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 ... neck, different cups and beakers. Conical tops with cup shaped handle are frequently met. A lot of vessels have nipple shaped feet and ring shaped bottom. The ornamentation includes pinched, notched, imprinted motives. Sometimes ornaments reminding ear of corn and bunches of corns are met. Almost in each dwelling several fragments of pottery ornamented by linear incised compositions were found. Black painted motives were observed only on „foreign" ceramics. Among chipped tools, pieces made of obsidian dominate - the average of 83%. The tool collections include knife shaped flakes (31.6%), chisels (24.3%), scrapers (9.4%), trapezoid flakes (5.9%) and arrowheads. Polished tools are represented by chisels and different kinds of axes. Miniature axes are frequently met. Chipped stone industries of settlements have atavistic features of the Danubian Tardenoise. Among clay objects weights and spindle-whorls, beads, amulets, pendants, bracelets were found. The anthropomorphic sculpture material includes realistic and schematic female figurines. Usually they are represented in different eternal forms: young woman-mother(?), pregnant woman, old woman, usually with big bottom. Figurines are represented in standing, half-sitting and sitting poses. Schematic figurines are shown as rectangular tiles. Fragments of anthropomorphic vessels standing on big and small feet were also found. A rich osteological material was collected, but only one dwelling's material was analysed. The bones found here belonged exclusively to domestic animals: cow-bull, goat-sheep, pig (ZHURAVLJOV-KOTOVA 1996. 4-5). Our collected data make it possible to separate four phases in the development of the Upper Tisza Group of the SKC: 1. Early phase is represented by the material of subterranean house 1 a/76 and 3/82, and semi-subterranean house 4/82. „Foreign" painted pottery was not met here. 2. Second phase is represented by the material collected in semi-subterranean house 1/76 (fig. 9: 1-67). Painted pottery appears here, making 6-7% of the total number. 3. Third phase is represented by the material of semi-subterranean house 2/77 (fig. 9: 68100) and of houses 2/88, 3/88. Painted pottery makes 12-24%. 4. Fourth phase is represented by the material of semi-subterranean house 1/77-78 (fig. 9: 101-155), where painted pottery makes already about 50%. It is important to note that among the few fragments decorated by linear motives, for the first time at this phase, we observe motives with analogies in the Early Linear Pottery material of the Tisza Region. This can not be registered at the previous phases on the pottery with linear decoration. In the final phase the number of black and brown polished vessels and that of typical Körös shapes suddenly decreases. For the chronology of the SKC sites of the Upper Tisza Region we can accept dates resulted from the excavations at Méhtelek-Nádas (KALICZ-MAKKAY 1976. 23-24): first half of the fifth millennium B.C. (Translated by Valéria Kulcsár)