Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)

Articles

A Copper Age Settlement from Tárgu Mures. Aspects of Chronology and Relations of the Ariusd Culture 53

crushed potsherds. The modelling and slicking of these vessels was made less carefully, their surface was porous, sometimes rough, both inside and outside. Their colour varied from the light nuances of brick-red to dark brown or even black. Often the firing was incomplete, the exterior surface of the vessel getting a lighter colour.

The ornaments are very rare and poor. On some of the large vessels the cut or impressed cordons appear (Pi. 10/9); in other cases impressions made with the linger were aligned on the slightly oblique rim of the vessel (Pi. 6/2). A double truncated cone shaped vessel was decorated with large channels and a rounded impression on the engrossed shoulder (Pi. 8/3). Exceptionally, the fragment of a cup, with black rim, bears traces of white painting, however too corroded in order to reconstruct the ornamental motif (PL 10/1). On the fragment of a serving spoons handle marks of reddish painting can be observed (PI. 8/4). But considering the entire quantity of discovered pottery in 2007, the decorated pottery - painted or engraved - represents 1%.

The repertory of forms is not diversified, either. Because of the preponderance of household pottery, most of the wares are large coarse vessels: sack-shaped pots with truncated cone shaped body and slightly inverted rims (PI. 5/6; 6/2, 5; 7/1; 8/5), double truncated cone shaped pots with usual accessories: handle-bosses with rounded tip (PI. 9/2; 10/10) and vertically or horizontally perforated handles (Pi. 5/10; 6/1, 3). A horizontal handle with rounded section (Pi. 6/4) applied in the region of the shoulder (which is also the maximum diameter of the vessel) probably belongs to an elongated piriform amphora with short, almost cylindrical neck, met in the repertory of the forms of the Ariusd culture (László 1927/2007, pl. V/D 2-3, 5). A double truncated cone shaped vessel with wide shoulder (Pi. 8/3) was decorated with wide oblique channels, marked on their edges by smooth, circular impressions. The form belongs to the largely spread category of double truncated cone shaped, belly vessels of the Ariusd culture, usually decorated with bichrome painting associated on the shoulder with engraved ornaments: channels forming circular motives, oblique lines, lain spirals or impressions. Analogies can be mentioned from Ariusd-Tyiszk-hegy (László 1927/2007, pl. IV/C 18), Ciucsängiorgiu-Pofovszky-kert (Lazarovici Et Al. 1993, fig. 8, without number) or Páuleni- Várdomb (Lazarovici EtAl. 2000, pi. XII/1). The large goblets with short truncated cone shaped stems (PI. 8/7-9) can also belong to a variant of these channelled-shouldered vessels, the prototype of which was a pot mentioned from the eponym site (László 1927/2007, pl. IV/C 19). Specific forms of the Ariusd culture are the truncated cone shaped, cambered cups with everted margins, made of fine clay, with well evened and polished surface (PI. 10/1, 3, 7). These small- and medium-sized vessels - their height is up to 12-15 cm - are one of the director types of the culture - and generally of the Cucuteni A1-A3 phases4 - usually were decorated with bichrome painting, consisting of simple, linear motifs, painted with white on a brown, brick-red or black background. Traces of white linear painting can be seen on the exterior surface of a fragmentary cup from trench S2 (Pi. 10/1). From the restorable forms which can be surely included in the repertory of the pottery of the Ariusd culture one should mention the hemispheric cups with everted rims (PI. 5/4-5; 8/6), the simple, truncated cone shaped shallow and deep bowls, with rounded, straight rim (PI. 5/1-2, 7-8; 8/1; 10/4) or largely inverted rims (PL 5/9; 10/8) a high, fragmentary cylindrical support

4 From Transylvania analogies can be mentioned from Ariu§d (László 1927/2007, pl. II/B 3,10,12,15; Sztáncsuj 2003, fig. 5; 10/6-8), Ciucsángeorgiu (Lazarovici Et Al. 1993, fig. 1, without numbers, three pieces; 6/1), Olteni- Vármege (László 1911, fig. 23), Páuleni (Buzea-Lazarovici 2005, 30, pl. XXV/1, 3, 6-8, 10; XXVII/1-2, 5-7; XXIX/1, 4, 5-9), or from the area of the Cucuteni culture, at Bode$ti-Frumufica (Matasä 1946, pl. XXVI/187- 189,191,194; XXXII/192) or Häbä§e§ti (Dumitrescu Et Al. 1954, pl. LXXX/9-11,18).