Agria 39. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2003)
Domboróczki László: Radiokarbon adatok Heves megye újkőkori régészeti lelőhelyeiről
banks, 125 had to be laid out in rows because of a lack of space, the ALP settlements, however, built on lower sites, continued to be built in rows, albeit it not for same purely practical reasons. The answer to this particular question may lie in tradition. Apart from the similarities in the structure of the sites, the structures of the houses belonging to the two cultures may also have been fundamentally similar. 126 Despite the fact that very little data exists, one can still presume that the main features (pits and houses) shared similar orientations to the buried remains, which were laid either in a NW-SE or a SE-NW direction. 127 Although the two cultures were not entirely uniform, recent research has uncovered more and more similarities. The view once held that the ALP sites represented a less developed form of existence now appears discredited. 128 Rather, the structures of the ALP settlements and their houses are not only considered similar to those of the Körös Culture but equal in quality, and in some respects more advanced. 129 Relatively little about site structure has come down to us from the Mezolithic period. In those encampments which have been excavated one can see a greater density of finds over an area 12-17m in diameter, from which tent-like dwellings were reconstructed. 130 Thus, as long as the regularity seen in Szatmár Group settlements can be related to the regularity in their Körös Culture equivalents, there is nothing to suggest that the Szatmár Group had any Mezolithic précédants, certainly from a settlement-structural point of view. The similarities in settlement structure suggest they were all governed by the same principles. That graves also followed main lines of orientation can also be shown. In all 125 The large sites must have meant large permanent settlements. We would dispute the claims of those who talk about periodical settlements: SHERRAT, Andrew 1983a. 23. WHITTLE, Alasdair 1998. 138. The digging of pits, the building of houses and the making of pottery must have involved such an investment in human energy that they would not have repeated it for the sake of having seasonal dwellings. Whilst not wishing to deny that people were mobile, the people were certain to be familiar with their immediate and more distance environments. 126 Seen from the point of view of debris, the houses at Mocsolyás (KALICZ Nándor-KOÓS Judit 1997a. 133. ill. 2.) left behind similar levels of debris as those seen at the Körös house at SzolnokSzanda (KALICZ Nándor-RACZKY Pál 1981a. 329-330., fig. 1-2.) A large debris layer also survived at the ALP house in Krasznokvajda (LOSITS Ferenc 1980. 32. ill. 16.). Based on the post system the recorded groundplans for the house at Gubakút (DOMBORÓCZKI László 2000b. 103.) despite several differences show important similarities with the Körös house at Tiszajenő (SELMECZI László 1969. 18.). Some reasonably large Körös houses in Pitvaros have also been recorded (HORVÁTH Ferenc 1994. 14.). The similarities are self-evident, although during the ALP period the houses were perhaps somewhat larger and more solidly built. 127 See footnote 33. 128 This view was probably motivated by the desire to find Mezolithic antecedents. There had not previously been any major excavations, and the pits which were uncovered in the limited excavations which did take place produced pit houses and other temporary dwellings eg. MAKKAY János 1982b. 160-161.). In the light of more recent excavations revisions to the earlier views were needed: "the myth of the existence of pit houses disappeared into thin air": KALICZ Nándor 1997b. 29. During the course of the 1990s we gained an entirely new picture of settlement structure for that period: DOMBORÓCZKI László 1997c. 72. 129 As seen the fact that ALP sites also appear on the lower-lying land, being better adapted to their surroundings than their Körös Culture equivalents. 130 KERTÉSZ Róbert 1996. 19-21. 36
