Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)

Sándor Berecki, Attila Nándor Hágó: A neolithic Settlement from Tărgu Mureş. I. The Courtyard of the Fortress

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S. Berecki - A. N. Hágó

dark brown, semi-fine zoomorphic figurine was made of good qualify clay, tempered with fine sand and smoothened surface (Pl. XIV/2). The piece probably figures a deer or other horned animal, frequently met in all chronological phases of this culture.27 With analogies all over the area of the Cri§ culture and connected to certain feasts or magical or religious practices but also seen as toys, the Early Neolithic idols portray in a realistic manner the domestic and wild animals or birds.28

The Neolithic site from Tärgu Mure§ yielded a single stone object a flint chip found in the cultural layer (Pi. XIV/1). Typologically the piece has an N-type profile of the DD type stone tools.29 Such objects were found at Gura Baciului, Zäuan or in Hungary.30

As it is known, the evolution of the Cri§ culture in Transylvania was divided by Gh. Lazarovici in four chronological phases, each with several sub-phases; a system which was adopted for the other adjacent regions, too.31 From demographic point of view, the culture had its apogee during the third phase, and the most inhabited region during this time was the valley of the Mure§ River. Based on typo-chronological considerations (the forms and ornaments of the pottery, figurines, weights) settlement from Tärgu Mure§ can be dated to the IIIB period - dated by radiocarbon between 5800/5700 BC and 5600/5500 BC32 - in a period, when the first influences of the Vinca culture can be attested, which can also be seen in the case of the pottery from the settlement in Tärgu Murey

REFERENCES

Bäcuej-Cri§an 2013

S. Bäcuef-Cri§an, Arta miniaturalá din situl de la Por|-Coräu: Statuetele antropomorfe. Studiu Preliminar, AnnalesUA, SH 17/11, 2013, 83-99.

BÁNFFY 1991

E. Bánffy, The cult and archaeological context in central and South European Europe in the Neolithic and the Chalcolitic, Antaeus 19-20, 1990-1991, 183-240.

Becker 2014

V. Becker, Ways of contextualisation for anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, in; Ursu,

C.-E. - Jerna, S. (eds.), Anthropomorphism and symbolic behaviour in the Neolithic and Copper Age communities of South-Eastern Europe (Suceava 2014) 29-47.

Berecki2013a

S. Berecki, An Early Iron Age Anthropomorphic Clay Figurine from Tärgu Mure§, Studii in onoarea lui Tiberiu Bader la 75 de ani. StComSM 29/1, 2013, 313-319.

Berecki2013b

S. Berecki, Another Early Iron Age Zoomorphic Clay Figurine from Tärgu Mure§, Marisia 23, 2013, 7-11.

27 Lazarovici-Maxim 1995, fig. 23/1-9.

28 Kutzián 1944, pl. XX/lb; XXII/1-3; XLI/4, 7-9; XLII/1-2; XLVII/17-19; Makkay 1972, 40, 61; Lazarovici 1979, 32-34; Karmanski 1988; Lazarovici-Maxim 1995, fig. 23; Maxim 1999, 40; Makkay-Starnini 2008, fig. 52; 56/4, 7; 58/1-4; 59/1-2; 240/1; Becker 2014, 30; Starnini 2014, fig. 52; 56/4, 7; 58/1-5; 59/1-2.

29 Maxim et al. 1993, 53, fig. 2/DD, 4/N.

30 Lazarovici 1993,45, pl. III/l; Starnini 1994,101-110, fig. 5/8-13; Lazarovici-Maxim 1995, fig. 17/11, 17.

31 Lazarovici 1969,21; Lazarovici 1977,34-42; Lazarovici 1979,24; Makkay 1982; Kalicz 1983; Lazarovici 1984, 54-55; BÖKÖNYI 1989,13; Lazarovici 2005,23-78; Lazarovici-Maxim 1995,199-204; Maxim 1999, 32; Luca et al. 2011,7, tab. 1.

32 Mantu 1995, 215,226; Luca et al. 2011,14.