A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1962-1964 (Debrecen, 1965)

Tanulmányok - Kovács Tibor: Some Facts of the Emergence of a Late Bronze Group at Egyek

Tibor Kovács Some Facts of the Emergence of a Late Bronze Croup at Egyek As early as in the sixties of the last century the museums of the Tisza region collected finds of the Late Bronze urn fields situated at the Szőlőhegy area of Egyek village, and from the contracted-skeleton cemetery — belonging to the Füzesabony culture — in the centre of the village (7—8). Tivadar Lehoczky (5, 10—11), András Jósa (3, 9, 12 —13), Lajos Zoltai (16, 18 — 19), Ede Tariczky and Béla Milesz (17) conducted several excavations at Egyek at the beginning of this century. Following this, no excavations were made in the Late Bronze cemetery of Egyek for decades. The writer of this paper opened up 13 urn graves at Szőlőhegy in 1962. The finds of the cremation cemetery at Egyek were described already by V. G. Childe (24—25). It is surprising that Ferenc Tompa does not even mention these finds in his comprehensive work (26). VI. Milojcic (33 — 37) seems to be somewhat inexperienced with Late Bronze finds in Hungary as he does not see clearly the chronological sequence of the cemeteries of major importance of the Tisza region (Egyek, Muhi, Piliny, Hajdúbagos) although the Egyek cemetery has been given a very early chronological classification (Reinecke BB

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). Amália Mozsolicsi(4<3

—45, 47—55) emphasizes that the Egyek culture — being related to tumulus cultures — must have survived from the end of В III (R BB) throughout the whole period of В IV (R ВС—

BD) in the Tisza region. István Bona (57 — 64) suggests that the population of Egyek was an eastern immigrant tribe, which took possession of the entire territory east of the river Tisza, as well as entire Northern Hungary, in the 1 — 2 periods (R BB

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—

ВС) of the Late Bronze Age, before the culture of Piliny (87—90). In his study analysing the Igrici— Egyek cemetery group Nándor Kalicz attaches importance to the role of tumulus cultures in the developement of Egyek (68), and shows its undeniable relationship with the Felsőszőcs group and the Piliny culture (72). Tibor Kemenczei finds that the Rákóczifalva group of the Egyek culture emerged at the beginning of the first period (R BB

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) of the Late Bronze, and that the Egyek group — the upper Tisza region —emerged after the Bodrogszerdahely group under the influence of the tumulus culture, and that the finds of both groups show strong Late Bronze traditions (82—86). Summing up the criticism of opinions held about the finds of Egyek, we should like to state the following

: As a consequence of the appearance of the first tumulus wave (92) that put an end to the independent development of the Middle Bronze Age, the ethnic groups of the Middle Bronze gathered in Northern Hungary (the groups of the Zagyva—Mátra region, of Bodrogszerdahely, 93), and in certain parts of the Great Plain (surroundings of Debrecen — Hajdúbagos group, north-east of the river Tiszafelsőszőcs group, 95, the surroundings of Szolnok—Rákóczifalva group). Tumulus peoples contributed only indirectly to the emergence of groups that lived in the first period of the Late Bronze. The social structures (smaller ethnic units representing the culture and forming groups, ties of blood, of territory and economy) that developed within particular cultures and groups during the relatively long span of the Middle Bronze, broke down under attacks from outside. In territories smaller than the original ones, the ethnic units of the Middle Bronze developed into groups of the Late Bronze (this is not only a concept of terminology!) whose cultural characteristics — quite different from those of the Middle Bronze by that time — were determined by the importance and relationship of basic units of the Middle Bronze. The development of various group features was determined by the following factors

: Rákóczifalva group: Vatya, Füzesabony, Szőreg, Hajdúbagos groups: Füzesabony, Gyulavarsánd, Vattina, Felsőszőcs groups: Ottomány,Wietenberg groups. The groups of the Zagyva—Mátra region and of Bodrogszerdahely outlined by Kemenczei lived under identical natural conditions, and were two groups that grew out of the same Middle Bronze culture (Füzesabony). Their different cul85