Értelmezhetőek-e a neolitikus körárkok processziós helyszínekként?

This paper seeks to answer the question whether it is possible to detect ritual movements in the Central European Neolithic that are similar to processions well-known in antiquity. We discusses first the characteristics of processions in complex societies on the basis of a few examples from the antiquity, and then reviews the prehistoric sites where archaeological evidence in the literature suggests their existence. Examples from the history of religion show that the symbolic landscape that evokes the mythological past takes on meaning through a variety of ritual activities, and thus becomes tangible for the community. The most important rituals can be organised in large ritual series, can take place in several different locations, and are often combined with spectacular processions. Procession is one of the most common community rituals. The procession has meaning and, as it moves through time and space, it can successfully communicate this meaning to society, it will be effective if it has an audience and is guided. Thus, its most important feature is the common process of moving a large number of people in orderly succession, or in a formal and ceremonial manner. Processions are often parts of bigger religious ceremonies. Here we stress the communal–ritual function of circular enclosures (rondels) from among their multifunctional interpretations thus we examine processions of sacral character. Our starting point is the fact that rondels are demarcated from inhabited areas of settlements. It raises the possibility that on the occasions of outstanding communal festivals, the participants walked to the venue in a formal manner. The narrow entrances interrupting the ditches and the openings on the palisades of the rondels have already driven several researchers to formulate hypotheses on the existence of processions on a theoretical basis. It is especially the ditches with access corridors and the multiple rondels with earth bridges accompanied by steep side-ditches on the basis of which it is supposed that attendees of the rituals could only have entered the rondels in an ordered manner. The overview of some of the fundamental characteristics of processions in antiquity forms an interpreting framework for us. With the help of it we re-evaluate the archaeological legacy of the Late Neolithic rondels (archaeological finds related to communal rituals, feasts, mobilisation of huge resources in terms of time and effort, etc.). Prehistoric research in Britain, which we consider as a model, interprets ritual landscape monuments (avenues, cursus monuments, pit / post alignments) as venues for processions. In the next part of our study, we endeavour to answer the question whether similar landscape monuments like these may be detected in the context of Central European Neolithic rondels, primarily in the context of the Lengyel culture.