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.

Abb. 36=Abb. 54; Marazov 1988; 1991, 153) and the series of bull horns, also cut from sheet gold (Ivanov 1978, Abb. 15, Abb. 22; Macht, Herrschaft und Gold 1988, 66, Abb. 34), which had been sewn onto the funerary dress, similarly to the round, perforated dress ornaments with a schematic horn symbol on their upper part. Most of these gold cattle figures and miniature bull horns were recovered from Grave 36 (a cenotaph), which also contained a variety of prestige articles (a gold diadem, a gold astragalus, a gold disc and a sceptre), a copper battleaxe, silex implements and T shaped bone figurines (Lichardus 1988, 95, Abb. 5). This figurine type has no antecedents in earlier periods and it has been suggested that they were schematic human depictions (Hanschmann-Milojcic 1976, 95) or anchors, which could perhaps be associated with seafaring (Weisshaar 1980).

30 Most of these clay anchors were found in houses, most often near the hearth (Weisshaar 1989, 51). Jan Lichardus has suggested that these anchors could perhaps be interpreted as schematic animal heads with horns (Lichardus 1991, 172). Comparable anchors and their variants are known from contemporary settlements, such as Goljamo Delcevo (Todorova et al 1975, Tab. 96. 6=Tab. 97. 16) and Corinth (Lichardus 1991, Abb. 4. 6), as well as from the late Gumelnita assemblages (Dumitrescu 1988, Abb. 15. 1). The two specimens found at Drama were carved from cattle metacarpus (Fol et al. 1989, 73, Abb. 14. 7-8; Lichardus et al. 1996, Taf. 8. 7). One noteworthy find of the Late Copper Age Baden culture (Protoboleraz period) is Pit 34 of the CsongrádBokrospuszta site, which contained three intact cattle skulls and the bones of six cattle of different ages and sex.

31 Two animal head reliefs were set on the front side of the rectangular cart shaped vessel brought to light at Radosina (Nemejcová-Pavúková 1973, 299, Abb. 3), no doubt portraying the cattle drawing the cart. An unusual cult assemblage was found in the Lisková Cave: human bones covered with a stone packing. One specific area contained mainly skulls. After the removal of the bone remains, the excavators found a hearth containing pottery of the Ludanice group. A copper statuette depicting a pair of harnessed cattle was found by a burial, although the chronological relation between the burial and the aforementioned assemblage is unclear. Vitazoslav Strukár noted that the burial rite was rather unusual since its secondary features were alien to the Lengyel complex. In his opinion, the stone packing reflects the mortuary traditions of the Copper Age cultures north of the Carpathians „Es ist auch noch immer ungeklärt, ob es sich um Idole handelt oder um Geräte des Haushalts" (Weisshaar 1989,50, Taf. 82.1-2, Taf. 84.3). 31 „Das Fehlen der Hörner kann offenbar damit erklärt werden, daß sie bei den anderen Formen des Kultes

... benutzt und anderswo begraben oder getragen wurden." (Horváth L. A. 2001, 67-68). (Funnel Beaker culture?) (Strakár 1999, 216, Tab. 2. 10, Obr. 4a-b).

32 The Bronze Age depictions of the horns of consecrations and their possible connections with Mycenae have been discussed by János Makkay. He quotes a Middle Neolithic stamp seal-like object from Knossos decorated with an incised bull horn (Makkay 1994, 51-52; 1984, 22, Fig. 1. 2b). There is ample literature on the importance of the bull cult in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and Greece, and the practice of the cattle cult can be traced in later periods too. Vases adorned with bull heads were widespread and popular in the Hallstatt culture (for a good overview, cp. Podborsky 1982, 38^13, Obr. 12. 6, 8, Obr. 13. 2, 7, Obr. 14. 1-6, Obr. 15. 1-2). Suffice it here to mention the tumulus burials uncovered at Donnerskirchen in the Burgenland, which contained a vessel with three, symmetrically placed, hollow bull heads with curved horns (spouts) on its shoulder, set beside the man laid to rest under the mound (Kaus 1989, 61, Abb. 4. 6). One interesting, but distant parallel comes from Kerma in Sudan, where hunters' burials of a cemetery used around 2000 ВС were uncovered: forty-four cattle bucrania laid in an arc were found south of Grave 44 (Chaix 1998, 147, Figs. 2-4). THE „IDEOLOGY" OF THE CATTLE CULT Most of the Neolithic assemblages with animal and/or human skeletons or skeletal parts in Central and SouthEast Europe were recovered from sacrificial pits, which had been used on a single occasion for performing a specific ritual. These pits lay either inside a house or outside it, sometimes dug into an enclosure. Many of these sacrificial pits contained the „usual" domestic refuse too. The pits and their contents inside houses or immediately beside them can be regarded as foundation deposits.

33 The skull and the horns of the sacrificial animal apparently played a prominent role from the earliest Neolithic, and these bodily parts were often deposited in burials too (Behrens 1964, 39-40; Sakellarakis 1970, 188-189). In other cases, the horns and the entire head of the sacrificed animal were used in a location farther from the spot, where the ritual was performed, explaining their absence from sacrificial pits (Lehmkuhl-Nagel 1991, 41). The Comparable finds, Copper Age wagons and the way animals were harnessed have been recently discussed by Mária Bondár, who suggested that this mode of harnessing was more suited to drawing a plough (Bondár 2004,18). Doubts have been raised whether the bull trophies found in burials on settlements had indeed been foundation deposits, even though an interpretation along these lines in the case of complete animal skeletons and trophies is quite feasible (Veit 1996, 190). 25