Kalicz Nándor - Koós Judit: Mezőkövesd-Mosolyás. A neolitikus Szatmár-csoport (AVK I) települése és temetője a kr. e. 6. évezred második feléből - Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye régészeti emlékei 9. (Miskolc, 2014)
Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás - A brief overview of the Szatmár group (ALBK 1) in the light of the excavations and the assessment of the site and its finds
Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás 85 from the Méhtelek group of the Körös culture. The finds include highly stylised miniature face pots, as well as the fragments of larger face pots, which were used for storing cereals. Their size suggests that they may have been part of the paraphernalia used during domestic rituals. The curious centaur figurines, all individually modelled small pieces, represent a blend of human and animal figurines. The pieces from Füzesabony-Gubakút include intact pieces portrayed sitting on a throne. Comparable figurines are known from Kosovo in southern Serbia and from the later Vinca culture. Marija Gimbutas contended that these figurines portrayed masked bulls. The small animal figurines that probably depict bulls can be regarded as ritual finds. An oval clay plaque fitting into the palm of the left hand was perhaps used during ceremonies or in magic arts. Its upper face is decorated with an incised meandric pattern. It resembles the bread loaf-shaped clay artefacts of the early Vinca culture. BURIALS The excavations at Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás added a wealth of new details to our knowledge of the period’s burial rites. The deceased were all interred in inhumation graves. We uncovered twenty-five Neolithic graves, which, according to the physical anthropological examination of the skeletal remains, contained twenty- eight burials. The graves formed smaller clusters along a south-south-eastward curving semicircle beyond the settlement’s occupied area. Most burials were south-east to north-west oriented. The deceased were generally laid on their left side. The differential mortuary treatment of the deceased according to their one-time social status was not practiced at this time. Similar funerary rites were observed at Tiszahic, where nine graves came to light, and at Füzesabony, where thirteen burials were uncovered. The remains of red ochre survived on the skull in one of the burials at Mocsolyás. The use of red ochre was a widespread custom and one of the oft- practiced traditions of funerary rituals during the entire span of the Neolithic. The colour red, a symbol of life, was undoubtedly part of the sacral sphere. Grave goods were uncommon: no more than three graves contained a small vessel. Jewellery items cannot be regarded as genuine grave goods because they were part of the costume. The clay beads probably imitated the much rarer and therefore more valuable Spondylus beads. Adornments made from this marine shell, a bracelet and, more often, various beads, were found in nine graves. One of the prestige items of the Neolithic, Spondylus was a valuable commodity originating from the Aegean or the Croatian coast that was traded through longdistance exchange networks. RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE CHRONOLOGY Relative chronology The acquisition and trade of obsidian, a valuable raw material, and the procurement of various commodities such as marine shell ornaments and semi-finished products, pigments, various foodstuffs and other wares played a vital role in the life of the Szatmár (ALBK 1) group because it kept alive the cultural and other contacts between the group’s communities, which in turn contributed to the emergence of a uniform material culture. The Szatmár group evolved at the time when the Alföld was populated by communities of the late Körös culture, while the Upper Tisza region and the Szamos area were inhabited by the Méhtelek group. In our view, these two cultural components dominated in the emergence of the Szatmár group. The finds of the Szatmár group came to light from a separate feature at Kőtelek, a settlement occupied jointly with the Körös culture on the right Tisza bank marking the southern boundary of the group’s distribution. László Domboróczki’s excavations at Tiszaszőlős-Doma- háza-puszta, a site on the left bank of the river in the Middle Tisza region revealed that the northern boundary of the Alföld Körös culture lay farther to the north than originally assumed by Nándor Kalicz and János Makkay. The site’s stratigraphy clearly indicated that the Szatmár community settling at the site had occupied an abandoned settlement of the Körös culture, again confirming the role of the Alföld Körös culture in the emergence of the Szatmár group. At the same time, the Méhtelek group played a similarly dominant role in the group’s formation. However, the exact nature of these cultural impacts and their date remain unclear. Some scholars contend that the Transylvanian Cri§ culture played the most prominent role in the emergence of the Méhtelek group. Kalicz has argued that traits reflecting a dominant role of the Transylvanian Körös branch, i.e. the Cri§ culture, are lacking in the Méhtelek material, which rather echoes various features (or their variants) of the Alföld Körös culture. For example, small footed vessels are almost exclusively restricted to the Alföld Körös culture and the Méhtelek group, while in other regions such as Transylvania, Moldavia and in the Balkans, this vessel type is represented by a few stray finds only. Painted decoration is rare in the Méhtelek group and it is similarly infrequent in the Alföld. In view of the finds from the recently excavated site on the outskirts of Ibrány, László Domboróczki and Pál Raczky have suggested that the Szatmár group was a descendant of the Transylvanian Cri§ culture. The excavations at the Méhtelek site in 1973 by Nándor Kalicz and János Makkay revealed that one of the main activities of the community occupying the settlement was the acquisition and trade of obsidian and other lithic raw materials, and perhaps the procurement of salt, although the latter is no more than speculation based on circumstantial evidence at present. Contact
