and transformed, undergoing an inner, local evolution. We 125 J. Makkay, Acta Arch. Hung. 16 (1964) pp. 47—53. date this event to the middle phase of the Vinca-Plocnik development. So the Villánykövesd male relief, taken in this sense, is the relic of the very last period of a type, respectively, extended also in South-Eastern Europe under Near Eastern — East Mediterranean influences. We suppose that the part of our male representations which have attributes or other special distinctive features and possess the required size are representing the self-standing chief male god. As we have pointed out, the cult and the iconography of this divine figure could only become general in our area under the impact of the Near Eastern development, instead of developing as the result of local evolution. 126 Its existence does not touch the surviving of the figure of the Mother Goddess and her paredros. This is the best illustrated by a Vinca find (Fig. 8 no. 6) in which the difference between the size of the male and the female figure does not want to express the fact that the male is a child; it is just an example of the frequently observed situation which surrounds the huge figure of the chief goddess or god by the much smaller figures of mortals or minor gods. The same statement is valid for the generally known Arpachiyah presentiment of the goddess and her paredros. 1 ' 7 126 Ibid. ш Iraq 2 (1935) pp. 99—100.
