A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Studia Archaeologica 5. (Szeged, 1999)

Florin GOGÂLTAN: The Southern Border of the Otomani Culture

blages in the Museum of Cluj.

10 Knowing that excavations at Socodor are unlikely to be resumed in the near future, any discussion of the southern 'border' of the Otomani culture has by necessity to be based on the currently available material. The finds from Socodor will be compared with the pottery assemblages from Cornesti and Foeni, both sites of the Cornesti-Crvenka group, lying south of the Mures, as well as with the finds from the neighbouring Värsand settlement (ROSKA 1941; POPESCU 1956; BONA 1975, 124, 126-139, PL. 132-151. 1, 3-6) and the contemporary tells in the Berettyó (Barcäu) valley investigated by M. Sz. Máthé (MÁTHÉ 1984; MÁTHÉ 1986; MÁTHÉ 1988). The household pottery from Socodor is decorated with comb- ('Kammestrich') or broombrushed patterns, as well as with scored patterns reminiscent of tree bark (POPESCU 1956a, Fig. 7. 3-5, 9-10. 15, Fig. 21. 2-3, 10, 13-15. Fig. 23. 1-9 etc.). Textile impressed ornamentation also occurs (POPESCU 1956a, 63-64, Fig. 23. 10). Large vessels are decorated with a variety of appliqué ribs and knobs (Fig. 3.1) (POPESCU 1956a. Fig. 8. 1-5, Fig. II. 5-6 etc.). Similar decoration occurs at Cornesti (Fig. 9) and Foeni (Fig. 12; Fig. 14. 6-7). These wares have to be analyzed together with semi-fine and fine wares. In my opinion this pottery, at least at Socodor, reflects a Gornea-Orlesti tradition. This group, characterized by broom-brushed and textile ornamented pottery, is distributed over a large area in southwestern Romania, Oltenia and Transylvania. Its origin is difficult to establish at this stage of Early Bronze Age research. There are two main hypotheses as to its origins: according to the first, this group had a local origin either in eastern Hungary or western Romania, related to the evolution of the Hatvan culture (BONA 1992. 21-24); according to the second, the group evolved independently of the Hatvan culture and can be linked to the arrival of groups from northern and central Hungary. The Gornea-Orlesti type can be dated to the end of the Early Bronze Age (Early Bronze Age III) and the very beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (Middle Bronze Age I).

11 A number of discoveries from the area north of the Mures, for example from Arad-Buiac (ROMAN 1988a, 220)

12

, suggest that the entire region, up to the three Cris rivers, was probably inhabited by the Gornea-Orlesti group.

13 The presence of the 'Ottomány' culture (BONA 1992, 29-30; MÁTHÉ 1994) in this region can thus be rejected for cultural and chronological considerations. I believe that the problem of the so-called 'Ottomány' culture has been solved by Petre Roman and loan Németi (ROMAN 1984; ROMÁN-NÉMETI 1986; ROMÁN-NÉMETI 1989; ROMAN-NÉMETI 1990, 42. 46-47; NÉMETI-ROMAN 1995, 30-31; NÉMETI 1996). Finds which have been recently grouped under the name Sanisläu appeared at the close of the Early Bronze Age in northwestern Romania (NÉMETI-ROMÁN 1995).

14 These finds represent a culture which practised cremation and which, at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age, was overrun by the Otomani tribes who practised inhumation. 10 Many thanks are also due to my colleagues, Mircea Barbu and Peter Hügel, for their assistance in the study of the find assemblages in the collection of the Museum of Arad. 11 I adopted the chronological framework used by Hungarian archaeologists for the Early and Middle Bronze Age in western Romania and Trafisylvania (GOGÂLTAN

1998). For detailed discussions of the Gornea-Orlesti group, cp. BORONEANJ

1971; PETRE 1976, 17, 20-21; LAZAROV1CI 1977, 89-90, PI. LXVII; LAZARO

VICI-SÂCÂRIN 1979, 74; ROMAN 1980, 18-19; PETRE 1983, 4; ROMAN 1984, 267, 271-272; ROMAN 1985, 120-121; ROMAN 1986, 31; ROMAN 1988, 41-42; ROMAN 1988a, 220, 222-223; PETRE-GOVORA 1988; CIUGUDEAN 1991, 111, Fig. 28; ROMAN 1992, XXII-XXIIf; GOGÂLTAN 1993; ROTEA 1993, 84, Pl. XIV; PETRE-GOVORA 1995, 38-41, Fig. 1-10; GOGÂLTAN 1995, 57-58, Fig. 4-14; CIUGUDEAN 1996, 110-112, Fig. 85-86; ROMAN 1996, 31-32, 63-64; GOGÂLTAN 1996a, 46, Pl X-XIV; N1CA 1996; GUMÂ 1997, 24, 26-37; LAZAROVIC1 1997, 15-16; CAVRUC-CAVRUC 1997; CIUGUDEAN 1997, 10; CAVRUC 1997; SZÉKELY 1997, 51-52; CIUGUDEAN 1998, 70-71, Map 3; RISCUTA 1998, 118-119; GOGÂLTAN 1998. 193-194; ROMAN 1998, 18-19; LAZAROVICI

1998; POPA 1998. 12 These new finds are in the collections of the Museum of Arad, inv. no. 13770 A-C. 13 The northernmost site in Romania which has yielded broom brushed, "tree bark ' ' and textile impressed pottery is Ciumesti (Satu Mare county). These fragments come from the Kovács collection and are housed in the Museum of Baia Mare. Mr C. Kacsó has kindly permitted me to mention this piece of information. These finds are scheduled for publication in a separate study. In view of what has already been published from Girisu de Cris-Alceu-Cimitir, it is very difficult to define what the "cultural group Girisu de Cris-Alceu ", dated the beginning of the Bronze Age (DUMITRASCU

1989, 126, Pl. V-VII), actually represents. Besides some pottery fragments with "tree bark" decoration, we know nothing about the other ornamental motifs on the pottery from the lower levels of this tell. 14 The dating of the Sanislau group as early as the Early Bronze III phase in P. Roman's chronological system (ROMAN 1986, 31-32) raises a number of issues that have already led to some confusion (POPA 1998, 71-79). P. Roman and I. Németi have