Tálas László szerk.: The late neolithic of the Tisza region (1987)

Öcsöd-Kováshalom (P. Raczky)

OCSÖDKOVÁSHALOM A settlement of the Tisza culture [P. RACZKY] The Öcsöd-Kováshalom site lies halfway between Öcsöd and Kunszentmárton, in a flood-free area beside a former meander loop of the Körös. This area, called Nagyérpart by the locals, was in prehistory criss-crossed by numerous smaller watercourses that offered natural protection for the inhabitants. Moreover, fertile soil suitable for crop cultivation, extensive grazing grounds, as well as a broad spectrum of natural food resources that could be exploited through hunting and fishing made this area especially favourable for a population practising a mixed economy. It is thus hardly surprising that a group of the Tisza population should have chosen this area for settlement at the beginning of the Late Neolithic. Investigations in this area have clearly proven that this site is one of the most important in the transitional zone of Tisza site forms. The settlement form observed at Öcsöd differs markedly from the real tells in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain and also from the single-layer settlements distributed to the north of the Körös rivers in terms of the relative thickness of accumulated occupation deposits that can be divided into two main layers. At the same time, the finds recovered from Öcsöd share numerous formal and stylistic similarities with the finds from Szegvár-Tűzköves which is hardly surprising since the latter lies at a distance of about 35—40 km from Öcsöd. The other importance of the Öcsöd site lies in the fact that the finds from the two main superimposed layers enabled the definition of the formative and classical phase of the Tisza culture (phases I and II). The Öcsöd-Kováshalom site was first surveyed by N. Kalicz in 1954, and subsequently registered as a Szakáihát site - under the name Kunszentmárton—Érpárt- on the basis of the surface finds in the comprehensive monograph of the Alföld Linear Pottery (KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977, 140). (The differing names given to this site are due to the fact that this area had alternatively belonged to Kunszentmárton and Öcsöd from an administrative point of view.) Following various surface collections the present author opened a stratigraphic sounding on the highest point of the site in 1980 in order to clarify its stratigraphic sequence and to define the cultural context of the finds. It became clear that this site occupies a key position in tracing the Szakái hát-Tisza transition and the evolution of the Tisza culture (RACZKY 1982a, 19-21). The systematic investigation of the site was begun in 1982 with support from the 61