Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 16. (2004)

Horváth Tünde: Emberi vázakat tartalmazó objektumok Balatonőszöd-Temetői dűlő badeni településéről

109 Emberi vázakat tartalmazó objektumok Balatonőszöd-Temetői dűlő badeni településéről TÜNDE HORVÁTH The most important and -researched field in prehistoric archaeology is the analysis of burials, which provides the background of social historical studies and reconstruction. Burials from almost all periods and cultures raise fundamental debates, particularly that concerning the given culture, which social layer and what proportion of burials are represented in the excavated material, in other words: to what extent are graves suitable to draw conclusions about the whole society? It is striking that the discovered graves of almost all prehistoric cultures present very limited fragment of the total burial suspected from the size and presumed population of the excavated settlements. What could have happened to those people, whose graves were not identified? Why exactly those burials are discovered? Why those people were buried in ways that we know, and why other people were buried differently? Here the posing of questions is faced with such basic problems, which, lacking the sufficient data, are not only troublesome to answer but they even cannot be precisely formed. The Late Copper Age Baden Culture is not an exception of this problem. Although the present situation of research provides some information, the majority of these are results of inaccurate or not careful investigations, yielding premature conclusions, misconclusion. The quantity of archaeological site increase significantly compared with the previous period, which was interpreted as a demographic explosion. It seems highly probable (however the origin and development of the culture is highly debated concerning both the smaller regions and the whole culture) that a population arrives from the south and became absorbed by local, autochthon population. It is accepted that the dominant part of the culture's sites is settlements, while burials come into view only as a small segment: In regard to the graves, several smaller-larger cemeteries exist, and there are independent burials inside the settlements. Nevertheless, due to the limited nature of settlement research, the study of settlement-burials is reduced to conjecture. Lacking the detailed publication of excavated settlement-parts, the accurate location of the graves and their chronological as well as geographical relationship to the settlement is not known. Failing the discussion and the detailed report of settlementburials, in many cases it cannot be decided, whether these were sacrificial offerings of individual burials. In addition, it is not known either, why some people were put in separate cemeteries, while others inside the settlements, and a considerable part of the society to other not yet located sites. It seems that this last debate is not easy to solve. That is beside the question whether people in higher social status were placed to separated cemeteries, while commoners, females and children were buried inside the settlement. Among the graves of ordinary cemeteries burials without grave goods were observed, while among settlement burials persons equipped with a lavish set of grave goods (both male and female) were uncovered. It is still questioned, whether the grave goods can be interpreted as the personal accessories of the dead, or they are a part of the ritual? Besides, it is argued whether there are hierarchical differences between settlement-graves and ordinary cemeteries. Moreover, where were those people buried whose graves have not been found in cemeteries and in the settlements? During the large-scale excavation carried out at the Balatonőszöd-Temetői dűlő site the circle of settlement-burials was studied in details. Since the site is one of the largest excavated Baden settlements, it is difficult to make comparisons with other sites. On the seventy-six-thousand m

2 research area numerous objects, which have been already documented were detected to a greater extent, and also new types of features were observed. Consequently, lacking sufficient parallels, it cannot be decided whether the Balatonőszöd site represent a distinguished settlementcenter, which was built especially for the offering of ritual sacrifices (which means that it is a ritual-settlement), or it belongs to a widespread settlement-type of the Baden Culture, frequently uncovered, but known from small settlement-fragments until now. In conclusion, the argument about the human burials mentioned in the present paper is not sufficient to draw firm conclusions. Yet, the research hopefully provides new, accurate and significant data about both the culture and the period.