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
354 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR An especially great number of sherds found in the Neolithic features at Kompolt are characterised by Tiszadob stylistic features. These are as follows: Feature 13 (cup with "figural" design, decorated with a row of dots); Features 26/99 (row of holes below the rim, biconical vessel with a rectangular belly, spouted vessel, small knobs, cylindrical neck, pot decorated with ribs); Feature 126 (bundle of five lines, line pattern composed of drop-shaped punctuates); Feature 125 (cups with zigzagging and step-like designs respectively, line pattern composed of drop-shaped punctuates, bundles of punctuated design, biconical vessel with a rectangular belly, circular design, four tiny knobs); Feature 131 (row of holes below the rim, sub-divided surface, step-like design); Feature 251 (tiny knobs, arched mug, rows of punctuated design); Feature 140 (rows of punctuated design, sub-divided surface with a step-like design); Features 249-287 (biconical vessel with a rectangular belly, zig-zagging design); Feature 294 (rows of punctuated design, spouted vessel). In spite of the fact that the Kompolt-Kistér site lay on the southernmost border of the Bükk culture (in fact, somewhat outside it), in addition to the afore mentioned finds, most of the characteristic sherds found here represent the Bükk culture. 1 0 Of the most typical forms of vessels associated with this culture, fine and small mugs/cups, small biconical (paint) vessels, and spherical bomb-shaped vessels with inverted mouths all occur in high proportions in the Kompolt find assemblage as well. Moreover, the negative evidence of certain types, such as the absence of pedestalled bowls from the Kompolt material is also typical in the case of the Bükk culture. The small number of painted vessels is another characteristic of the Bükk culture. The situation was the same at Kompolt. The presence of 15 painted sherds among an assemblage of 7000 may indeed be considered negligible. Of the Bükk culture decorative inventory, patterns of the highly developed (Bükk II) phase are missing. On the other hand, net design, spiral, step-like, meandering and zigzagging lines, as well as sub-divided surfaces often occur on small vessels. Several "gate" patterns were also identified among the Kompolt finds which had already occurred in the Tiszadob stylistic group, although they became truly characteristic in the early Bükk group. Subsequently, their highly developed varieties form the most beautiful motifs in classical Bükk culture decorative art. 1 1 Among the Neolithic features excavated at Kompolt, especially numerous sherds with Bükk stylistic characteristics originate from the following features: Feature 13 (rows of punctuated design, bombshaped vessel); Features 26-99 (row of holes below the rim, pot with rib decoration and a broad cylindrical mouth); Feature 94 (densely placed bundle of lines); Features 98-232 (densely placed bundle of lines); Feature 123 (spiral design, divided into surfaces); Feature 125 (small biconical cup, paint container, pattern of sub-divided surfaces, lime-inlay, row of holes below the rim); Feature 131 (funnel-shaped pot, row of holes below the rim); Feature 140 (step-like pattern of subdivided surfaces); Features 249-287 (semi-circular, netlike and "gate" design, pattern of sub-divided surfaces, filling ornaments); Feature 294 ("gate" design, pattern of sub-divided surfaces, semicircular design, filling ornaments, lime inlay). The Szilmeg group is perhaps the least known regional variety of the late Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. N. Kalicz and J. Makkay classified altogether no more than five sites within this group in 1977. 1 2 Since then, only a single major find assemblage of this type has been published. 1 3 (A few additional Szilmeg assemblages with no known excavation data are also mentioned in the article by E. D. Matuz). The distribution area of this group includes the Mátra Mountains, the environs of Eger and the Upper Tisza Region. Since Kompolt thus lay in the core area of the Szilmeg group in the proximity of Füzesabony and the Tarna river one would expect that Szilmeg types dominated in the Kompolt-Kistér assemblage. This, however, turned out not to have been the case. In fact, Szilmeg type sherds are the fewest in the assemblage under discussion here, and even these are not unambiguously characteristic of this group: some of them share features with the Szakáihát group, also represented in the Kompolt-Kistér find assemblage. As far as decoration is concerned, the Szilmeg group may be distinguished from the rest of the pottery types assigned to the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain using negative evidence: no linear patterns occur on these sherds. Their surfaces are characterised by even, brown burnishing, with the occasional presence of protruding, hollow knobs, or short, irregular appliqué ribs on the vessel's wall. The entire surface of pots with inwardly bent rims and smaller bowls are sometimes covered by rows of pinched decoration. The rims of pots are thick, frequently covered with fingerimpressed ribs. The flat, cylindrical and perforated pedestal is another Szilmeg feature, as well as the mug type with an elevated rim. Additional characteristics include elbow-like handles and Esztár style painting. 1 4 Several of these stylistic features are missing from the Kompolt-Kistér material. Hollow, protruding knobs and perforated pedestals were not identified (a single fragment of a pedestalled bowl was found in a total of 73 Neolithic features!), and the black painted decoration is completely missing as well. Undecorated mugs with high burnish as well as oblique, short, finger-impressed rib decorations may be considered characteristic of Szilmeg type pottery as well. The situation is different in the case of elbow-like handles, thick pot rims and pinched decorations covering the vessels' entire surface. Namely, these features occur so commonly on sherds from early Szakáihát sites that they cannot be regarded simple Szilmeg imports. 1 5 It is
