Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 6.-7. 1965-1966 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1966)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Some ancient sources to the Shamanism. VI–VII, 1965–66. p. 27–42. t. XV.

SOME ANCIENT SOURCES TO THE SHAMANISM Recently a very interesting steatite amulet has been published; it is dated to the fourth millennium and is derived from Cyprus. On its base there is a design reminding one of a seal. According to the description the centre of the picture is occupied by a pole, tapering towards the top. It is similar to a branchless tree. A bird is sitting on the top of the pole. On its right side there stands a human being of undefinable sex. His (her) hand is stretched out, holding a knife. The figure is flanked by a wide-bladed axe on one side and a knife on the other. On the left of the pole the artist probably tried to illustrate a primitive musical instrument (Plate XV Fig. I)

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. The scholar publishing the object, R. Re it 1er states that the whole scene conveys some religious-magical meaning doubtlessly. However, the form of expression does not fit into the picture, though roughly outlined, accepted on the religions of the Eastern Mediterranean peasant cultures so far. On the other hand, the author alludes to the fact that the scene may be interpreted fairly well on the basis of the features of present-day Shamanism, if he is right in his iconographical solution. According to his thesis we are faced by the ecstasy in which the shaman starts on his heavenly road. To corroborate his opinion, the author quotes several proofs connected to the beliefs of the shamanistic peoples of the recent past. Before suggesting further possibilities, we have to make the following remarks. We do not know the proofs which may be deduced for the dating of the find to the Neolithic Age of Cyprus. A further difficulty is raised by the fact that the representation of the seal is rather schematical, so that the definition of its substance may be open to discussion in some respects. The part regarded as a musical instrument by R. Reitler may be taken e. g, for another human figure as well. It is natural, nevertheless, that we cannot undertake such 1. R. REITLER: Neolithische Statuetten aus Cypern. JPEK 1980—1962 (1963) pp. 24—26, fig. 8. 2. H. FRANKFORT: Cylinder Seals. A Documentary Essay on the Art and the Religion of the Ancient Near East. (London 19319) PI. XXI a.; published by L. DELAPORTE: Musée de Louvre, Catalogue des Cylindres. (Paris 1920) I, PI. 5 no. 6. 3. L. HEUZEY: Les origines orientales de l'art. (Paris 1387) p. 1921. a revision without a study of the original object. Unfortunately the only representation which might be deduced as an analogy of such an early date has escaped R. Reitler'

s attention. It is a cylinder seal found by d e S a r z e с at Lagash. Its depiction shows an unmistakable figure of a man, treading on the stem of a tree, bent down to the earth, with his left foot. With his left hand he tilts the tree, trying to hew it with the axe held in his right hand (Plate XV Fig. 2)

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. The seal belongs to the Late Akkadian Period. Also L. H e u z e y

3 and W. H. Ward

4 have suggested that the scene might be connected to a story of Gilgamesh. But it was only D. Opitz who succeeded in proving in 1933

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, helped by the meaning of the Sumerian tablet published by С J. Gadd

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, that the mentioned seal depicted the felling of the „huluppu tree" by Gilgamesh in all certainty. Though H. Frankfort has expressed a divergent view in this respect

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, and G. Conten a u has raised some doubts,

8 there is no essential objection against D. О p i t z ' s statement. Since the story of the „huluppu-tree" may add a hitherto unknown detail to the sketch drawn on early Mesopotamian religion, let us quote the authentic translation of its parts, most necessary to our purpose. The story in question is the Sumerian precursor of Tablet XII of the Gilgamesh epic. The serious problems faced by research on this text are common knowledge. The reason is that later compositions or the final, New Assyrian text, dealing with Tablet XII, have borrowed or copied the second half of a story of Sumerian origin almost word by word. The fact itself that the process has contradicted an almost general „rule" is worth our attention; the writer of the heroic poem of Akkadian or Assyrian language usually adapted the earlier Sumerian texts, supposing their existence may be 4. W. H. WARD: The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia. Publ. of the Carnegie Inst, of Washington no. 100. (Washington 1910) pp. 14i9 seqq., fig. 399 on p. 125. 5. D. OPITZ: AfO 8 (1932—313) p. 329. 6. С J. GADD: BMQ 7. pp. 79 seqq.; id.: Revue d'Ass. 30 (1933) pp. 126 seqq. 7. H. FRANKFORT: Op. cit. p. 118, note 2. 8. G. CONTENAU: Revue d'Ass. 38 (1941) pp. 44—48. 27