Pásztor Emília (szerk.): A fény régészete. A természetes fény szerepe az őskori ember életében - Bajai dolgozatok 20. (Baja, 2017)
Peter Toth: A monumentális építészet hajnala Szlovákiában
Rondels, mysterious monumental enclosures of circular shape. They appeared at the beginning of the 5th millennium BC and vanished without any traces a few centuries later. What was their purpose? Why they appeared? Who built them? Cultural-historical background Rondels or large circular enclosures made of wood and earth appeared in the Middle Europe in the Late Neolithic (cca. 4900—4500 BC). They are mainly connected with the Lengyel culture, whose pottery was decorated by engraved and painted ornament, and contemporaneous cultures, whose pottery (Fig. 23) was decorated by strokes (Fig. 1; Karlovsky — Pavúk 2002,113; Pavúk — Karlovsky 2004, 211). These large enclosures are in Slovakia mainly concentrated in its south-western part, where also lays the core area of the Lengyel culture (Fig. 2). For a long time the only representatives of this monumental architecture were rondels in Surany-Nitriansky Hrádok, Svodin, Bucany and Ruzindol-Borová (Fig. 3), which were recognized by traditional archaeological methods (excavation; Kuzma 2005,185). Somewhat later a palisade rondel in Zlkovce joined them (Fig. 4; Pavúk — Karlovsky 2004, 211). Recently, thanks to the application of aerial archaeology (Fig. 5-8) the number of enclosures increased. Currently are know more than 50 circular ditches from Slovakia. However, to the Late Neolithic we can include only 16 of them (Kuzma 2007, 15, fig. 10). Questions raised by the monumental architecture bring a lot of scientific attention. The concentration of rondels on south-western Slovakia shows, that they are not so rare facilities as thought before. They frequently laid in the centre of settlements and were surrounded by many residential and economic buildingsand burial ground (Fig. 4; Pavúk — Karlovsky 2004, 211-212). They were usually placed on gentle slopes, what provided a good view for the observation of the sky (Pásztor — Barna 2015, 4). High level of astronomical, mathematical and geometric knowledge could have been manifested through their building. Circular enclosures reflects economic, social and cultural-religious transformations, which were taking place in the Middle Europe in context of large transformation processes in Anatolia, Eastern Mediterranean and South-Eastern Europe. Characteristic of rondels The diameter of enclosures ranges between 30 to 300 m. Rondels consist of ditches and palisades (Fig. 9), only ditches or only palisades (Fig. 4). The number and character of individual fortification elements 59 T I
