Agria 41. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2005)

Domboróczki László: A háromszögletű AVK-fejek szimbolikája

which corresponds with the shape of the female sexual organs. In this connection the bull's horns can be paired up with the ovaries and the Fallopian tubes. As a result the bull's head and the horns also designate the complete female sexual and reproductive organs (Table 4. ills 1-3, 5.). Thus, the ALP triangular bull's heads represent both the male and female sexual principles, as is the case in early Neolithic representations generally, from Çatal Hüyük right up to the phallicsteatopyg figurines of the Körös Culture (Table 2. ills. 1-2. j.

48 In order to support the validity of this important association within our suggested system of principles we need to take a look at the way the mouths are marked on the ALP idol heads, or directly under them to be more accurate (Table 4. ills. 1-5.). In most cases we see a vertical line in the bottom corner of the triangular head, which is probably a crude reference to the vulva of the kind still used today. The bull's head is therefore at one and the same time a reference to the triangle of the female sexual organs. Simultaneously in most cases there is also a face indicated above the vertical incision, with its own mouth, eyes and nose. This symbolism, we believe, indicates the life of the baby-to-be (the embryo) lying in the mother's womb. It therefore symbolises the pregnancy, the birth, or to put it more broadly, the act of creation, and ultimately fertility and abundance. Consequently, we believe, the triangular ALP heads designate in one single composition the creative potential of man and woman as well as the life that springs from them. The composition itself symbolises fertility. In our region a curious linear decoration often appears on the foreheads of the faces, referred to by researchers as the sickle motif.

49 Although the meaning of this motif has yet to be understood, its local meaning has nevertheless been recognised. The sickle, when used as an attribute, also appears in the later phase of the Neolithic. Concerning the Sickle God of the Tisza Culture from SzegvárTűzkő ves (Table 6. ill. 3.) an interpretation has been suggested whereby the mythological content of the sickle is explained in relation to the "myth of the separation of Heaven and Earth".

50 If such a mythological explanation may seem a little contrived for so early a period, there is no reason for suspecting that it had some kind of cultic meaning. Following the line of approach we have thusfar 48 Just to make the symbolism absolutely clear to everyone, the phallus is a symbol of male sexual potency, while the fat-bottomed woman symbolises both motherhood and female fertility. These two characteristics can both be clearly made out in the figurines of the Körös Culture, from which one can conclude that these Körös Culture figurines refer to fertility. See: Alasdair WHITTLE 1998. 140. 49 Nándor KALICZ-Judit KOÓS 2000a. 20-37.; Pál RACZKY-Alexandra ANDERS 2003. 160-161., 165. 50 János MAKKAY 1964. 57-64. and more recently with a more detailed bibliography: János MAKKAY 2004. 45-69. 26