Folia archeologica 6. (1949)
BANNER JÁNOS: HERMAN OTTO LEVELE PÓSTA BÉLÁHOZ A MAGYAR ŐSKŐKOR KUTATÁS HARCOS IDEJÉBŐL
14 BANNER—FOL.TIN Y: THE THIRD EXCAVATION ON THE KÖKÉNYDOMB Í5 was the only entrance to the house which was so close to the corner that its use can only be imagined in case of vertical walls and not with sloping roof. That this was actually the entrance is also proved by the fact that it is on the south side of the house. So we have to deal with an oblong quadrangular house whose walls had not any wooden support. The evidence for this is the fact that we have not found any trace of a post or post-hole in the neighbourhood of the foundation. When we excavated the foundation we have already seen that from the layer of plaster fragments several such burnt lumps of mud of different sizes came to light which doubtlessly belonged to the wall. The house was built by the way of placing such lumps of mud one on the other and by pressing them together more or less carefully, in the form of mud work, certainly as the result of a longer lasting" work: that for the drying should be enough time and that the upper parts of the walls should be strong enough to support the roof. The roof could not even have such a structure which the formerly recognised hut had. 7 Probably it was covered with the same wooden material as was underneath the floor. Certainly these branches were longer than those embedded in the * foundation, that the building should have some eaves. On these branches, resting on the walls, might have come the roof piled on as a rick from hay or weed in the same way as we may find them among the neighbouring farms of Kopáncs even today. The imaginary reconstruction of this form of house is not only important because it leads 7 Se© the publication referred in note 2. 8 Aurél Vajkai—Wagenhuber: Adatok az Alsóhernád völgy és az abauji Cserhát népi építkezéséhez (Data to the folks building in the bower Hernád valley and on the Cserhát in County Abauj) Néprajzi Értesítő, 1937, p. 265, figs. 3—4, where the way of construction existing today, is brought in connection with the prehistoric burnt lumps. 8 It is enough to refer here to some such data which give account of the similar construction of the Great Plain and of the neighbouring territories. See: Zs. Bátky, Boglyakemence alakú gabnások és egyéb építmények a Nagy Alföldről (Buildings for keeping corn and for other purposes) Néprajzi Értesítő,, 1903, p. 313. — J. Györffy, A Nagykunság és környékének us to one of the forms of building of the New Stone Age which was not known by us so far, but gives another explanation to the finds which came to light hitherto. Up to the present we have usually con^ sidered the mud plasters, preserving the imprints of the branches and planks, the burntremains of the mud covering which belonged to the wall or roof of the hut. With the help of these we attempted 8 to conclude the way of construction of a prehistoric mud plastered house. In a district which was poor in wood such a superfluous waste of wood is hardly' conceivable. The described building is the oldest relic of the building of mud work in the Great Fiain. This primitive way of construction may be followed in the Hungarian Great Plain upto the present. 9 Fortunately the foundation of the house Was only disturbed by one phenomenon. Grave4, described below, lay along the east wall, which had been dug here in the Bronze Age, but the remains of the building had not been damaged very much. Under the house was pit 9 and hearth 8 which prove that in' the time before the building of the house, on this spot an open fire-place and a refuse pit had been these phenomena whose irregular surface in its neighbourhood made the levelling of ! the floor with cleft beams necessary. The following vessels came to light fronr the plaster,! covering the foundation of the house and on the floor of the house: (Pl. V, figs. 11, 14—17, 19, 22—23; Pi. VI, iigs. 4, 8—9.). népi építkezése (Folks building of Nagykunság and' its vicinity) Ibid. 1908, p. 162. — J. Banner, A békési magyarság népi építkezése (Folks building of the Hungarians in County Békés) Ibid. 1911, p. 135. — JEcsedi, A debreceni népi építkezés (Folks building at Debrecen) Ibid. 1912, pp. 167—168. — I. Györffy, Az alföldi kertes városok (Towns of the Great Plain where . the stables are built on the skirts of the towns). Ibid. 1926, pp. 120, 129. — A date from 1818, Ibid. 1926, p 36 — Zs. Bátky, A magyar ház eredete (The origin of the Hungarian house. Ibid. 1930, p. 74. — A. VajkaiWagenhuber, Adatok a Budapest környéki tót falvak népi építkezéséhez (Data to the folks building of the Slovak villages in the vicinity of Budapest) Ibid, 1937-, p. 128, note 5, ....... ..ii • ••
