A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 36. - 1994 (Nyíregyháza, 1995)

Elisabetta Starnini: Typological and technological analysis of the Körös Culture stone assemblages of Méhtelek-Nádas and Tiszacsege (North-East Hungary). A Preliminary report

Typological and technological analysis of the Körös ... (Fig. 4: 9). Only one large quern, stored in the Museum of Nyíregyháza, comes from the site (from pit Ill/a), and is probably related to a food processing activity. The Tiszacsege lithlc assemblage As mentioned above, the structure excavated at Tiszacsege-Homokbánya, on the left bank of the river Tisza (Fig. 1), gave a more restricted number of stone artifacts. The finds have been dated to a transitional period between the Körös Culture and the Early ALPC (KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977.165-, MAKKAY 1987.). The stone assemblage consists of 86 chipped artifacts in total, among which are 7 cores. The site yielded neither polished nor ground stone tools. There are only 12 retouched pieces, represented by one burin, some endscraper, one truncation and fragments of simple-retouched blades and bladelets (Fig. 5: 1-13). The cores are very worn and of subcorneal type (Fig. 5: 14-17). Except for a fragment and a core of limnic quartzite (Fig. 5: 17), two pieces of Middle Jurassic, Szentgál type radiolarite, one of which is a small core (Fig. 5: 14), and two unidentified pieces, all the other artifacts are chipped from obsidian from the Carpathian 1 source (THORPE-WARREN-NANDRIS 1984.). The lengths, widths and thickness of the 39 entire and unretouched obsidian artifacts have been plotted with the same system used for the Méhtelek assemblage (BAGOLINI 1968.). Even though the sample is too small to be significant, we can observe a general similarity to that which came from Méhtelek (Fig. 6). BAGOLINI 1968. Bagolini, B.: Richerce sulle dimensioni dei manufatti litici preistorici non ritoccati. Annali N.S. XV. 1.10.1968.195-219. BIRÓ-DOBOSI 1991. T. Biró, K.-T. Dobosi, V.: LITHOTHECA. Comparative Raw Material Collection of the Hungarian National Museum. Budapest: Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum, 1991. BIRÓ-REGENYE 1991. T. Biró, K.-Regenye, J.: Prehistoric workshop and exploitation site at SzentgálTűzköveshegy. ActaArchHung 43.1991.337-375 CHAPMAN 1986. Chapman, J.: Technological and stylistic analysis of the Early Neolithic chipped stone assemblage from Méhtelek, Hungary. In: Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Prehistoric flint mining and lithic raw material identification in the Carpathian Basin. BudapestSümeg 1986.31-52. Conclusion Even though the chronology of the two assemblages is not identical, since Tiszacsege is slightly more recent than Méhtelek, and the number of artifacts and the composition of the two collections are very different, it is interesting to compare them. The first result to be noted is that both sites gave a relatively high number of stone artifacts, considering the general poverty of the Körös sites. The raw material preferred is obsidian, whose primary source lies in the Tokaj Mountains, some 70 kilometres from Méhtelek and far fewer from Tiszacsege (Fig. 1). We can argue that it was easily supplied from the source by boat along the Tisza river. The presence of Middle Jurassic radiolarite of the Szentgál type at both settlements, indicates Transdanubian contacts. The chipping activity was carried out at the sites, as the cores and the waste indicate, with a high production of narrow and flat blades and bladelets. At Méhtelek the tool-kit is represented by endscrapers with straight front, truncated blades and bladelets, isosceles trapezes with backed retouch, and blades and bladelets with simple retouch. The few retouched elements from Tiszacsege consist of very similar endscrapers and a few fragments of blades and bladelets with simple retouch which is similar from both a technological and typological point of view. Finally, two new sites in Slavkovce and Zaluzani (Presov and Michalovce) in eastern Slovakia, representing probably the oldest Linear Pottery Culture, yielded chipped assemblages very similar to those from Méhtelek (J.K. Kozlowski pers. comm. 1993.), mainly on obsidian. KALICZ-MAKKAY 1976. Kalicz, N.-Makkay, J.: Friihneolithische Siedlung in Méhtelek-Nádas. MittArchlnst 6.1976.13-24. KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977. Kalicz, N.-Makkay, J.: Die Linienbandkeramik in der Großen Ungarischen Tiefebene. StndArch 7.1977. LAPLACE 1964. Laplace, G.: Essay de typologie sistématique. Annali'XSf. Suppl. II. Vol. 1.

1964.1-82. MAKKAY 1987. Makkay, J.: Kontakte zwischen der Körös-Starcevo-Kultur und der Linienbandkeramik. CommArchHnng 1987.15-24. THORPE 1978. Thorpe, O.W.: A study of obsidian in prehistoric central and eastern Europe and its trace element characterization. University of Bradford. Unpub. Ph. D. thesis. 1978. References Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1994 103