A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 22. (Veszprém, 2002)

Patay Róbert: Kora bronzkori leletek Balatonkeneséről

EARLY BRONZE AGE FINDS FROM BALATONKENESE In the course of digging a ditch for gas pipes in 1987 in Balatonkenese, an early bronze age pit was discovered (picture 1 ). Due to the work of Judit Regénye in preserving these finds, ceramic fragments and animal bones from the Makó culture came into the possession of the Veszprém Dezs_ Laczkó Museum. From the fragments, a pot with one handle, an egg-shaped body and an overhanging lip could be reconstructed (picture 2). This is a type characteristic of the Makó culture, as are the other ceramic fragments found in the pit: pots with an overhanging lip, an arched neck, and an eggshaped body (picture 3, no. 2,4-5; picture 4, no. 5; picture 6, no. 5); bowls with a double conical or rounded body, a drawn in shoulder, and an edge thickening outwards (picture 4, no. 2, 4; picture 7, no. 7), with a distended arched lip, and a spherical section form (picture 3, no. 6; picture 6, no. 2-3), or with a spherical body (picture 4, no 1, 7); a mug with a funnel neck, profiled shoulder, and probably a compressed spherical body (picture 3, no. 3); amphorae (picture 3, no. 1; picture 4, no. 6; picture 6, no. 1 ); and strap handle (picture 7, no. 5-6, 8-9) fragments. Very few decorated pieces were found; only a circular flange decoration (picture 6, no. 5) and tiny knobs (picture 4, no. 5; picture 7, no. 1-3) can be considered true decorative elements. The other surface treatments — the roughening under the smoothed neck (picture 4, no. 5), the really fine brushing (picture 5, no. 5) and combing (picture 5, no. 1-4, 6; picture 7, no. 4), the horizontal holding knobs (picture 6, no. 4; picture 7, no. 4) — are more likely to be related to the use of the vessels. Generally characteristic of the ceramics shown in the figures are the finely worked surface, the dark grey colour, the reductive firing, and the thinning effected with mica, crushed ceramic, or to a lesser extent with tiny pebbles. Besides these, a large number of much more roughly worked, grey or ochre yellowlight brown, gently fired side, lip and base fragments originate from here, which have also been thinned mainly with mica or crushed ceramic. Good parallels to the find material may be found in numerous other Makó culture sites. The bones of horned cattle and sheep/goats/small ruminants dominate in the animal bone material of the pit. The bones of pigs, dogs and hunted/fished beasts (red deer, roe-deer, fish) are present to a much smaller extent. Several other Makó finds are known from the region of Balatonkenese, chiefly those found during the topographic traversing of the terrain. The northern shore of lake Balaton is the border region of the Makó and Somogyvár-Vinkovci cultures. The two cultures were most certainly linked with one another genetically and significantly influenced each other, so sometimes the cultural classification of material found in this region is problematic. In spite of this, the find material has been listed as from the Makó culture. The really fine brushing and the regular comb decorations only became more widespread in the 2nd-3rd periods of the early bronze age, in the Nagyrév culture, so the material from the Balatonkenese pit is considered to be from the second half of period I of the early bronze age. In publicising the finds from the pit found in Balatonkenese, we wish to add these finds originating from recent excavations to the series of early bronze age sites in Veszprém county, known in only scanty numbers until now. We should also like to add further data to the Transdanubian find material of the period. 49