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

Domboróczki László: A háromszögletű AVK-fejek szimbolikája

adhered to, namely that the triangular bull's head symbolises the triangle of the female sexual organs, and the eyes, mouth and nose the face of the embryo, the sickle could perhaps represent the tool used for cutting the umbilical cord. Apart from having its immediate practical function, the sickle could also have had a function of a religious nature, as people in those days compared birth with the harvest, and the cutting of the umbilical cord with the reaping of the corn. Thanks to the work of the religious historians the allegories relating to vegetation, as well as animal and human existence, are now well known.

51 As a fertility symbol the triangular ALP idol head could be connected to many types of objects: human and animal figurines, vessels for holding food and vegetables, having perhaps been placed on altars or places relating to holy sites (shrines). For all these, numerous analogies may be found.

52 Thanks to some objects which have come to light in the context of burial places

53 we have also been able to connect this symbolic system with rebirth. Rebirth is a complex cycle, and one which also includes death. If one refers once more to the allegory of vegetation: the carefully planted seed multiplies, the carefully buried body ensures the living abundance and increase. During the burial the contracted position marks the form of the seed / baby-to-be, in which the dead are returned to mother earth ("the dead are planted in the earth, making the soil fertile"). That object, concept and phenomenon, to which the idol head was related as a symbol of fertility, that was certainly put there to induce and facilitate its birth, as well as maintain its growth. But is it true that the triangular face and the symbolism of the inscribed marks can only be interpreted on an impersonal level? Up until now the question has only been approached in terms of the degree of abstraction, with the symbolism of the triangular ALP heads only being examined from an impersonal point of view. One shouldn't, however, avoid the fact which is quite obvious when looking at the objects for the first time, that the head does in fact represent a human head - sometimes with an extremely expressive look on its face (Table 4. ill. 1.). Apart from the bull's head, the triangle of the female sexual organs and the birth aspect, one can also undoubtedly feel a distinct anthropomorphisation and personification in the representation. The Körös Culture artefacts were as yet not worked in such a refined manner. In the Körös figurines the embryonic aspect was not represented at all. Later on it was probably the birth of the baby that lay at the heart of the desired message. It was perhaps for this reason that the whole symbolic form was changed. It is 51 Mircea ELIADE 1995. 41-42. 52 For example: Marija GIMBUTAS 1991. 53 Here we are thinking primarily of face-pots: Pál RACZKY-Alexandra ANDERS 2003. 166. 27