Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 26 (1981) (Pécs, 1982)

Régészet - Ecsedy István: A kelet-magyarországi rézkor fejlődésének fontosabb tényezői

90 ECSEDY ISTVÁN characteristics which make the clear distinction of the Tiszaug Group and those of the others (Lucska, Basatanya, Deszk) possible.

14 Only the eponymous site of the Tiszaug Group has been excavated so far. Judging from the finds of this site and other data she has convincingly proved that the Tiszaug Group is synchronous only with the later phase of the other three groups as its characteristic types emerged only in the second half of the Tiszapolgár development. On the other hand, the Tiszapolgár ornaments obviously survive in the following (Bodrogkeresztur) period. This phenomenon indicates that the analysis of the Tiszaug material is important for the solution of the question concerning the formation of the Bodrogkeresztur Culture.

15 The distinguishing features of the Tiszaug Group seem to have been originated under the influence of the eastern neighbourhood of the Tiszapolgár Culture. The forms without analogies in the earlier phase of the Tiszapolgár Culture are the scoop-handles and the pottery seal („clay object of unknown purpose"). Unfortunately, the seal has been lost since.

16 These finds reflect connections with the Cucuteni - Erősd - Petreçti circle. This impact has been already taken into account concerning the bell-shaped pedestalls occuring frequently in the material of the Tiszapolgár Culture.

17 The Tiszaug-Kisrétpart seal has an analogy in Costisa,

18 similar seals and the scoops characteristic to the Cucuteni A - Tripolje BI period have been found in Erősd as well.

19 These data seem to justify P. Romans hypothesis stressing the importance of the connection-system within the Tiszapolgár Erősd - Salcuta - Petreçti circle for the inception of the Bodrogkeresztur Culture.

20 It can be supposed that the richly decorated vessels of the Tiszaug Group originated as a result of the influence of neighbouring groups belonging to the Cucuteni — Erősd — Tripolje circle with painted pottery. Although this influence did not lead to the frequent occurence of the painted vessels in the east of the Hungarian Plain, its impact is reflected by the exquisitively polished and ornamented vessels with their incrustation resembling a white painted decoration, and by the scoops and the pintadera mentioned above.

21 It has to be considered from this respect that the polichrome painting of the vessels lacked the strong traditions on this area. The acceptance and adoption of the polichrome painting itself was impossible for the pastoral groups of the Tiszapolgár Culture. The relations between the Tiszapolgár an Erősd area are demonstrated by the characteristic Tiszapolgár - Early Bodrogkeresztur pottery found in Transsylvania.

22 The roads along the rivers Körös, Maros and Olt became highly important in this period of the cultural development for the whole eastern part of the Carpathian Basin. The importance of these regions must have been accentuated by the copper-metallurgy and probably by the copper-transport from Transsylvania. It seems most probable that the influence of the neighbouring cultures was decisive for the formation of the Tiszaug — style and it served as an important factor of the development of the Bodrogkeresztur Culture later. The pottery-decorations of this later period have analogies in the Tiszazug-material. As far as the origin of the new vessel-forms is concerned, it is the Salcuta Culture we have to take into account. The increasing intensity of the cultural contacts of the Bodrogkeresztur Culture with the Salcuta is reflected bi the material in Eastern Hungary and the finds from the sites of „Herculane II—III - Cheile Turzii" type.

23 It has been clarified by the researches of late years that this integration-process was chronologically synchronous with a process of different nature, namely with the westward movement of the earliest nomadic groups of the steppe area. The beginning of this infiltration is connected with the Srednii Stog II Culture and the earliest graves in Brailla, the Marosdécse (Deçea Muresului) cemetery, the Csongrád grave and the Casimcea burial belong to this phase which corresponds to the latest Tiszapolgár, earliest Bodrogkeresztur period.

24-25 It cannot be directly demonstrated that this earliest westward movement of the steppic groups acted as a catalyst of the cultural integration leading to the Bodrogkeresztur Culture. It seems probable that the ethnical - cultural transformation of the West-Pontic area influenced the development of Transsylvania and the eastern part of the Hungarian Plain in some degree. This influence must have been an indirect one as a large-scale expansion or a significant ethnic change cannot be proved on the Tiszapolgár-Bodrogkeresztur territory. On the other hand, the cultural connections must have been dramatically altered by the destruction of the Gumelnita Culture, a highly important part of the Early Copper Age „metallurgical koine". The Cernavoda I Culture, emerging in the northern part of the former Gumelnita territory can be chronologically parallelled with the Cucuteni AB and В phases and with the Bodrogkeresztur Culture but it has nothing of common with the later as far as the cultural tradition is concerned. The basis for the development of the Cernavoda I Culture consisted mostly of the surviving Gumelnita elements and the Srednii Stog II traditions while the most important factors leading to the Bodrogkeresztur Culture were different and firmly rooted in the previous phase as it has been discussed above. The continuous development of the metallurgy and the cemeteries containing burials both from the Tisza-