Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 34. 2004 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2005)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Zalai-Gaál, István: New evidence for the Cattle cult in the Neolithic of Central Europe. XXXIV. p. 7–40. T. I–XVII.

(Petrescu-Dimbovita et al. 1999, Fig. 289. 1-2. Fig. 290. 1-6, Fig. 292. 1-5, Fig. 293. 1-5, Fig. 294. 1-4, Fig. 298. 2-4, Fig. 302. 1, Fig. 303. 1, 3, 5, Fig. 304. 1-3). The association between bulls and buildings interpreted as sanctuaries can be demonstrated at this site too (Dumitrescu 1968b, 66, Abb. 8. 2). One of the vases from this site shows the four phases of the Moon hooked to a horn (Gimbutas 1974, 91, Fig. 50). The lunar disc appears between the horns of a bull head on a late Cucuteni vessel from Podei (Nitu 1972, Fig. 31.6; Gimbutas 1974, 91, Fig. 51; 1989, Fig. 415). The animal figurines from Hâbâçesti perhaps represents cattle or bulls (Müller-Karpe 1968, II, Taf. 170. 15-25). It seems likely that the fourfooted vessel with two forward pointing extremities from Tîrpesti depicted a bull (Comsa 1980, Fig. 30. 3). Comparable four-footed round or oval vessels (perhaps altars) fitted with similar extremities can be quoted from Tordos (Roska 1941, Taf. 97. 2, 4, 6, 10, Taf. 98. 2). A vessel from Valea Lupului bears a painted design of four stylised bull figures (Petrescu-Dimbovita 1954; Gimbutas 1974, 91, Fig. 49). A conical bowl from Poienesti is adorned with four schematic bull heads and horns set on the vessel body {Plate XII, Fig. 19; Nitu-Mantu 1987, Fig. 2). An assemblage from Traian is made up of a bull skull, clay pottery vessels and a human figurine (Makkay 1975, 164). A unique bucranium was uncovered at Bilcze Zlote, a late Cucuteni cave site in western Ukraine: a rectangular bull head carved from bone, on which the nostrils, the eyes, and the wide horns were realistically portrayed (Gimbutas 1974, 93, Fig. 178; 1987, Fig. 12. 3). The number of bones from hunted species barely exceeded those of domestic ones on the Ukrainian settlements of the early Tripolye culture. Cattle was the most frequent domesticate. The number of aurochs was rather low compared to deer, wild boar and roe deer (Zbenovic 1996, 52, Tab. 2). The importance of cattle in the life of early Tripolye communities is reflected by the fact that realistically modelled bull figurines dominate zoomorphic depictions, which are much less frequent than human portrayals. One of these four-footed animal figurines with short horns comes from Bernasevka {Plate XVI, Fig. 24 lb; Zbenovic 1996, 55, Taf. 38. 1, 4). Bull horn symbols sometimes adorn the handle of clay ladles, such as the ones from Bernasevka and Okopy {Plate XVI, Fig. 24. la, c; Zbenovic 1996, Taf. 38. 5-6). The remains of two superimposed sanctuaries were uncovered at Cäscioarele, a settlement of the Vädastra culture. The finds from the later building included a sanctuary consisting of a substructure on which sat four horned buildings or bucrania (Dumitrescu 1968a, 387-394, Fig. 1, Fig. 5). In addition to the horned animal figures, a zoomorphic vessel with a female figurine between the horns was also brought to light, resembling later finds from the eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia, which have been linked to the legend of the abduction of Europa by Zeus (Dumitrescu 1988,48). ANTECEDENTS IN THE EARLY NEOLITHIC The use of aurochs heads or skulls in various ceremonies and rituals is documented from the Palaeolithic (Burkert 1972, 21). The high number of aurochs skulls, horn-cores and postcranial bones recovered from Hungarian peat-bogs from layers correlated with the Mesolithic has enabled the study of how Mesolithic/Early Holocene aurochs populations evolved in Hungary. Sándor Bökönyi described this process based on the bone sample from Őrjeg (Bökönyi 1972); István Vörös based his reconstruction on the finds from Kecel-Rózsaberek (Vörös 1987, 65, Figs 1-4). Aurochs and cattle remains abounded in the peat accumulated at Mezőlak-Nádtőzeg in the Marcali Basin (MRT 4, 1972, 159), especially in the layers correlated with the Early Holocene (corresponding to the Mesolithic) and the Early and Middle Holocene. István Vörös demonstrated that the post-Pleistocene modern large mammalian fauna evolved gradually during the Mesolithic in the Carpathian Basin, and that the first wave of the postglacial migration of aurochs to the Carpathian Basin fell into the Early Holocene. It would appear that the domestication of this species had begun during the Mesolithic (Rowley-Conwy 1986, 23; Zvelebil 1995, 86). The Palaeolithic and pre-Neolithic finds from the Sarakenos Cave at Markinitsa near Volos comprise several plaques with incised scenes, which later also occur on the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and Early Neolithic sites of Anatolia. One of the plaques shows a woman and a hunter with a horned creature and a snake symbol (Theocharis 1967, Fig. 29, PI. VII B), another bears a depiction of two human figures and a double horn symbol above them, which Demetrios Theocharis likened to the imagery from Çatal Hüyük {Plate XIII, Fig. 21; Theocharis 1967, 170, Fig. 30, Tab. VIII). A third plaque shows a „ritual dance" (Theocharis 1967, Fig. 31, PL IX A). It must nonetheless be noted that these finds have not been quoted elsewhere, either in studies on the Mesolithic or the Neolithic. The perhaps earliest relics of cults and rituals associated with cattle were uncovered in the Early Neolithic buildings and shrines of Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia (Mellaart 1967; 1975, 96-99, Figs 78, 80, 84-86). Evidence for the existence of a cattle cult has been unearthed in the mud brick houses from the earliest to the latest levels, suggesting that cattle enjoyed a primacy rivalling the worship of the female goddess in the beliefs and rituals of the community. Buildings whose walls are covered with painted designs, frescoes, plaster reliefs or figures cut out of the wall plaster, some of which recall the earlier cave paintings with animal heads and horns, are highly relevant to this study. It must be noted here that even though the community's subsistence was based on food production, hunting still played a prominent role in its economy (Mellaart 1967; 1975; Lloyd 1981, 34-35). The shrines at Çatal Hüyük contained many cattle or bull heads set on 16