A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1997-1998 (Debrecen, 1999)

Utak a múltba - Kivonat az M3 autópálya nyomvonalán feltárt régészeti leletek kiállítási katalógusából

Pál Raczky, Alexandra Anders, Emese Nagy, Katalin Kurucz, Zsigmond Hajdú, Walter Meier-Arendt POLGÁR-CSŐSZHALOM-DŰLŐ LATE NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT AND GRAVES FROM THE 5

TH MILLENNIUM B.C. The site of Csőszhalom has long been known in the archaeological literature. It is located some 5 km east of the town of Polgár in the immediate proximity of the road that leads to Hajdúnánás. Systematic archaeological research has been carried out at this site since 1989 in cooperation between the Archaeological Institute of the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest), the Directorate of Museums in Hajdú-Bihar County (Debrecen) and the Museum für Vor-und Frühgeschichte (Frankfurt am Main). As a result of these excavations, magnetometric studies and aerial photographs it has become clear that the higher part of the settlement was surrounded by a rondel composed of five, concentric, circular ditches and rampart system. Creating this special "settlement" with its roundel organization as well as the physical work required for its construction called for a major cooperative effort by a large population. Considering that the "population" of the Csőszhalom tell site was unlikely to have been sufficiently large to carry out this task, the presence of a major settlement could be assumed around this elevation. The planned line of the M3 motorway intersected the ancient embankment on which the tell settlement is located at a distance of approximately 500 m from the tell itself. The evaluation of comprehensive interdisciplinary results made it clear that the tell was surrounded by a large (28 ha) horizontal settlement. The settlement mound is located at the western edge of this latter. In terms of size, the Neolithic settlement at Polgár is unique in the Neolithic of the Tisza region. Due to the presence of the circular ditch system that surrounds the tell area, this site is typologically similar to settlements of the Lengyel culture in Transdanubia (western Hungary) and the Gödöllő Hills. Neolithic cultures of the Great Hungarian Plain and Transdanubia probably advanced into the Upper Tisza region in an effort to access lithic raw materials, namely obsidian in the environs of Tokaj Hill, and control its trade. In light of this possibility the position of the site under discussion here as well as its proximity to Tokaj is suggestive of the potential strategic significance of this settlement in the exchange systems between regions located to the east, west and north. An approximately 400 m long and 100 m wide north to south section of the Late Neolithic settlement at Polgár could be recovered during the course of rescue excavations carried out along the line of the future M3 motorway. During this work an approximately 2.5 ha contiguous surface was opened and another 1.5 ha surface was mapped on the basis of spots identified in the virgin soil. For the time being, the site at Polgár is the largest Neolithic settlement excavated in Hungary. 162