Selmeczi László szerk.: Szolnok Megyei Múzeumi Évkönyv (1982-83)

Pál, Raczky: Origins of the Custom of Burying the Dead inside Houses in South-East Europe. A házba való temetkezés szokásának kezdetei Délkelet-Európában

P. Raczky: ORIGINS OF THE CUSTOM OF BURYING THE DEAD INSIDE HOUSES IN SOUTH-EAST EUROPE (A HÁZBA VALÓ TEMETKEZÉS SZOKÁSÁNAK KEZDETEI DÉLKELET-EURÓPÁBAN) The beginning of the Neolithic in the Carpathian Basin, the Balkans and Mainland Greece is marked by the appearance of a highly uniform cultural complex, the Körös-Starcevo-Cris-Karanovo I-Protosesklo culture at the turn of the 7th and 6th millennium B.C.

1

. The introduction of a new economic pattern brought a decisive change in the relationship of man to his environment. The emergence of production economy, i.e. agriculture and stockbreeding can be associated with the appearance of these cultures and can be dated to this period. These changes were also starting points for subsequent local development

2

. The Neolithic way of life meant greater security in terms of stable sources of food as compared to hunting and gathering, and also gradually led to an increase in the population. Permanent, large settlements with houses and structures necessary for sedentary life made their first appearance at the beginning of the Neolithic in South-East Europe. Intensive settlement features and a large accumulation of material, zoological and palaeobotanical evidence provides abundant archaeological and historical data concerning this period. The archaeological evidence, the results of zoological and palaeobotanical analyses have convincingly demonstrated that the emergence of the South-East European Neolithic cannot be regarded as a local, independent development, but should be ascribed to the cultural influences and ethnic movements, migrations from the Near East

3

. The northernmost province of the earliest South-East European food producing technocomplex was the Körös culture of the Great Hungarian Plain

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. It is perhaps clear from this brief historical outline why the study of this culture is especially important

: this culture was, by its geographical position, a connecting link between Middle- and SouthEast Europe, and promoted the transmission of a somewhat modified version of the know-how of production economy towards the continental areas of Europe

5

. A unique burial form and the features accompanying it observed at a Körös site near Szolnok, Szajol-Felsőföldek, sheds new light on the far-reaching cultural ties of this culture and underlines the common ancestry of the religious beliefs and practices of the Early Neolithic Period in South-East Europe. The burnt debris of a house erected around a framework of vertical wooden beams on which walls were constructed of wattle daubed with clay on both sides was excavated in 1976 6

. After the removal of a thick layer of burnt wattle and daub fragments, it was possible to uncover the remains of a 7.5 x 4.5 m large quadrangular floor. Traces of an entrance were observed on the south-western side. Numerous clay vessels, idol fragments, stone and bone implements lay on the floor together with the roughly E-W oriented skeleton of a young female lying on her right side in a contracted position. This burial was found in the northwestern corner of the house and no disturbances whatsoever could be observed in the debris overlying it, in spite of the fact that traces of burning were still visible on the bones. It is thus clear that the burial in the hause cannot be regarded as a secondary burial. A similar house was recorded in the course of the excavations conducted at Szolnok-Szanda-Tenyősziget in 1977. A skeleton lying in contracted position was found on the floor below a layer of burnt debris in one of the houses assigned to the Körös culture

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. In view of the regular features of both burials it would appear that these must be regarded as being intentionally placed within houses. These special burials would also account for the conspicouous presence of numerous everyday implements, ornaments and various cult objects in the houses excavated at Szajol and Szanda. It is perhaps reasonable to suggest that these houses were abandoned precisely on account of the burials after these structures, into which the deceased were buried according to the customary rites were set on fire. The "inner furnishings" were probably left in their original place as a funerary offering. The fact that the funerary practices of the Körös culture also included the custom of burying the deceased within houses is a novelty since earlier excavations only yielded evidence of skeletons lying in a contracted position, usually unearthed in refuse pits or graves scattered all over the settlement

8

. It was also suggested that these burials were not the graves of the Körös population, but those of enemies they had slain and that the graves of the Körös people should accordingly be sought outside the settlements

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. This suggestion is ruled out by the results of recent excavations conducted at the Early Neolithic settlements of Deszk-Olajkút

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, Szakmar-Kisülés

11 and Szolnok-Szanda-Tenyősziget

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, which yielded graves with funeral offerings (vessels, bracelets). It is also clear that together with "intra muros" burials graves in which the deceased were in a contracted position and which were often equipped with funerary goods reflect a variety of burial practices of the Körös culture which had not become standardized. The burials which were unearthed within the houses of the Szajol and Szanda settlements indicate the close connection with the settlement, and at the same time express awe and fear of the deceased insofar as the "house of the dead" did not subsequently function as a dwelling. Recent excavations tend to support an earlier suggestion according to which the population of the Körös culture did not establish cemeteries which were separate from the settlement, but buried their dead within the settlement without any particular funerary rites. No systematic pattern emerges from these burials, and there are no archaeologically discernable traces of the fact that the deceased were perhaps still regarded as belonging to the community of the living. In the following we shall endeavour to outline the contemporary parallels of the custom of burying the deceased within houses, to establish certain cultural connections on the basis of particular finds and finally, to determine the origins of this unique burial rite. Evidence of burials under the floor or within houses is known from several sites of the Lepenski Vir culture (Proto-Lepenski-Vir LepenskiVir I, and LepenskiVir II cultural complex) in the region of the Lower Danube, near the Iron Gate

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. The presence of numerous other graves documenting a variety of burial rites, however, tended to divert attention from these burials. No general consensus has yet been reached as regards the evaluation of this cultural complex and the chronology of the site, indeed, attention was rarely focused on minor details

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. Certain researchers regard the Lepenski Vir culture as being a Pre-Neolithic, Mesolithic culture tinted with local elements

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. Other have argued for a local variant of the Starcevo culture representing the Körös-Starcevo phase

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. According to the lat-