Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 4.-5. 1963-1964 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1965)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bóna István: The Peoples of Southern Origin of the Early Bronze Age in Hungary I–II. IV–V, 1963–64. p. 17–63. t. I–XVII.

was not dealt with by later literature,

30 it was only the author of this paper who mentioned the bronze diadem of grave 2,

3G classifying the site as a cemetery of the Pitvaros group already. Eeside the three cemeteries we know a few stray finds of the Pitvaros group too. Röszke (Csongrád county). 1. Double-conical one-handled pot (PI. V no. 14). Szeged, F. Móra Museum. Inv. no. 53, 18, 4. 2. Abowl with a stongly inverted rim and two strap handles one beside other (PL V no. 15). Inv. no. 53, 18, 3. The surroundings of Szeged. Two-handled mug, on the bulge a rib ornament of three members is running downwards (PI. V no. 16). Hungarian National Museum. The surroundings of Makó (Csongrád county). A stray two-handled mug in the Makó Museum (PL V no. 17). Csóka — Сока (former Torontál county, Yougoslavia, Vojvodina).

37 Among earlier, Bodrog'keresztur type, and later, Vucedou type (Makó group) finds the Belgrade Museum excavated from a grave (probably inhumation burial) a two-handled mug. Its colour is brownish-grey, the bulge is ornamented with a small wart in the middle, height: 11,5 cm. (Inv. no. 722.) Also the following objects may belong to our group: a deep bowl with a bulging lower part and a slightly arched rim, diam.: 16 cm. (Inv. no. 2537), a one-handled bowl with a conical bottom and a rim turned outward, diam.: 15 cm (Inv. no 7Э9) and a pot with a round belly, tight neck and straight rim, ornamented with three warts on the bulge, height: 9 cm (Inv. no. 2538).

38 3. Extension, settlements, cemeteries, costume According to our present knowledge we may define the extension of the Pitvaros group by the quadrangle formed by the Tisza, Aranka and Szárazár. The Röszke finds allude to the fact that the people of the group may have set foot also on the right bank of the Tisza, opposite to the mouth of the Maros, if the marshy region around Röszke lay in prehistory on the right bank of the Tisza. We do not know the settlements of the Pitvaros group so far. Although in the region of the triangle Tisza—Maros—Aranka several settlements of the Perjámos culture (Perjámos, Pécska, Rabé, Ószentiván, Szőreg) have been excavated systematically, life in the Early Bronze Age begun at all these places with the early period of the Perjámos culture. It is true that some vases at Ószentiván and Pécs35 Without being mentioned, the site figures in the comprehensive map of the Bronze Age inhumation cemeteries of the Maros region: J. BANNER: Dolg. 7 (1931) 3. 36 I. BONA: Arch. Ért. 86 (1959) 55, 59. 37 A connection between Csóka and Pitvaros has been established already by I. B. KUTZIAN: Acta Arch. Hung. 9 (1958) 172. ka I

39 are reminding us of the two-handled mugs ot the Pitvaros group, but there are also differences, the mentioned specimens being similar to those occurring in the cemeteries of the Szőreg type. Thus stratigraphically the settlements of the Pitvaros group were not found under the Perjámos tells anywhere. In spite of this negative statement, the bones of pigs and fowl frequently found in the graves, beloning to typical animals of settled peasants, reveal the existence of an agricultural population settled in villages. Thus it is probable that the thin strata of their settlements will found sooner or later. The cemeteries of the group are situated on hills raised slightly from a watery area. Little is known of their extension and the number of the graves. At Óbéba and Törökkanizsa only a small part of the cemeteries was unearthed in all certainty, though at the former site cca 28—30 graves are known, including those devastated earlier. At Pitvaros F. Móra succeeded in discovering 42 graves of the Pitvaros group. With regard to our statements as to settlement, the cemeteries could not have been large ones; they may have contained 40 to 60 graves in my judgment, corresponding to the cemetery of a clan. Their inner structure is hardly known; their people buried the dead ai a more or less equal distance and perhaps according to an order of rows, possibly in blocklike form. We have manifold data on the burial rite. Nothing is known of the shape of the grave-pits, we are informed on their size only in a few cases of Pitvaros. They may have had oval shapes, with a width to length ratio of 3:5. Their depth varied between 30 and 200 cm, often by mere chance, but we noticed at several occassions that the deepest graves hid the richest people. The averge depth of a grave was 100 cm. In all graves the dead were buried in a contracted position. The measure of contraction was generally strong. The arms and hands of the deceased were drawn before the face, the hands were often placed on the skull or the facial bones respectively („meditating" position).

40 The body was laid on its right or left side. The face was turned, however, towards E in both cases, thus the skeletons laid on either side fitted into the N—

S axis in an inverted position, heads alternating with feet. 38 N. VULIC—M. GRBIC: CVA Youg. Fasc. 3 (1937) 4, 7, 14, PI. 14 no. 11; PI. 15 nos 8-10. 39 J.BANNER: Dolg. 4 (1928) 1, Fig. 5 nos 9-11; Fig. 6 nos 1-2; M. ROSKA: Dolg. 3 (1912) 7, Fig. 3. 40 We might raise the question, whether there is a relation 25