Mesolithic-Neolithic contacts as reflected in ritual finds

The beginnings of settled life in Central Europe were marked by a series of interactions between local foragers and immigrants of southern origin. The Carpathian Basin is the last region to have had direct contact with Balkan peoples in the early Neolithic. In the course of the interac- tion, not only did two groups of different origin and manners meet and merge: two ways of sym- bolic thinking, two kinds of cult life, two perceptions of space and time must have come face to face. We know much more about south-east European Neolithic cults and ritual life, as reconstructed from enormously rich finds of material consisting of figurines, house models, anthropomorphic vessels etc. In the western part of the Carpathian Basin there are local imitations of these finds, thanks to con- tact. However, the figural representations almost entirely disappear by the developed phase of the Linear Pottery culture in Central Europe. Thus, we may find some hints about the other, local way of thinking. The possible causes of this change and also different perspectives in the symbolic mean- ing of this process are discussed in this short paper. IZVLE∞EK - Za≠etek stalne naselitve v Srednji Evropi je zaznamovala serija interakcij med lokalnimi lovci in nabiralci in priseljenci z juga. Karpatski bazen je podro≠je, ki je imelo v zgodnjem neoliti- ku neposreden stik s prebivalci Balkana. Med interakcijami se nista sre≠evali in me∏ali samo dve skupini ljudi razli≠nega porekla in navad, sre≠ala sta se tudi dva na≠ina simboli≠nega razmi∏ljanja, dve obliki kultnega ∫ivljenja in dve dojemanji prostora in ≠asa. Veliko vemo o neolitskih kultih in obredih jugovzhodne Evrope, rekonstruiranih iz izjemno bogatih materialnih najdb kipcev, vzorcev hi∏, antropomorfnih posod itd. Zaradi kontakta se v zahodnem delu Karpatskega bazena pojavljajo lokalne imitacje teh najdb. V ≠asu razvite faze LTK figuralna plastika v Srednji Evropi povsem izgi- ne, v ≠emer lahko prepoznamo namige o druga≠nem, lokalnem na≠inu mi∏ljenja. V ≠lanku bomo pre- tresli mo∫ne razloge te spremembe in tudi razli≠ne perspektive ter simboli≠ni pomen tega procesa.