Regenye Judit: Kő és agyag. Település és életmód a neolitikum-rézkor fordulóján a Dunántúlon (Veszprém, 2011)
Összefoglalás
4. Ajka-Pál-major The site can be found in a narrow natural passage between Szentgál and Ajka 2 km SE of Ajka. It lies on the southern side of Toma streamlet higher up on the steep hillside that runs down to the streamlet. 5. Szentgál-Füzi-kút The settlement can be found on a steep hillside on the northern side of the road from Szentgál to Úrkút. The road is bordered by a hill range of an altitude of about 500 m above sea level on the north, while a plain extends south of the road. The road from the Vazsony Basin running at the feet of Kab hill joins the Úrkút road right west of the site. This route was supposedly one of the significant lines of the prehistoric road system that started from the exploitation area. 6. Szentgál-Teleki-dűlő The site can be found on a mild hillside running to the Cinca streamlet south of Szentgál village. A few hundred metres S of the site, the streamlet runs into Séd streamlet. 7. Bánd-Külsőbánd It is an elongated settlement on a low hillside on the eastern bank of the Séd branch running south of the village. 8. Márkó-Csapberek A significant medieval settlement can be found on the territory of the site in the valley of Aranyos streamlet. The exact extent of the prehistoric site is not known. 9. Szentgál-Tobán The site can be found on the Gerla streamlet north-east of Szentgál under the forest block of middle Hajag near Fodor-tanya. It appeared only in traces because of later settlements events (Late Bronze Age, Roman period). 10. Városlőd-Újmajor The site can be found in an altitude of 350 m above sea level on a southern hillside north of Városlőd, north- northwest of Újmajor. EXCAVATION RESULTS Settlement phenomena From among the above listed sites, excavations were conducted at sites nos. 4, 5, 6 and 10, and we also have a few finds from site no. 3. The small-scale test excavations were conducted with the purpose to collect a find material sufficient for evaluation. The goal was to determine the age of the sites and their relationship with each other and the extraction area. Summary of the find materials, chronological place of the site group One of the purposes of the analysis of the ceramic material was to find out if the villages established around the mine were contemporary. The surface finds seemed absolutely uniform, which raised the very likely idea that all the settlements existed at the same time and they were contemporary settlements settled around the mine with definite functions. Nevertheless, according to another acceptable theory, they were communities that settled in the region of the hill at different periods, maybe cyclically, with the intent to extract the stone raw material. The precondition necessary to decide between the two theories was the exact dating of the materials recovered from the sites. The test excavations were started to solve this question since only a find material sufficient for evaluation could serve as evidence. This is why we tried to uncover surfaces of more-or-less identical sizes (100-500 m2) since we wanted to collect samples of identical quantities for the analysis of the ceramic material. Ceramics offer the best possibilities for such a comparison since their information value is very high, they excellently reflect changes and dominate in settlement materials. Both the preparation of the clay and the forming and decoration of the vessels lead to characteristic traits than can quantitatively be determined at the analysis. Ceramics were local products in the Neolithic, so the differences observed between sites can also be interpreted on a social level based on the experience that the typological differences manifested in the material culture proved to be effective tools in the reconstruction of social structures and contacts (O’Shea-McHale Milner 2002, Parkinson 2006). From this respect, settlement ceramics offer ample opportunities for interpretation. From an archaeological point of view, ceramics and people are strongly linked since pottery making is 86
