Horváth László szerk.: Zalai Múzeum 17. (Közlemények Zala megye múzeumaiból, Zalaegerszeg, 2008)

Bánffy Eszter-Réti Zsolt: Az újkőkori építészet legkorábbi emlékei Zala megyében - a Szentgyörgyvölgy-pityerdombi házak rekonstrukciója

The earliest neolithic architecture in County Zala - a reconstruction of the homesteads at Szentgyörgyvölgy-Pityerdomb The earliest LBK settlement at SzentgyörgyvölgyPityerdomb consists of two houses with their yards, workshops and pits around. The two homesteads were located at a certain distance from each other, possibly divided by a wooded area. Though the Pityerdomb pottery can be perfectly derived from the late Balkan (Starccvo culture) ware and meanwhile, its flint types have much in common with the local late mesolithic industry, both buildings show up all features of a third cultural formation, belonging to the highly canonized central European LBK architecture. The reconstruction of the houses is a result of a thorough experimental and technical analysis together with my graphic artist colleague Zsolt Réti. The stages of this work as well as an attempt to reconstruct the way of building the houses is described in the study. Even though the mid-6th Millennium BC wet and cool climatic conditions would make it necessary to hypothesize a steep and massive roof structure, the lack of systematic postholes does not allow us to reconstruct the roof pitched more than the minimal angle of 30° degrees. The burnt daub fragments preserved the twig wattled construction of the walls that may have been ca. 10-12 cm thick, but according to the daub amount found as a debris, could not be very high. The entrances of both buildings were probably on their southern side, whereas in the case of House 1 it was deepened, as it would have been too low otherwise. The long ditches aside the houses were to their twothird almost immediately refilled: thus, the function of these long pits („Längsgruben") remains enigmatic as they could not be made for draining rain water or protecting the house walls from animals. An interesting observation is the remains of a kind of eaves support at the north eastern side of House 1, observed in LBK buildings of NW-Germany as well. As to the fireplaces, the hearth found not only outside but also inside House 2 let us consider to assume changing cooking habits due to the less advantageous climate in the Western Carpathian Basin. Translated by Eszter Bánffy kép: A Nyugat-Dunántúl a három mikroregiós kutatási terület feltüntetésével és a fontosabb kora neolithikus lelőhelyekkel Fig. 1 : Western Transdanubia, the three microregional research areas with major mesolithic and early neolithic sites