Vaday Andrea – Bánffy Eszter – Bartosiewicz László – T. Biró Katalin – Gogältan Florin – Horváth Friderika – Nagy Andrea: Kompolt-Kistér : Újkőkori, bronzkori, szarmata és avar lelőhely Leletmentő ásatás az M+-as autópálya nyomvonalán (Eger, 1999)
The site of Kompolt, Kistér
352 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR centre, and it was chiefly the fireplaces and workshop refuse, as well as clay extraction pits in peripheral locations that came to light. Naturally, these latter served as secondary garbage deposits, and thus became rich and valuable archaeological features such as Pit 26/99. The structure and position of a settlement may be best identified on the basis of the way its houses are oriented. In this case, however, no such data were available. Experience shows, however, that the majority of workshop and refuse pits were aligned by footpaths that ran parallel to the houses. In all probability, it is this tendency that is expressed by the phenomenon that the most intensively used features are clearly oriented to the northwest. Moreover it seems that features 20, 249/287, 125, 115, 131, 132, 121 and others were located along a path that may have run southeast-northwest. This orientation is common at settlements of the Linear Pottery culture in the Carpathian Basin. 2 Eight Neolithic graves were also found at this site. In addition to grave goods, these burials are best characterised by the contracted position of skeletons, and occasional use of red ochre. Both are of good dating value. The graves were always oriented north to south. It may be presumed that this direction is related to the orientation of other features at the Kompolt 14 settlement. In addition, the north to south orientation of burials must have also been a tradition among late Linear Pottery groups. 3 No bones were preserved in one of these graves. This burial was dated on the basis of its north to south orientation and the Spondylus shell finds that were added as grave goods. All of the graves lay at the very edge of the settlement. Four of them, Graves 209, 178, 250 and 28 appear to lie in an entirely marginal position. These deceased were buried beyond the north/northeastern border of the village. In the same way, Graves 54 and 286 also lay beyond the settlement's northern and northwestern border. Only one burial, Grave 22/254 was found within the settlement itself. This grave pit, oriented north to south, contained three beads made from Spondylus shell. According to the interpretation of the excavator, Andrea Vaday, this grave was disturbed by another feature, also dated to the Linear Pottery Period (it was this feature that was originally called Pit 22). This phenomenon could even have caused dating problems. However, no Neolithic find material came to light in this latter feature, and more careful study has shown that it should not even be considered a Neolithic feature. As far as the entire settlement is concerned, none of the Neolithic features cut into each other. Stratigraphic descriptions based on field observations by Andrea Vaday and her colleagues indicate neither inner stratigraphies within features nor secondary disturbance. Meanwhile, the analysis of find material has also confirmed that there is no reason to think that a Neolithic horizontal stratigraphy existed here, that is, all pits and graves can be dated to the same period. On the basis of these observations, the section of the Neolithic settlement excavated at Kompolt-Kistér may be interpreted as the northern outskirts of a Middle Neolithic village which extended over a considerable area. This village was a single component settlement. The find material uniformly dates to a late phase of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. As is known, this phase was characterised by intensive interaction between regional groups that resulted in a stylistically mixed find material. The chronological position of the Neolithic settlement at Kompolt-Kistér is simple, but also somewhat complex. In summary, it may be said that this village, a flat single layer settlement, dated to the late phase of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. The size of the settlement could not be estimated since excavations were carried out only in its northern section. No houses were identified in this area, therefore not even the number of habitations could be estimated. Meanwhile, considering that the outskirts of this settlement occupied a 60 m wide band, that altogether 73 clay extraction and refuse pits were found within this area, and that numerous workshops functioned here, offer some information on the village's respectable size. It must have consisted of numerous houses inhabited by a considerable number of people. The village's inner chronology may be considered simple since all field observations and post excavation analyses unambiguously confirm the contemporaneity of features at this settlement. These facts may be summarised as follows: 1/ There are no intersecting Neolithic features at the site. 2/ The Neolithic features are aligned within the same pattern, as for example the afore mentioned pits and workshops that lay on the eastern side of a "path". It must be added that the rest of the features (which also follow the presumed north to south orientation of houses) confirm this conclusion. 3/ No discrete layers could be distinguished during the excavation of individual features (see the relevant sketches). The fills were homogeneous and the excavator observed that the pits' deposits must have formed in a relatively short time. 4/ The eight graves were found at the northern and north-western edge of the settlement. The position of each grave shows that the inhabitants of the settlement buried their dead with regard to "active" features, that is, the location of pits, paths and workshops still in use. 5/ No chronological distinctions could be made between features on the basis of the artifactual material. Without exception, they contained finds characteristic of the late phase of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain or of stylistic groups that existed within the distribution area of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. These finds predominantly included sherds from the Tiszadob and Bükk, but also the Szilmeg and Szakáihát groups.
