Majorossy Judit: A Ferenczy Múzeum régészeti gyűjteményei - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, D. sorozat: Múzeumi füzetek - Kiállításvezetők 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Patay Róbert: Középső bronzkor
Similar characteristics could be observed at Szigetszentmiklós, too. However, at this site one of the graves was really outstanding. In this grave a person of high-rank was buried, who wore a halberd as a symbol of power and weapon, which object was a highly rare treasure in that time. Parallel to the late phase of the Bell Beakers, the appearance of the so-called tell-cultures could be observed in Pest County. Tell means a special form of settlement, where the sometimes collapsed, sometimes burnt, and later on the former remains rebuilt buildings created an increasingly growing mound. These settlement mounds can reach even 10-12 metres in height. Excavating tells, the archaeologists can determine the level of each layer of the buildings. During the Bronze Age first the people of the Nagyrév culture created such tells in Pest County. These typically farming settlements were founded on strategically important places. In their cemeteries one can find both skeleton and cremation burials. It is characteristic of their pottery that they liked decorating their vessels with incised symbolic patterns. The incised, symbolic designs of an eggshaped beaker with one handle from Szigetszentmiklós cover its whole outer surface. The patterns of the beaker were arranged into three larger and one smaller strip, and within them other smaller fields were created. In the strips geometric and stylized patterns, vertical and horizontal straight lines, chevron and small circles were combined and different combinations were created. The ornaments were possibly shaped according to some kind of an order presenting a worldview based on symmetry and regularity. One can also recognize four stilized human figures. Two of them were represented with legs, body, and raised hands, while one of them is turned to 90 degree. The turned, up-side-down presentation of scenes, symbols, motifs could be observed in several cases. On the bottom part of the beaker, two other human figures can be seen facing each other with raised hands and body, too. Between their raised arms there are two times four smaller circles, and next to the body of one of them another pair of four circles are visible in a similar pattern. By the other figure a horizontal chevron, straight lines, and small circles were incised. These small circles could be the symbols of celestial bodies, perhaps stars. The Hatvan culture with its spectacular defensive earthworks also belongs to the tel /-cultures. The lifestyle of its people is characterised by developed farming economy, intensive agriculture and animal husbandry. That is the reason why they also lived on the same site for a long time, even for centuries. Their multilayer settlements can be found in almost all kinds of natural environment suitable for human habitation. On the places chosen for settlements these people separated a smaller part by a wide ditch, creating a kind of inner fortification. These ditches are 15-20 metres wide, sometimes even more, and their depth could be 5 metres. By building fortified settlements they also considered the natural forms of defence, river bends or steep hillsides. On an average 150-200 persons lived together in these settlements, but the population sometimes could reach up to 500 inhabitants. It is supposed that they fortified their villages not because of external enemies, but against the trespassers of the neighbouring communities, and in order to defend their livestock. Their burials are less known, they practiced cremation rite, un-urned cremation with different types of pottery as grave goods. The remains of their belief system are the small animal figures, wagon models and the so-called violin-shaped idols. In the period of the Nagyrév and Hatvan cultures one can also find the remnants of the Kisapostag culture in Pest County, whose people mainly lived in the Transdanubian region. These findings signify that in this millenium thriving trade-relations flourished between the different archaeological cultures and peoples. 25 Díszített pohár / Decorated cup
