Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 8.-9. 1967-1968 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1968)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: A Peculiar Clay Object of the Vinea Culture. – A Vinea Kultúra sajátos agyagtárgya. VIII–IX, 1967–68. p. 9–22. t. I–II.

Fig. 8. senting it with a wheel and felloe. However, they never had a felloe. I mention all the four in order to prove this. They have no breakages at their endings, revealing the existence of felloes. Nor are they all perforated entirely; with three pieces the holes enter two opposite arms for a short while, it goes through in the case of one. One branch of them (from end to end) has a length of 5, 7 to 8 cm. What was it ? Perhaps a toy ! ... "

n Unfortunately, С z i r á к у has published but one of the four pieces (Fig. 5, 1); however, this one is sufficient to show the great similarity between the Bicske type "C" and the Bogojeva specimens. We may even say that the finds had identical forms and the same destination. Cziráky puts forward a hitherto not suggested possibility of interpretation, though with an interrogation mark: the idea of the toy. We may quote a good analogy from the site Csólak or Csollák mill at Temeskubin (Crni Breg) too. The finds uncovered in course of the Temeskubin excavation in 1898 are in the Hungarian National Mu" Ibid. 56-57, and Fig. 13 on p. 58. seum. The publication

12 unfortunately does not allow us to decide, whether the excavation of Kálmán Miske has brought one piece or two analogous ones to light. In other words, we do not know if the published specimen (Fig. 5, 2) is identical with the piece preserved in the Hungarian National Museum to-day (Fig. 5, 3) or we have to regard them as two separate ones. The object is (or the objects are) parallel to our type "C", as a matter of fact, but uncertainty prevails as regards the perforation which cannot be noticed on either of them. Further good parallels of the Bicske type "C" are known from Potporanj too. Unfortunately, we possess the unsatisfactory photographs of the published finds only, nor does the author, F. M i 11 e к e r describe them, he only puts forward his more than debatable, to-day quite obsolete, individual interpretation. He publishes three pieces (Fig. 5, 4—6).

13 In his judgment, these finds represent the most primitive, original forms of the human portrayal. The development of the portrayal of human beings in the Neolithic may be divided into seven phases according to M i 11 e к e r. The first of these shows a cruciform earthen object, with four ( !) arms of equal length. It is the allusion to the four arms which bears out the inference that this view considers the finds dealt with here. The figures published by M i 11 e к e r hardly reveal, whether the Potporanj objects were pierced or not, it seems, however, that there is one among them with a longitudinal and also one with a crosswise perforation. M i 11 e к e r also mentions a further similar cruciform finds with four arms (and in addition, one of them in swastika-form) from the western part of V r s e с and of P a r á с (the latter Fig. 8, 4. ; Cat. n. 47). Nevertheless, we did not find any further mention of these objects in our archaeological literature.

14 Following the sequence of parallels from the Banate, we are informed on the uncovering of several similar, star-shaped clay objects (with 4 or 6 arms) at В á t к а — Р е г 1 a s z; they have come to light owing to landslides from the extensive Neolithic settlement at the shore of the Becskerek lake.

15 At present no further information is available on these finds. Recently a very good parallel is represented by the star-shaped figure from Lubcova, Banat (unpublished, kindly information of E. Comsa). Analogous pieces might be adduced from J a b 1 an i с a , whence several objects have been published by M. M. Vasits.

16 The figures do not reveal the type of these finds exactly, but they are the near parallels of our Bicske type "C" in all probability. Among the specimens uncovered at Jablanica there is one especially reminding us of the Bicske ones. This is a solid, cylindrical piece, the body of which thickens at both ends, with three symmetrically situated wart-like arms jutting out from the side. The two protrusions visible in the picture 12 K. MISKE: Arch. Ért. 29 (1906) 145 and Arch. Ért. 30 (1910) Pl. I, 8. К. Miske quotes the parallel find from Jablanica erroneously, nor can we understand why one has to look at the published object in question inversely in the figure. is F. MILLEKER: Vorgeschichte des Banats. Starinar 1938. Probably 149, and the three objects of the upper row of PI. XXV. on p. 137. 1* Ibid. 149. 18 I have been informed on these finds by a kind letter of J ó z s e f D. Németh (Zrenjanin/Nagybecskerek) ; let me express my gratitude at this occasion. "M. M. VASITS: Archiv für Anthropologie 27 (1902). 18