A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 46. (Nyíregyháza, 2004)

Régészet - Mikhailo Potushniak: Data the question of the Stračevo/Körös Culture dwellings in the Upper Tisza Region

Data to the question of the Starcevo/Körös Culture dwellings ... The existence of several fireplaces in the dwellings does not mean that they were used synchronously. Only one of them burned all the time for keeping the fire and illuminating the dwelling. This function must have been fulfilled by the fireplace situated on a piece of the subsoil, above the floor level, at the western wall of subterranean house 3/82; fireplace in the central part of the subterranean - semi-subterranean house 1 a1 /76

. Such fireplaces must had been built in each dwelling, playing sacral role. What was the construction like, in the case of the sidewalls of the investigated dwellings, on the first hand in the case of semi-subterranean houses? The lack of post-holes around the dwelling pits refers to a construction without pillars. Despite of different shapes of pits, the part of the dwellings that emerged above surface was rectangular. The sidewalls extended the dwelling pit. There is no doubt that the roof must had been tent shaped, the framework of which was supported inside the house by pillars and by the sidewalls. There was no ceiling. The height needed by the dwellers had to be provided by the tent roof. An idea of the part of the buildings emerging above the surface in the age in question is given by the fragments of a dwelling model found in semi-subterranean house 1/77-78 at the settlement of Rivne-Kismező I (fig. 8). A big fragment of a tent roof (arch shaped profile) and a corner of the side wall was preserved. On the basis of these fragments we made an attempt to reconstruct the original form of the model. It seems to us that the model consisted of two parts: an upper one, a movable roof, and the lower one, a box imitating the interior of the dwelling. Originally it stood on two horizontal solid feet. The corner of the lower part refers to a slightly trapezoid base of the model. The exterior side of the fragment has a strongly thickening wall in its lower part with wavy profile and suddenly narrowing, thinning walls in the upper part. From the interior side they were smoothed. Between thick and thin walls, in the corner, a window was cut. These details of the house model make them very significant for determining the construction of the sidewalls in the semi-subterranean dwellings. Thickening walls of the lower part remind us tree trunks horizontally put on each other and covering clay walls from the outside, that is to say, this is a specific log construction with an exterior base along the walls. This exterior „log-construction", probably, strengthened and preserved the bases of clay walls from moistening and sinking. Such walls could be built of adobe, clay mixed with straw. They were laid in layers and could reach the height of 1.5 m. The top of the model has an arched profile and long, plastic ribs, possibly imitating logs keeping together the roof at its upper part. The edges of the roof on the model were broken. From technical point of view, the function of the stringer logs is unclear. In the reality, water can not run down such a tent roof. Perhaps that was the reason for this type of construction: one end of the roof was higher than the other one, not only on the model, but it was built in this way in the reality. The dwelling model represented here is an ideal tool for reconstructing the exterior outlook of dwellings 2/77 and 2/88. The construction of entrance rooms on the investigated settlements has to be considered as a specific feature of the semi-subterranean houses in question. They, probably, were connected with the main room also by sidewalls. Above them a light cover was built as the continuation of the tent roof. Such entrance rooms were traced in the case of semi-subterranean house 2/77-1/77-78. Such a light roof construction must had covered all the entrances of the dwellings. 63