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

John Chapman: Social power in the early farming communities of Eastern Hungary – Perspectives from the Upper Tisza region

Social power in the early farming communities of Eastern Hungary — Perspectives from the Upper Tisza region John CHAPMAN It may be said that the farmers in Eastern Hungary who form the focus of this paper inhabited a time-space of some four and a half millennia over some 25.000 square kilometres. It may further be proposed that their time-space may be divided into 10 chronological periods and 12 regional areas (or sub-divisions of the Alföld, the Great Hungarian Plain). And it may further be claimed that, in one sub-region of their time-space, settlements occurred within 8 out of 10 periods. These kinds of statements are typically offered as starting-points for further analysis of the farming communities of Eastern Hungary (and many other areas!). The problem comes when such statements are taken as end-points, sufficient in themselves, of research. For while time-space co-ordinates are necessary for „accurate" prehistory, and may convince us of the illusion that archaeology is a rigorous, scientific and objective study of the „facts", such markers do not breathe any form of life into the prehistoric communities whom we study. This long and detailed attention to chronologies and distribution maps has, I fear, blinded us to any deep realization of the social basis for past lifeways - and has managed to make us overlook the basically social nature of three essential elements of the picture: time, space and archaeological sites and monuments. The social nature of time is often ignored (CARLSTEIN 1982.); the social significance of space and the spatial significance of society are often divorced one from the other (see HILLIER-HANSON 1984.); and, perhaps most basic of all, the true significance of sites and monuments is assumed rather than continually probed. The form and structure of a site is often taken for granted, as part of the general pattern of the time-space under observation. In this contribution to the 125th birthday celebrations of the Jósa András Múzeum, Nyíregyháza, I shall oscillate between remarks on the general sequence in the Alföld and more detailed preliminary observations based on the joint Anglo-Hungarian Upper Tisza Project , whose fieldwork is based in North-East Hungary. And since the ancestors bulk large in this article, I dedicate it to János Makkay and Nándor Kalicz - those living ancestors, whose towering achievements in research into the Hungarian Neolithic make it possible to write what we can write in this volume. Tells, barrows and cemeteries in the Great Hungarian Plain In contrast to the Bulgarian Neolithic and Copper Age, tells were a relatively rare settlement type in the lowlands of Eastern Hungary in the three millennia after the introduction of farming (Fig. 1). An alternative settlement mode is based on long-term but not necessarily continuous occupation of valley segments but with frequent settlement shifts within preferred zones. On many of the sites, repeated occupation for up to six, seven and even eight phases is typical. In the county Békés II survey region (JANKOVICH et al. 1989.), over 80% of all prehistoric sites were found in less than 20% of the region, with strong local settlement concentrations, termed site clusters (CHAPMAN 1981.). Only in the late Middle-Late Neolithic (RACZKY 1987.) and the Early-Middle Bronze Age (MEIER-ARENDT 1992.) were tells constructed in the Alföld and then only within the confines of these long-term site clusters. The other monument class found in the Alföld is the mortuary barrow (ECSEDY 1979.), whose distribution rarely matches that of the site clusters. The common feature of both tells and barrows is height above a lowland expanse whose modern flat relief conceals considerable ecological variability in the middle Holocene. The dominant relief of tells and barrows, matched by their similar appearance, reinforces their significance as key places of social value in the landscape. 1 The Upper Tisza Project is an Anglo-Hungarian research project designed to define and explain changes in the physical and social environment of the Upper Tisza basin in the North-East Hungary over the last 10.000 years (CHAPMAN-LASZLOVSZKY 1992., CHAPMAN-LASZLOVSZKY 1993.)-