Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 24/3. (1997) (Szombathely, 1997)

Zoffmann Zsuzsanna: A Dunántől őskori népességének embertani vázlata

BÁNFFY ESZTER: ÚJABB ADATOK A NYUGAT-DUNÁNTÚL ŐSKORÁNAK KERESKEDELMI ÉS KULTURÁLIS ÚTVONALAIHOZ PATEK 1993 PATEK, Erzsébet: Westungarn in der Hallstattzeit. УСН, Acta Humaniora, 1993. Weinheim. SAVEL1991 SAVEL, Irena: ArheoloSka Topografija Slovenije. Topografsko Podrocje XX(Prekmurje), Ljubljana, 1991. SAVEL 1992 SAVEL, Irena: Bukovnica - rezultati terenskih raziskav v letih 1987-88 (Bukovnica - Resultat der Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1987-1988) Poroöilo... v Sloveniji XX (1992) 57-86. TORMA 1969 TORMA István: A Veszprém megyei régészeti topográfiai kutatások őskori vonatkozású eredményeiről. VMMK 8 (1969) 75-82. DATA ТО THE TRADE AND CULTURAL ROUTES OF PREHISTORIC WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA It is a wellknown fact, based on numerous older and more recent publications that the so-called Amber Route, connecting the Adriatic with the Baltic Region in the Roman period, had its prehistoric precedents in the Iron Age as well as in later periods of the Bronze Age. Recently, on the basis of new microregional research projects in the Hahót and the Kerka valley, County Zala, SW-Hungary, traces of the existence of chalcolithic and also neolithic trade and most probably also cultural routes could be reconstructed. The excavations at Zalaszentbalázs showed clearly that the chalcolithic changes reached Western Transdanubia in the final Lengyel phase and not later as it has been assumed. The late Lengyel finds show strong final Vinőa influences from the Mid-Balkans, some new pottery types and techniques appear here which occur exclusively in westernmost Lengyel settlements and the Moravian Painted Pottery group. With the help of mixed assemblages along the Drava and Mura rivers to County Zala and further on till Lower Austria a cultural and trade route can be reconstructed which must have played an essencial role in the chalcolithisation process of Middle Europe. The latest excavations near the Slovenian border gave a good basis for somewhat similar reconstructions, but this time about an important trade route which most probably had its connection with the neolithisation of the Western Danube valley. The site Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pityerdomb can be dated to the initial phase of the Transdanubian Linear Pottery Culture, with extremely many reminiscenses of the South East European Starcevo Culture. The immense quantity of lithic finds all comes from the prehistoric mine of Szentgál near Veszprém, Eastern Transdanubia. The same raw material, the red radiolarite is typical also for coeval or somewhat younger sites of the Early LBC in Western Transdanubia. Similarly, the Szentgál radiolarite also occurs in the same period in Eastern Austria and Southern Germany. This fact clearly shows that the Szentgál stone was a raw material of high value at the time of the earliest neolithic period, its long distance trading had a strong influence of the direction and intensity of the neolithisation process of Middle Europe. Through Transdanubian rivers like the Torna, Marcali, Kerka and Rába the LBC traders reached the Danube and also regions like Moravia and the Munich Basin. In this way, the new research programs in Western Transdanubia gave some new data for the existence of intensive trade routes towards Middle European regions in two important and mobile periods of prehistory: the beginnings of Chalcolithic and also the neolithisation. Eszter BÁNFFY MTA Régészeti Intézet H-1250. Budapest, Úri u. 49. 57