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

Vésztő-Mágor (K. Hegedűs and J. Makkay)

VÉSZTŐ-MÁGOR A settlement of the Tisza culture [K. HECEDŰS-J. MAKKAY] When at the beginning of the 19th century Comes Franciscus a Wenckheim began building a wine cellar on the Vésztő-Mágor tell, one of the most impressive and, probably, highest settlement mounds not only in Hungary, but also in the Carpathian Basin, he probably knew full well that he would find excellent and cheap building material for his cellar among the ruins of the Romanesque monastery erected on the southern part of the mound, and that valuable antiquities would come to light also from the deeper-lying levels. This is quite clear from the inscription commemorating the building of his cellar: Colles hos MACOR olim celebres iniuria temporum penitus neglectos ob exundationes Crisii Velocis raro accessibiles ANNO MDCCCX viribus implantando hocque aedificio ANNO MDCCCXII e fundamentis exstructo sibi et posteris utiles reddere voluit - COMES FRANCISCUS VENKHEIM. The 1825 acquisitions register of the Hungarian National Museum, the Cimeliotheca lists eight vessels donated by the count. Seven of these date to the Bronze Age, while the eighth was the tubular lower part of a pedestalled bowl of the Tiszapolgár culture: vas speciális formae, ac incerti vsus. Pars quippe inferior, campanam repraesentat, cui instar turriculae tubus incumbit, in octo locis perforatus, cauitate tamen interna per campanam baud transeunte; etiam ex argilla nigra effictum, inventum est in Vesztő. The others, too, effossa — inventa — sunt anno 1816 in colle ad Comitatus Békesiensis pagum Vesztő (CIMELIOTHECA, 168-171, entries 55-57, 68, 98-100 and 101). These vessels were probably the first prehistoric finds to make their way into a museum collection from the world of the tells. And even though F. Rómer mentions these finds (RÓMER 1866, 119), they seem to have sunk into oblivion by Banner's time (BANNER 1940, 5); and these entries in the Cimeliotheca appear to have been overlooked also by the archaeologists recently surveying this area in the course of the Archaeological Topography (ECSEDY et al. 1982, 183-187). In spite of Gy. Szeghalmy's investigations and scattered articles in provincial journals (BANNER 1940, 19 and note 60; ECSEDY et al. 1982, 184), the site was practically neglected by archaeological research until 1968. Between november 9 and 23,1968 K. Nagy conducted a rescue excavation (ECSEDY et al. 1982, 182, 184) and opened four trial trenches on the tell disturbed by vine cultivation. Her trenches lay between the vine rows and were only 1 to 1.5 m deep. From 1970 I. Juhász undertook the excavation of the re85