The vessel with decorated suspension handle and round foot was found on a low hillside overlooking the Danube plains during building operations.

Morphology of the object:

Vessel with decorated suspension handle and round foot, having broken off already in prehistoric times. The two horizontally opening short strap handles sit upon the shoulders of the pottery facing each other, with slant ridges fitting close to the body of the vessel at their bases.

The decoration of the pottery is incised, which can be seen in two planes, the patterns and scene repeated twice. The main motif can be seen in the lower register – under the 3 incised lines running parallel with each other from beneath the handle, where the decoration is turned upside-down. In the focal point of the scene stands a large stylized human figure with upraised arms; from his arms incised zigzag lines reach both ways. Beside the human figure one larger and two concentric circles can be seen with lentiform decorations inside, on its right-hand side in the centre of a smaller concentric circle is a deeply punched dot. On the right and left-hand side of the figure are three and two incised parallels, respectively, which indicate the smaller incomplete figures with raised arms (in adoration). Beside them trees are represented in threefold V-shapes. The same scenes and symbols are repeated on the opposite side, only in smaller scale and with less emphasis.

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Known from the Nagyrév and Maros cultures. Some Hungarian sites are: Tószeg, Nagyrév, Tiszaug-Kéménytető, Dévaványa, Dunaújváros, Tököl, Csepel-Háros, etc.; a Serbian site is Mokrin.

The large, complete human figure could be a supernatural being. The zigzag lines represent water. The larger double circle symbolizes the sun; while the smaller circle the moon. The smaller stylized, incomplete human figures and the threefold V-shaped trees portray the surrounding natural environment. The double portrayal of the scene, and one of them being upside down, could have had a strict role and meaning. The upper half also contains motifs (X-signs, incomplete human figures) with symbolic meaning that fall into the lower half of the scene, according to the viewpoint. This is a possible representation of a creation myth: the enlarged and complete figure, with upraised arms in adoration, lets fall water invigorating all that is below. Perhaps the separation of water and land is also portrayed, the creation of the Sun and Moon, and the incomplete humans and trees grow out of the ground by the power of this supernatural being. The incised motifs of this decoration give perhaps the fullest example of the religious symbolics of the Nagyrév culture, being the first multi-detailed cosmological representation to come to light.

Schreiber, Rózsa: Szimbolikus ábrázolások korabronzkori edényeken. (Symbolische darstellungen an frühbronzezeitlichen Gefässen) Archaeológiai Értesítő 111. 1984. 3-28. Kalicz-Schreiber, Rózsa: Symbolic Representation on Early Bronze Age Vessels. Indo-European Studies 18. 1990. 59-107.