Madaras László – Szabó László – Tálas László szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 8. (1993)

Kertész Róbert: Adatok a Nagyalföld mezolitikumához

RÓBERT KERTÉSZ DATA TO THE MESOLITHIC OF THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN (New surface finds in the Lower Zagyva region) Introduction A more exact recognition of the Early and Middle Holocene, that is the Mesolithic history in the central region of the Carpathian Basin is considerably hindered by the scarcity of data available from this period, not to mention that from the second part of the period occupation sites from authentic excavations with stratigraphicchronological evidence are completely missing. A study of cultural units belonging to the first half of the Holocene in the Zagyva Basin

1 (Map 1.), in the NW part of the Great Hungarian Plain, has been also neglected till the last few years. The Neolithic development of this region was rather insufficiently reconstructed, it was based mostly on field surveys and small-scale excavations. As for pre-Neolithic periods their material has remained completely unknown until a few years ago. During the systematic topographic surveys started again in the region since the autumn of 1989 resulted in the discovery of several Mesolithic settlement features to the S-SE of the town Jászberény along the meanders of the Ancient Zagyva.

3 This paper deals with the lithic tools determined as belonging to the Mesolithic and found in the surface during a field survey at the site called Jászberény II. We made test drillings

4 in the settlement to get samples for malacostratigraphical and sedimentological analyses. At the settlement, where besides the Mesolithic finds the material of several other periods are present, we have only indirect informations on the stratigraphic position of the Mesolithic culture layer. At Jászberény II we observed the finds on the top of the recent humus layer and in the light of the data got from the excavation of the site Jászberény I,

5 some 1,5 km to the S of the site II, it is highly possible that at Jászberény II the Mesolithic occupation level was near the surface. Because of the circumstances of finding at Jászberény II, the value of the informations yielded by the lithic finds is rather restricted.

6 At the same time the find assemblage of the site which contains also typical tools is suitable for typological analysis and a chronological evaluation. Main tendencies in the research of Hungarian Mesolithic While in the peripheric areas of the Carpathian Basin and in its immediate vicinity the main chronological-cultural features and demographical trends of the Mesolithic are already outlined,

7 in the central areas questions of vital importance are remained still unsolved. Besides the Mesolithic finds published by L. Vértes and M. Gábori in their general works,

8 during the last more than 25 years numerous other settlements had been discovered or checked by new excavations

9 in the central part of the region, although these sites yielded predominantly atypical and uncertain assemblages of finds. Mesolithic studies were fundamentally influenced by the revision of the so-called „grobgerätiges Mesolithikum".

10 As a consequence the number of sites thought to be belonging to the Mesolithic had considerably decreased because part of those sites which were determined earlier as belonging to the „Eger culture" proved to be belonging to other period. New investigations proved that the bulk of the lithic industry of the so-called „Eger culture" belongs to the Middle Paleolithic and not to the Mesolithic.

11 Still several problems related to the Early and Middle Holocene remained unsolved. It is still impossible to explain by ecological reasons

12 some fundamental historical phenomena, e.g. the contradiction between the rather intensive settlement of the peripheric areas of the Carpathian Basin and the „lack of finds" within the central 81