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

Eszter Bánffy: Transdanubia and Eastern Hungary in the Early Copper Age

Eszter BÁNFFY rectangular oil lamps or little altarpieces, some tiny pieces of furniture, a larger cult vessel with four long heads, probably those of animals, and a double headed ram applied to a clay lid, all fit into the Lengyel spiritual inheritance well. There are two phenomena to show that our previous knowledge of the youngest Lengyel phase was unsufficient: firstly, the pottery is not limited to thick-walled, undecorated and roughly elaborated types, rather, a fairly large percentage of the material belongs to extremely thin, so-called „china"-ware, consisting of small cups, and very often miniature versions of large vessel types. Secondly, in the socalled „unpainted" Lengyel phase there are in many cases traces of monochrome red paint observable, especially on the fine ware, on pedestalled vessels or on altarpieces. These observations agree with the concept that at the time of the Tiszapolgár culture one has to reckon on a retarded Neolithic development in Transdanubia. Thus, Transdanubia in the Early Copper Age seems to belong culturally to the Late Neolithic, and the process of social change seems to have happened only at the time of the transition to the Middle Chalcolithic, in East Hungarian terms. What may have caused this delay? I must confess that I have not found a single solution to this problem. However, some factors are worth mentioning as they might aid the search for the tnith. The simplest theory is to assume that the delay was caused by the geographic situation of Western Hungary, so the further we go to the north and west, the later the prehistoric cultural changes happen. This is unsatisfactory, as it is contradicted by the parallel development of the Tisza and Lengyel cultures, as proven by N. Kalicz, (KALICZ 1970.) not to speak of earlier Neolithic phases, when the Transdanubian Linear Pottery culture was no less flourishing than its Alföld equivalent. Thus we cannot explain the differences so simply. Fig. 1 Early Copper Age cultures in the Carpathian basin 1. kép Kora rézkori kultúrák a Kárpát-medencében 292 Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1994