Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 30. (2006) (Szombathely, 2007)

Régészet - Choyke, Alice: A mindennapi élet és halál árnyjátékai: Gór–Kápolnadomb a proto-lengyeli kultúrában

Alice M. Choyke: Shadows of Daily Life and Death at the Proto-Lengyel Site of Gór-Kápolnadomb with these three tools. The boar tusk and antler tine tools belong to types with long temporal ranges and have no typological dating value. What is unique about the two clearly Lengyel tools, the large, well-worn metapodial point and the barely used small ruminant awl with a flat base (Figures la-b, 3c-d) as well as the ad hoc fine point (Figure 4a) is that they were found, more or less, in the same upper levels of the pit and were either abandoned, still in a usable condition. The other likely Lengyel type tool, the half-finished spatula (Figure 4b) was also thrown away although it could have been re-worked. Clearly, whatever its original function, the huge pit had already begun to function as a refuse pit, already filled with debris, at the point a decision was made to take two labor-intensive objects out of circulation in this household while they were still being used and were otherwise undamaged. It seems likely that these two tools were placed in the pit at close to the same time. Why were these objects, one clearly an 'old favorite', thrown away and forgotten (Figures la, 3c)? Could it be that these finely made objects were too closely identified with the person or persons who habitually made and used them? Were these two tools abandoned when the people or individual who used them died? Clearly, it is not possible to drawn any definite conclusions about how these particular personal utensils were regarded in this Late Neolithic village or why they were ultimately thrown away. However, the custom of passing down favorite tools to the next generation, placing them as grave goods with the deceased or disposing of them as garbage while they are still of use is certainly attested ethnographically or even in our own lives. Everyday objects thus, acquire values that are not only practical but also social in nature. Bourdieu (1977) has termed this social pressure for sameness in non-state society, habitus and familiarity, as powerful mechanisms for maintaining social stability. Habitus consists of sets of learned behaviors that can be expressed, consciously or unconsciously, in material ways. Thus, rules of production and use of such everyday objects enhance group ties. Death can also be thought of as a disruption of the rules and perhaps that also explains why objects strongly associated with deceased people tend to be removed in some fashion from active use. By paying attention to details of patterning in qualities such as degree of use, condition at the time of discarding and place of abandonment from numerous sites light can be shed on the way everyday behaviors may have integrated and supported the fabric of such non-state, village-centered societies. CONCLUSIONS The purpose of writing this paper was two-fold. First, it offered a chance to present a clear description of the form and manufacturing technique employed for some important tool types from the Late Neolithic in Hungary. Such descriptions are virtually non-existent in Hungary and surrounding territories or else the technical 102