Károlyi Mária: A korai rézkor emlékei Vas megyében (Szombathely, 1992)
SUMMARY In autumn of 1973, when we opened the first trial trench at the prehistoric settlement near the village Se, a new phase had begun in the research of the Neolithic and Early Copper Age (5th-4th millennium ВС) of County Vas. Previously we had hardly had a few archaeological finds deriving from those ages in the area of County Vas covering 3339 km 2 , and even their sites were doubtful. For lack of data the county' s area had always been a blank area in the summarizing studies devoted to the Neolithic history of Hungary. The large amount of archaeological finds unearthed during the excavations at Se and the structure of the uncovered Neolithic settlement have become a rich source for the local research, with the help and on the base of which archaeological materials of the other near prehistoric ages could be collected step by step. The excavations at Se uncovered the remains of the Lengyel culture that was unknown in our territory previously, considering first of all the rich collection of painted pottery - suitable for comparative analysis - and the remarkably fine figurines: painted and incised clay idols. Already during the researches a number of questions has been raised: how the early Lengyel culture took the place of the culture of the Transdanubian Linear Pottery preceding it in the area, what connections it had with the neighbouring lands (the lands of the today's Austria, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) whether the phases of its life are perceptible in this part, and how it was replaced by the Copper Age Lasinja culture. The questions raised impelled us to make trial excavations on some sites of the Linear Pottery culture and to collect also the surface finds of this widespread culture. We gave a greater attention to the previously unearthed stray finds of the Early Copper Age, and tried to start the research of the local material of the Copper Age Lasinja culture. The find collection of the excavations made at Sé, the majority of which has already been worked up, is still unpublished at the moment, however we have disclosed the first results of the research trends and of the ideas started by it in this study. We are aware of the fact, that the described find collections are small and are not suitable for drawing general conclusions, however by examining them we can make some observations, which will perhaps help us in the further researches. Our primary aim was to make an exact description of the unearthed archaeological materials, this is why we have chosen the catalogue form of the 83
