Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 10. 1969 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1969)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: The Late Neolithic Tordos Group of Sign. X, 1969. p. 9–49. t. I–IV.
TORDOS TÂRTÂRIA VINCA B2 Surface IV/Upper level. Bükk sherds, Petresti painting. Pottery signs. Level 2: Tordos —Petresti. Linear Pottery (Bükk Period) sherds VINCA Bl Surface IV/Middle and partly Lower level. Red slipped ware. Pottery signs. Level 1 : Tordos. Tiszadob sherds and the pit with the tablets. The end of VINCA A Surface IV/Lower level. Red sliped ware, Linear ornamented pottery. Several pottery signs. Level 1, "hut bottom", latest Alföld Linear sherds Surface IV/Lower level. Red sliped ware, Linear ornamented pottery. Several pottery signs. ? VINCA A and Protovinca — Late Körös ? ? KÖRÖS—STARCEVO ? Körös-Starcevo occupation on the tell, stray finds of which on the bottom of level 1. The fact that we can date the Tärtäria tablets to the period Vinca Bl (probably to its end), whereas the production of the Tordos signs may be dated from the end of period A to the very end of B2, bears witness to the statement that the appearance of the Tärtäria tablets was a singular phenomenon, in perfect unison and close connection with a process of long duration : the relations of the Vinca culture with the Near East and Anatolia and with the derivation of several Vinca elements from there. On the testimony of the signs surviving in the Vinca — Plocnik phase, probably till the end of period С only, 47 the frequent application of signs in the Vinca culture, though not independent of the Tärtäria impact, is not nevertheless its consequence. As a matter of fact, both are the results of a process, typical of the Vinca culture throughout its A — В — С phases: the Near Eastern —Anatolian influences, even the Near Eastern origin of its numerous elements. Having stated that a part (though a relatively small part) of the Tordos signs are earlier than the Tärtäria tablets, and also that theoretical considerations exclude the attribution of the rise of the Tordos signs to the sole effect of Tärtäria; having defined further the extremely close relations between the Tärtäria and the Tordos signs, we have to turn to the question of, how the latter came into being. Though the available sources are defective and inferential, our comparisons have proved that in the period of Vinca A incised (A10,7, A13, 2, A15, 31, A22, 34) or painted (All, 1, A22, 35, A34, 4) signs are known only from the Vinca culture and from one or two sites of Greece in all Europe. However, among those only the scratched ones are certainly pottery signs and not independent ornamental elements. In the early ceramics (including here the Neolithic wares of the Near East, Anatolia and the Mediterranean) pottery signs seem to have been unknown. They made their appearance in a given phase of the Chalcolithic Period, as pottery was decorated also by figurai painted motives. The appearance of pottery signs may therefore be a development of the figurai, almost exclusively painted pottery decoration, this being one of the roads towards pictography by the abstraction of pictures. Parallels to such Tordos signs are known mainly from the Near East, especially among the Hassuna, Halaf and Samarra wares. They include also incised pottery signs (B2, 1, BIO, 3, B14, 2—3, B18, 11, B19, 1, B23, 2 and also two signs from Arpachiyah, scratched on the inside of bowls in an interesting manner: Bl, l 48 ); the majority of parallels is, however, a painted sign or such decorative motive or symbol which, instead of being composed in the framework of an ornament, stands alone (B5, 1,B8, 1, B9,2-5, BIO, 1-5, B12, 2, B13, 1-2, B17, 1,3-5, B18, 1-10, 12-13, B20, 1-2, B21, 1-6,9, B22, 1-6,9-10, 12-18, 23-26, B23, 1, 10-11, B24, 1-2, B29, 1, B30,4-9, B31, 1, B32, 2, B33, 1, B35, 3). We are entitled to compare the Tordos signs with the Chalcolithic Near Eastern signs and motives by the single fact that the former have no coeval or nearly coeval parallels at all in Europe and, together with the signs found at other sites of the Vinca culture, they stand isolated even in the orbit of the Neolithic cultures of South-East Europe. Further, the direct comparison is made possible by the extraordinary resemblance of some types of signs. In what follows we summarize the types showing the closest relationship. Among the similar or related forms of signs the first place is due to the so-called "whirl pattern" (A22, 1 — 37 and B22, 1—26). This motive is very frequent at Tordos, where it is generally scratched into the bottom of the vessel, sometimes extending also to its side. Vinca itself has it too (A22, 36—37). It is interesting that we have a single case of its occurrence in painting, likewise in Transylvania, in the Brenndorf site of the Late Neolithic painted pottery (A22, 2). There are plentiful variations at Tordos. In Mesopotamia the "whirl pattern", being a pottery ornament or sign, is known almost exclusively on the richly decorated Samarra Ware. Related patterns and signs occur on seals and later ware as well. It is an extremely important circumstance that it is just this Samarra "whirl pattern" which represents a clear Near Eastern influence on the «'Seenöte 18! 48 ARP, Fig. 69,6 and 71,2. The Halaf period, on painted bowls. 13
