Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis - A Mátra Múzeum Természetrajzi Közleményei 16. (1991)

Kertész, R.: Preliminary report on the research of Early Holocene period in the NW part of Great Hungarian Plain

Fol. Hist.-nat. Mus. Matr., 16: 29-44, 1991 Preliminary report on the research of Early Holocene period in the NWpart of Great Hungarian Plain KERTÉSZ Róbert Damjanich János Múzeum, Szolnok ABSTRACT? In this paper the author publishes a material collected from the surface during a field survey at Jászberény I, a recently discovered Mesolithic site in the Zagyva basin in the NW part of the Great Hungarian Plain. This microlithic industry belonging to the Late Mesolithic period may throw a new light upon the Early Holocene history of the above-mentioned region. On the basis of the assemblage of typical implements found at Jászberény I the theory of a hiatus between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic in Hungary can be rejected. This site makes us to suppose that even the Great Hungarian Plain participated with equal importance in those processes which took plane in the marginal areas of the Carpathian Basin at the end of the Boreal an at the beginning of the Atlantic period. PREFACE In spite of continuously made intensive topographic surveys in the country the Hungarian Mesolithic could be defined with great difficulties. The emergence of hypotheses often contradictory to each other, the pros and cons on the question of cultural continuity and general uncertainty itself in this matter are due first of all to the fact that this period is represented mostly by less characteristic find assemblages originated usually from surface collection therefore lacking stratigraphie data. The dating of these finds is different also because at certain sites prehistoric pottery was found together with the chipped stone implements. Since some types of those implements which were used in the Mesolithic are known from later periods as well, the chronnlogy nf these sites remains dubious because the lack of stratigraphy. On the basis of these "negative proofs" some experts suppose that between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic there was a settlement historical hiatus in the central areas of the Carpathian Basin. Systematic field surveys which had begun in the October of 1989 in the NW part of the Great Hungarian Plain in the Zagyva basin yielded convincing proofs of the presence nf Mesolithic settlement at several places along the lower course of the river 7agyva. The Zagyva basin (called Jászság according to historical and ethnographical terminology) has a position within the Carpathian Basin which makes ithighly suitable to answer several questions related to prehistory. It lies between the flattening hills of the Mátra piedmont area open to the S and the river Tisza. It has also some special geographic features (Fig. 1.). It this paper I deal with those finds which were collected on the surface at the site Jászberény I. In the autumm of 1990 we made also excavations at this settlement (KERTÉSZ 1990a, 1990b, 1990c) which revealed settlement features within a closed undisturbed layer. The results of the excavations are under study. It means that the surface finds are supported and confirmed by well indentified stratigraphical evidences. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES The Zagyva basin is situated between the W side of the Gödöllő Hills and the Pleistocene alluival fan of the river Tama. From the N it is bordered by the Mátra Mts. while its southern boundary is formed by the river Tisza. This region is separated from the neighbouring areas not only geomorphologically but it has also a special geological structure. This sub-region is the westernmost member of the Early Holocene Northern Great Plain subsidence group. At the point of contact between the hills and lowland structurally it is a sub-basin of the Great Hungarian Plain. Its N part - the alluvial fan of the rivers Galga, Zagyva and Тэта - has an average height between 100-120 m over sea level, while its 29