Folia archeologica 18.
Tibor Kovács: Eastern Connections of North-Eastern Hungary in the Late Bronze Age
EASTERN CONNECTIONS OF HUNGARY 49 light. This indicates also that the people of the mentioned cultures lived in societies based on animal breading. In their settlements equally occur houses built above ground and pits dug into the earth. The data we have acquired so far points to single-levelled settlements proving to be inhabited for a short time in general. Therefore it is likely that in our area an intensive tield-research of settlement can also yield only horizontal stratigraphie data, for the study of the ethnogenesis of the Berkesz —Demecser ethnic group. The available records of the burials at Berkesz, Demecser and Nyírkarász present a basis for the examination of the burial rites. According to A. Jósa's description, urn burials came to light at Berkesz Csonkás-dűlő and Demecser — Borzsovapuszta. The peoples of both the Felsőszőcs and Egyek groups cremated their dead. For the most part their cemeteries contain urn graves and a few „scattered-ashes" burials were also discovered. 5 6 Although the custom of furnishing the grave in the previous cases in unknown, these data indicate that the burial rites of the inhabitants did not change and the old rites were adapted (?) by the newly arriving settlers too. 5 7 An exception is the tumulus burial at Nyírkarász—Gyulaháza. As it was previously mentioned, the notes of the excavator, A. Jósa, are contradictory. On the other hand in his quoted manuscript he unambiguously describes a tumulus burial where the mound is undoubtedly associated with calcinated bones, pottery and bronze finds. The people of the Komarovo culture which dwelt in the areas north-east of the Carpathians buried their dead under tumuli. 5 8 T. Sulimirski mentions that both cremation and inhumation graves occur under the tumuli. 5 9 According to the results of I. K. Svesnikov the people of the Komarovo culture cremated their dead on the spot. The calcinated bones were put on the ground in groups (sometimes in urns). 60 A. Jósa found under the tumulus at Nyírkarász—Gyulaháza a „scattered ashes" burial, thus this tumulus corresponds in its entierety to the common burial rites of the Komarovo culture. The close connection of the two burial rites are supported by the eastern origin of the former metal finds. 6 1 The examination of the burial rites resulted in two important data : 1. a considerable majority of the local (Egyek, Felsőszőcs) inhabitants did not migrate after the interruption of their indepentent cultural development ; 2. the appearance of a burial rite in North-Eastern Hungary unknown to the inhabitants of 5 6 Cf. note 44. ; Kalicz, N., Arch. Ért. 87 (1960) 7 ff. 5 7 The Noa culture buried their dead almost exclusively in contracted position. Cf. Zaharia, E., op. cit. 140—157. ; Florescu, A. C., op. cit. 213. ; The number of cremation burials is very small, for example at Ostrovec only two of the 183 graves were urn burials (Balaguri , E. A., op. cit. 7—8.) — Burials of contracted skeletons are not known in the Nyírség from the last phase of the Late Bronze Age. 5 8 The eastern connections of the tumulus burials of Nyírkarász—Gyulaháza were first treated in detail by Mozsolics, A., Acta Arch. Hung. 12 (1960) 113 ff.; Cf. also: Kalicz, N., Arch. Ért. 87 (1960) 10. 5 9 Sulimirski, T., Die thrako-kimmerische Periode in Südostpolen. WPZ 35 (1938) 132. ; Cf. also: Sulimirski, T., Cmentarzysko kurhanowe w Komarowie kolo Halicza i kultura Komarowska. Bulletin de l'Acad. Polonaise des Sciences et des Lettres 1936. 172 ff. ; Passek, T. S., op. cit. 160. ; Rogozinska, R., Cmentarzysko kultury komarowskiej w Bukownie. Mat. Arch. 1 (1959) 114. ; Jlinskaia, V. A., op. cit. 58. B 0 Svesnikov, I. К., op. cit. 12 ff. 8 1 In detail: Mozsolics, A., Acta Arch. Hung. 12 (1960) 121. 4 Folia Archaeologica
