Paluch Tibor: Egy középső neolitikus lelőhely a kultúrák határvidékén. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monographia Archeologica 2. (Szeged, 2011)

Maroslele-Pana: A Middle Neolithic Site at the Frontier of Cultures

70 PALUCH Tibor • MAROSLELE-PANA: EG Y KÖZÉPSŐ NEOLITIKUS LELŐHEL Y A KULTÚRÁK HA TÁR VIDÉKÉN 70 The hilly parts of the area are also called Panahát (i.e., "Pana's Back"). The etymology of the word Pana is uncertain; its connection to the word Panna - which is a form of the name Anna - is doubtful. From a phonological and semantic point of view it is more likely that the word is of Slavic origin and may be connected to the Old Slavonic (and modern Slovenian) word pqna, "foam of a river" (RÁCZ 2001, 57). The loess hillock is elevated ca. 79 m above sea level and extends 1-1.5 m above the surrounding floodplain terrain. Ottó Trogmayer carried out an excavation on the highest point of elevation in 1963 (Fig. 1. 3). The site excavated in 2008 - and the planned route of the new highway - is located 150 m south, on the lower area of the dune (Fig. 1. 4). Even though the Maros River is the primary watercourse in the wider region, the microenvironment of the site is dominated by the nearby Száraz-ér. Due to artificial modifications of the evironment, a number of small natural watercourses in the Maros' drainage basin have turned into channels that lead off residual water. Száraz-ér diverts from the Maros north of the city of Arad and runs in the former course of the ancient Maros River (MÁRTON 1914, 295; MAROSI-SZILÁRD 1969, 309; KUCSERA 2001, 1). This low-gradient stream was the only substantial current flowing into the Hungarian section of the Maros. Its adjacent streams, constituting a system of braided channels, were Porgány, Bodgány, Sulymos and Csíkos creeks (PAULOVICS 2001, 87-88). The first military topographical map of the Kingdom of Hungary (Fig. 2. 2), also called the First Military Survey, made by Austrian officers, shows placenames such as the Lelei Sóstó (Lele Salty Lake), Pana, Kis Kövesd (Small Kövesd, in the form Kövest), Büdös Lake (Stinky Lake) and Porgány-Mouth in this area. Kis Kövesd is identified as the drainage basin of the salty oxbow lake of Lele that came into existence during the Pleistocene, when a system of meanders with high riverbanks were formed. Due to the presence of the nearby confluence of the Tisza and Maros rivers, a special microclimate developed in the area, creating an enviroment suitable for Early Neolithic human settlement. The region in question had varied relief and a diverse floodplain environment. In the whole Hungarian Plain low and high floodplain relief prevails. In its recent state the area of Pana can be divided into two parts; the northern and western fringes are close to the water and suitable for agricultural cultivation. The rest, however, has been used as pasture. This is the main reason why no archaeological excavations have been carried out here before and no remains of past human communities were found. THE 1963 EXCAVATION On the outskirts of Maroslele a local peasant, Mihály Nagy, found potsherds while ploughing. He mentioned his findings to Antal Tokodi, a local teacher from Tápérét, who reported them to the Szeged Museum. After the report was made, Ottó Trogmayer, the archaeologist at the museum, carried out an excavation in the area called Pana, on the outskirts of Maroslele village, between 24 June and 8 July 1963. Trench 1 of the excavation ran through a geodetic reference point on the hilltop (Fig. 5). A ploughed cultural layer was exposed at a depth of 60-90 cm, under which, at 110 cm in depth, surface patches of the archaeological features appeared. In the humus layer mixed with subsoil, at 90-110 cm, pits were not clearly visible. In trench 1, pits 1 and 2 were excavated and a few Neolithic potsherds were collected. Pit 3 extended beyond the trench and, therefore, a second, smaller, 3 m by 3 in, trench was opened (Fig. 6. 1). A mixture of potsherds of the Körös and Vinca cultures was recovered from pit 3. The depth of pit 3 reached 270 cm, measured from the present surface. During the excavation of trench 1, finds were kept together from the lower layers by the spade's-depth excavation levels, so the finds' chronology is hard to reconstruct. In the part of pit 3 that lay in the new, small, northern trench, however, artefacts from the layers below 110 cm were kept separately. Nevertheless, potsherds of the two cultures were also found mixed here. At 200-240 cm the remains of a hearth were discovered; it had seemingly been thrown into the pit and stood at an oblique angle to the pit's wall. Within the pit no inner stratigraphy could be observed as the archaeological material was relatively homogenous below and above the ashy, sooty, heavily burnt daub layer that prevailed in the pit. Because of the large amount of pottery found in the eastern end of trench 1, Trogmayer decided to open trench 2, which was later referred to as "the eastern extension." In trench 2, a feature of considerable size, pit 4, was uncovered (Fig. 6. 2). Similarly to trench 1, the surface of the feature appeared at ca. 1 m depth. The pit continued beyond the trench wall to both the south and east, so the trench was extended to the east. This is how the edge of pit 4 was discovered. The pit was 220 cm deep. At a depth of 180 cm, a thick layer of snail shells was found. Archaeological material recovered from this pit differed from the mixed artefacts of pit 3. Not a single sherd of Vinca A origin was found here. The pottery shows typical characteristics of the Körös culture. Originally, the southern enlargement of the "eastern extension," a small trench of 21 m length, was called trench 2. Trench 3 ran parallel to trench 1 on the southern side, while trench 4 was dug perpendicular to trench 1. The excavation lasted for 10 days, and only these four trenches were dug in an area of 140 nr. Seven pits and seven human skeletons were discovered during excavation. One of the graves was proven to have originated in the Early Modern Era, while two of them were dated to the Migration Period. Of the five Early Neolithic graves only three were suitable for analysis. All the graves were found during the excavations of refuse pits. The archaeological findings were published by Ottó Trogmayer one year after the excavation, in 1964 (TROGMAYER 1964). THE PROTO- VINCA PROBLEM Concerning the transition between the Early and Middle Neolithic, much debate has focused on the late period of the Körös-Starcevo-Cri§ culture that survived into the Vinca A period. One of the reasons for being the focus of attention is that ever since Vasic's four-volume comprehensive monograph was published (VASIC 1932; VASIC 1936) the origin of the Vinca culture has been presented as a key issue in the Neolithic of Southeast Europe (HORVÁTH 2006, ill). Another reason for the interest is the internal chronology of the Körös culture, which is still not clearly understood. Only the very early period, characterized by geometrically ornamented pottery, painted in white-on-red, and the late, so-called