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

Mikhailo Potushniak Subterranean houses without sidewalls had a different construction of the part emerging above the surface. We do not exclude that there could be a log construction along the lines of the pit. The roof of the subterranean houses, their emerging part consisted only of a tent (subterranean house la/ 76) or conical (subterranean house 3/82) roof, the binder of which was supported by pillars inside the house. The edges of the roof lied outside the dwelling pit. We can suggest that in the process of turning subterranean house la/76 into semi-subterranean (1/76), the roof of the dwelling was elevated higher. Under it two rows of logs could be placed, that is how the needed height was provided for the semi-subterranean house. Out of eight investigated dwellings, two semi-subterranean houses (4/82 and 3/88) show some constructive differences comparing them with other dwellings. The low depth of the base and small size of the whole construction is notable. They are situated close to big dwellings, have the same find materials as dwellings of different type. Earlier we have underlined that subterranean house 3/82 and semi-subterranean house 4/82 existed synchronously. Pottery finds of semisubterranean houses 2/88 and 3/88 are also absolutely identical. So, we have several reasons to suggest, that in summer time the population of the settlements continued their farming and household activities outside the dwellings. For that they probably built „summer kitchens" beside the dwellings. These temporary buildings had pillar support and a hut shaped branch roof protecting from rain and sun, and light wickerwork walls protecting from wind. In such constructions they built kilns and fireplaces. That was the place for cooking food, butchering animal bodies, making tools etc. Dwellings 4/82 and 2/88 must have represented these type of buildings. „Summer kitchen" type buildings have wide analogies also in the later archaeological cultures on the territory in question; we also know ethnographic parallels. So, on the settlements of Zastavne-Mala Hora and Rivne-Kismező I two types of dwelling buildings existed: subterranean houses (dwellings la/76,

3/82), semi-subterranean houses (dwellings 1/76,2/77,1/77-78,2/88). The latter type can include also „summer kitchen" type buildings (dwellings 4/82, 3/83). Already at the first phase of investigation of settlements Zastavne-Mala Hora and RivneKismező I we categorised these sites as a special Upper Tisza group of the SKC and suggested that the investigated assemblages can involve further inner groups. Considering their material culture, the Transcarpathian settlements are close to the „Transylvanian Körös", the territory from where the SKC communities moved to the Upper Tisza. Among the published sites known by us, close analogies are represented only by settlements of Méhtelek-Nádas and Beria. At the second phase of investigations, in the 1980s, four more dwelling assemblages were excavated. They supported the idea of multi-phase development of the Upper Tisza Group. To-date we separate four phases in the development of the Upper Tisza Group that can be well recorded according to stratigraphic data, different types of dwelling constructions with their asynchronous material bearing typological and technological differences. A specific sign is the appearance of „foreign" pottery in certain assemblages, the number of which gradually increased in the second phase. According to all technological and typological characteristics, this pottery absolutely differs from the Starcevo-Körös one and at the same time, absolutely identical with the pottery of Szatmár, Szamos, Esztár, Kopcany, Raskovce and other groups that we suggested to consider in the frames of the unified Painted Pottery Culture (PPC). Chronologically the latter followed the SKC in the Upper Tisza Region. Pottery of the Upper Tisza Group of the SKC is characterised by black and brown polished vessels of relatively high quality, burned in kilns. Clay was mixed with chamote and sand. The leading vessel shapes are pots, conical and biconical bowls, amphoras - storage vessels with cylindrical