A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve, 1982/83-1. (Szeged, 1985)

Régészet - Hegedűs Katalin: The Settlement of the Neolithic Szakálhát-Group at Csanytelek–Újhalastó

These wattle daub walls were sometimes embedded into a foundation trench; in certain cases this foundation trench was observed only in the north-eastern part of the house,

9 but sometimes all four walls of the house were set into a bedding trench dug slightly into the virgin soil,

10 similarly to the houses at Csanytelek. A. Stieren compared the characteristic features of 100 Linear Band Pottery Culture longhouses excavated at 34 different sites and reached the following conclusion: "Das konstruktiv Ausschlaggebende bei diesen Grossbauten liegt in den Bindern. Lange Rechteckbauten, inbesondere solange die Längsaussenwande noch nicht dachtragend sind, sind nur möglich auf Grund dieser Binderkonstruktion."

11 Only a construction with these "auxiliary purlins" enables these houses to be lengthened practically infinitely as documented by the 41 m long house excavated at Postolorpy

12 and the 45 m long house uncovered at Bylany.

13 Unfortunately culture layers,

14 finds

15 and other features

16 (e.g. ovens or hearths) occur extremely rarely inside houses of the Linear Pottery Culture, thus it is often extremely difficult or even impossible to determine the exact function of the various rooms into which these house were originally divided.

17 H. T. Waterbolk and P. J. R. Modderman have been able to distinguish two chronologically distinct basic house-types, the Geleen-type and the Elsloo-type as regards groundplan.

18 The earlier, Geleen-type house can be characterised as follows: the house is divided into three rooms or areas, the walls of the the north-western part are founded in a bedding trench and the posts in the middle of the house form a Y-configuration, whereas the two or three rows of double posts were observed in the south-eastern part of the house. It has been suggested that this south-eastern part was perhaps a granary, the middle part functioned as the main habitation area and the north-western part of the house was used for cattle stalling.

19 Insofar as these long structures functioned as houses we would expect that culture layers or hearths would be observed inside them. Menghin has, however, argued

20 that the lack of culture layers and hearths doesnot necessarily preclude the possibility that these structures functioned as houses. It has been observed during recent excavations that the culture layer was levelled prior to new building activity and that house floors and ovens or hearths built thereupon were most probably destroyed in the course of this levelling. Open air hearths and ovens are, moreover, 9 E.g. structures 88 and 96 in Bylany, buildings 50 and 91 in Köln

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Lindenthal, structures 2 and 45 in Sittard. Soudsky, В., Etude de la maison néolithique. SA (1969) 13, Fig. 4. 10 Idem, Figs. 31—32. 11 Stieren, A., BRGK 33 (1943—50) 80. 12 Soudsky, В., SA (1969) 31, Fig. 13. 13 Ibid., 70, Fig. 31. 14 A floor has only been reported from the Griedel site: Müller

—Karpe, H., Handbuch der Vorgeschichte II. Munich (1968) 220. 15 Müller

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Karpe mentions two cases when grinding stones were found in the north-western section of the foundation trench encircling the house. Handbuch der Vorgeschichte II. Munich (1968) 220. 16 Two ovens were uncovered in house XI of Herkheim. Stieren, A., BRGK 33 (1943—50) 80, Fig. 5:7. Traces indicative of hearths or fireplaces within houses have furthermore been reported from Duderstadt, Jaschlowitz, Postoloprty and perhaps Bochum. Certain scholars, however, question the contemporaneity of these fireplaces and the houses in question. 17 Traces of inner partitioning have been observed in Elsloo, Duderstadt, Arnsbach, Jaschlowitz, Postoloprty, etc. 18 Waterbolk, H. T.

—Modderman, P.J.R., Die Grossbauten der Bandkeramik. Paleohistoria VI—VII (1958—59) 163—171. 19 Ibid., 169. 30 Menghin, О., Handbuch der Archäologie. 4. Lief. (1950) 149. 17