Agria 39. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2003)

Domboróczki László: Radiokarbon adatok Heves megye újkőkori régészeti lelőhelyeiről

were a few uncertainties in these early studies. Since N. Kalicz and J. Makkay's summary, however, we know exactly what characterises the ALP Culture. The Szatmár Group demonstrated very logically the transition (to which one can perhaps add, mixture) existing between the ALP and the Körös Cultures. Time has proved the hypothesis that Szatmár finds were part of a transitionary second phase between the cultures to be correct. N. Kalicz and J. Koós's division of the Szatmár Group into three parts was an attempt to refine the periodisation process, which could not have happened without taking into consideration the proportion of pure Körös and pure ALP elements in the finds. Thus, irrespective of whether one is looking at it in terms of stylistic development or spontaneous type mixture (exchanges of goods or intermarriage), one would have to calculate the degree of mixture based on characteristics of Körös and ALP Cultures in their pure form. Thus, having made precise quantitive measurements it is conceivable that in both cases conclusions will result and the exact degree of mixture calculated. In summarising the above, the critical observations arising from our discussion of the dating methods are the following. Having drawn attention to the inaccuracies arising from using mean С

14 dates we recommend the use of a sigma 2 domain with 95% accuracy in preference to a sigma 1 standard deviancy with only 68% accuracy. This of course can only be done if we have both a good sequence of dates where several objects can be dated and a control possibility with which to verify the results. Possibilities exist primarily within the fields of stratigraphical and typological analysis. Rather than dating sites as a whole we recommend the dating of individual objects. The more accurate the reference point, the more exact the evaluation. Our only realistic aim is to work out chronologies for individual houses and pits, initially on a site to site basis, before crossing between sites. Apart from this we would also suggest the creation of a uniform reference system for the finds of the Körös-ALP transitional period, as more accurate references will allow us to calculate the degree of transition as well. It is however also worth going one step further in our analysis of transition-type, mixed finds. Taking into consideration the foundation of these settlements which, on the basis of the С

14 data, are most certain to have had long existences, we would like to mention that there may in fact be settlement remains which actually bear witness to the Körös-ALP transition. We know that the best possible candidates are probably to be found amongst the Szatmár sites. Although there are some sites where the possibility of examining the settlement structure no longer exists, there are nevertheless places where this may be possible. It is here that future research may be able to provide some tangible results. There are, indeed, places where the transitional period may indeed be found amongst the results which have already been published. This is the case, at Kisköre-Gát, for example, where one of the pits also contains Körös-type material

88 or at Kőtelek, where there was a pure Körös pit in the vicinity of a pit considered to be from the ALP period.

89 In the case of the latter, the use of the horizontal stratigraphical principle excluded the possibility of a genetic relationship, although this partly had to do with the belief that the Kunhegyes-Berettyóújfalu line formed the border of the Körös Culture, and that the spread 88 "Pit dwelling" no. 1 on surface 61: KOREK József 1977. 3., 7. We believe there are also Köröstype fragments amongst the material alongside the ALP pieces. It is also striking how many shellfish and how much ash there was in the pit filling, both of which are characteristic of (although by no means exclusive to) Körös Culture pits. 89RACZKYPáll986. 30. 29