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.

be noted that the high number of aurochs finds associated with cult buildings and the funerary rite at the PPNB site of Nazareth in the Ancient Near East can likewise be linked to a bull cult (Bar-Yosef-Belfer-Cohen 1992, 2148; Baldia 2003). In his study of prehistoric symbols, Damien Bischoff noted that in addition to other animals, aurochs and cattle played a central role in the mythology of the Anatolian Neolithic (Bischoff 2005). The earliest finds reflecting the existence of a cattle cult in South-East Europe comes from Lepenski Vir, a settlement occupied by an Epipalaeolithic-Mesolithic community, where an aurochs skull was deposited beside one of the skeletons (no. 7) from Phase le (Srejovié 1971, Fig. 69; Kalicz-Raczky 1981, 17). Layer lib yielded a zoomorphic fragment possibly depicting a bull (Srejovié 1969, Abb. 43a. 8). The perforated clay and bone amulets from this site may have symbolised bull horns (Srejovié 1969, Abb. 43a. 1-5; 1979, T. 6. 1, 6, T. 10. 1). The evaluation of the animal bone sample from Schela Cladovei in the Danube Gorges has shown that major differences can be noted in the exploitation of bovines between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic (Starőevo culture): Bos primigenius was initially slightly more frequent than domestic cattle, its proportion declined in the Early Neolithic and cattle became the most frequent domestic species (Bartosiewicz et al. 2001, 17, Fig. 2). The frequency of bovines rose from around 30 per cent to 70 per cent, meaning that Bos taurus and, though to a lesser extent, Bos primigenius were the main sources of meat during the Early Neolithic. Owing to their prominence in subsistence and diet, these two animals played an important role in the rituals of these early settlements, as evidenced by the archaeological record. Recent research by Marion Lichardus-Itten and JeanPaul Démoule at the Early Neolithic site of Kovaőevo in south-western Bulgaria has revealed that the earliest levels of this site predate the Karanovo I culture of Thrace and that the finds from this settlement have a strongly regional character, similarly to the assemblages from Nea Nikomedeia, Anzabegovo and Vrsnik. Animal figurines sculpted from clay, including pieces depicting bulls, occur in this early period at Kovaéevo (Lichardus-Itten et al. 2002, 125, Pl. 22. 18-22). The Early Neolithic sacral building uncovered at Kârdzali lay in the settlement's acropolis. A rimmed, circular clay altar was unearthed in the building's northern room, around which lay the foot of a clay lamp, a bull figurine, a female figurine carved from marble, and various other finds.

20 A female figurine and a bull statuette lay beside each other in one of the houses of Layer I uncovered during „As can be seen, the cult function of this building is confirmed not only by its central location in the settlement, but also by the total absence of any household goods and by the sole presence of cult objects" (Peykov 1995, 73, Fig. 2). recent excavations at Karanovo. Vassil Nikolov interpreted these finds as portraying the two most important deities in the pantheon of early agriculturalist: the Great Goddess and the Bull God, who personified the male and the female principle (Nikolov 1989, 31-32). A 25 cm large clay horn was found at Tell Azmak (Georgiev 1972, Fig. 2); another find from the same period is a large vessel fitted with a bull head and horns from the Rakitovo tell (Matsanova 1996, Tab. 8; 2003, Fig. 2. 2; Raduntscheva 1976a, Fig. 100), whose best parallels are known from Haçilar and Mesopotamia (Yakar 1991, Fig. 151). The Rakitovo site also yielded a broken, rather schematic bull figurine, whose species is indicated by the posture and the stubs of the horns (Todorova-Vajsov 1993, 211-213; Matsanova 1996, 108, Taf. 7. 2-4). A combination of a stylised human and bull depiction in a small, beehive shaped niche in one of the houses uncovered at Slatina (Slatina group, Karanovo I culture) is an indication that the occupants practiced the cult of the Great Goddess and the Bull God (Nikolov 2001, 134). Two of the buildings uncovered at Stara Zagora, a settlement dating to the Karanovo I

—II period, contained a bucranium near the hearth, which resembled the ones from Szolnok-Szanda (Dimitrov-Radeva 1980; Bánffy 1997, 72). Georgi I. Georgiev published a clay bull horn fragment from this site, recovered from another house dating to the Karanovo II period (Georgiev 1972, 11, Fig. 6a-b). Mention must also be made of the thirty-three longish, flat and conical, 1-6 cm long clay objects ending in horns, which were described as amulets symbolising bucrania (Matsanova 1996, 108, Tab. 9). Comparable finds are quite common on Staréevo sites, and their counterparts are known also from Vaksevo (Cochadziev 1992; Matsanova 1996, 109) and Koprivets in Bulgaria (Popov 1994, 10, Fig. 1.1). The three bull horns uncovered in a house at the tell settlement of Jasa Tepe have been assigned to the Karanovo II

—III culture (Detev 1959, Fig. 8, Fig. 21g; Georgiev 1961, 53).

21 Finds of similar bull horn symbols have been reported from Crnobuki, one of the Pelagonian sites of the SouthEast European Early Neolithic (Simoska et. al. 1976, T. 9. 4). A four-footed animal figurine from Vlaky, another settlement in Pelagonia, can be regarded as a bull depiction (Simoska et al. 1976, 38, SI. 114). The existence of the bull cult at Porodin, a settlement of the Anzabegovo culture in the southern Balkans, is reflected by a sanctuary model and a clay bull horn (Grbié 1960, Pl. 6. 2; Nandris 1979, 208; Kalicz-Raczky 1981, 17, PL 6. 4). Three clay horns were recovered from the Nemea Cave in Greece (Biegen 1975, T. 68.30.32), and artefacts associated with the cattle cult were deposited in a bothros at Elateia (Weinberg 1962, T. 68a-b). The Early Neolithic finds 21 For the Early Neolithic stylised bucrania, labrettes, from northern Bulgarian, found at Beljakovec-Ploőite, Dzuljunica-Smàrdes, Skalsko and Orlovec, cp. Elenski 2004, 17-20, Abb. 1. 1-10, Abb. 2. 1-8. 18