Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 16. 1975 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1978)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Excavations at Bicske. I, 1960. The Early Neolithic – The Earliest Linear Band Ceramic. p. 9–60.
My excavations at this very important Transdanubian Neolithic site were carried out with the consistent and generous support of dr. J. F i t z, Director of the Museums of Fejér County, and of dr. Éva F. P e t r e s, Assistant Director of the same Museums. Further excavations after the long break between 1965 and 1971 were only made possible by the enthusiastic support they gave to my work. Without their help and interest it would not have been possible to organize the International Symposion on problems of the Linear Band Pottery Culture held in 1970 in Székesfehérvár( 12 ). By the same token, it would not have been possible to present the finds of the 1975 The site of Bicske lies north from the village of Bicske on Galagonyás hill, which is divided into small land parcels cultivated in grape vines. Between the village and the site lies the old wide pleistocene bed of the Szent László river, now dry and filled in by later deposition. The pleistocene river carried surface waters from the Vértes mountains into the Danube river in a NWSE direction. The site lies on the northern bank of the ancient river bed, on a long gentle hillslope. One can see signs of heavy erosion on this slope. This erosional activity has been particularly heavy in the last two centuries since village people began practicing the special soil preparations of vineyard cultivation on this slope. Rain waters carried these disturbed soils from the higher land toward the river bed. As a result the whole neolithic; site was covered with a depositional soil level of 60—80 cms in thickness. The thickness of this level was greater in the areas closer to the river bed. The highway construction works however, made it impossible to determine the depth of the deposition in most parts of the southern sectors of the site. The original form of the site was disturbed by two kinds of activity: erosion, and the vineyard activity, which mixed the surface soil to a depth of 80 cms, on the uppermost level of the neolithic remains. Thus neolithic sherds may be seen on surface points where ploughing or other kinds of cultivation works have been recently carried out. As surface sherd scatters show, neolithic remains can be found some 150 meters NNE from trench V. 1972, and 80 meters SSW from the highway toward the village. The SSW — NNE diameter of the neolithic site may thus be estimated at approximately 300 meters. The NW — SE diameter could not however be measured by sherd scatter distributions, since arable crop pkmghing here does not reach the depth (80 cms) of the neolithic remains. exhibition of Bicske material in the István Király Museum. Finally they must be thanked for providing me with the possibility to publish this material in Alba Regia. I am deeply grateful to them for the support of these last 12 years. I would also like to express my appreciation to all the people who have participated in this work over the years since 1971 : Magda M. Tulok, P. R а с z к y, P. Árkus, Juan Alberto Cabell о, John Chapman and M aja Martinovic-Chapmanas well as to A 1 ice Choyke for her help in translating this article from Hungarian. House 1. 1971 The levels above the house and in the associated trenches I —II. 1971 and V. 1972 (Pis. I-II, Figs. 1—3) 0 — 80 cms: these erosional deposits were mixed many times by vineyard cultivation in the last two centuries. Lower neolithic remains however, were destroyed only by the building of wine cellars. Thus few neolithic sherds can be found in secondary depositional positions. 80 — 100 cms: these erosional deposits were not disturbed by vineyard cultivation. The soil is dark brown, hard, compact, and with white chalk-like stripes from decayed roots. A few worn sherds from the Sopot-Bicske culture were found in secondary depositional positions. 100—130 cms: the soil is dark grayish-brown and of a looser consistency than the level between 80 — 100 cms. The Sopot-Bicske settlement is found in this level together with many sherds, animal bones and chipped stone implements from this culture. Some pits from Sopot-Bicske culture cut into deeper cultural levels or even the virgin soil. 130—140 cms: this level contained gray ashy soil. There are a few sherds from the Sopot-Bicske culture, as well as Notenkopf sherds probably coming from nearby pits of the Notenkopf culture but now lying in secondary depositional positions. There were further finds, mostly of broken sherd fragments from the Early Neolithic, which belong to the fill of the lowest level, lying between 140— 160 cms. These sherds were brought into this upper level by Sopot-Bicske pits which cut through the neolithic humus into the virgin soil. Some such Sopot-Bicske pits were found in Settlement Features 12
