Kovács Tibor - Stanczik Ilona (szerk.): Bronze Age tell settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain I. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 1; Budapest, 1988)
Judit TÁRNOKI: The settlement and cemetery of the Hatvan culture at Aszód
The peculiar pattern of the jar in PI. 9:7 resembles Füzesabony motifs. The knobs and grooved decorations of two jars (PI. 9:5, PI. 10:17) occur on vessels from Hatvan, Piliny and Tárnáméra. 24 Similar fragments were also found in the Aszód settlement (PI. 4:12—13). This combination of motifs is characteristic for the smaller vessels such as cups, reflecting the impact of the Füzesabony culture. The pattern of the jar in PI. 9:3 is strikingly unusual in the material of the Hatvan culture. Similar thin incisions can be seen on a bowl (PI. 8:1). The net-pattern resembles the decoration of the large storage vessels of the Vatya culture. I. Bona has shown that the finer variant of this pattern was characteristic mostly of the Vatya III, the Middle Bronze Age III period, and the following periods. 25 Bowls The deep (Pl. 13:5-6) and flat (Pl. 13:7-8) bowls can be distingusihed both in the cemetery and in the settlement material. The "Swedish helmet" bowl with its rich decoration is perhaps the most elegant vessel in the Bag cemetery (PI. 8:3). According to N. Kalicz this type became general in the second half of the Hatvan period. The variants with groovings, knobs and dots were distributed over entire the Tisza region at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. The number of the handles varies, the onehandled specimens are the most frequent, 26 those with four handles are rare. 27 The variant with five handles is known from the Hatvan—Füzesabony layer of Tószeg. 28 The best parallel to the miniature specimen was also found outside the Hatvan territory, on the settlement of the Vatya culture at Alpár; a similar, but unstratified vessel is known from Tószeg. 29 There can be no doubt that the bowl shown in PI. 8:3 is one of the latest finds of the Bag cemetery, and it can be assigned to the third period of the Middle Bronze Age. The two flat bowls with slightly inturned rims (PI. 10:4—5) appear to represent the extremely simplified version of the similar vessel type of the Füzesabony culture . The bowl with inward profiled flat rim and hemispherical or conical body occurs from level I onwards (PI. 3:13, PI. 4:1, 4, PI. 5:6). 30 Even though this type was current in earlier periods as well, it became widely distributed after the impact of the Füzesabony culture in the second half of the Middle Bronze Age. The bowl fragment with the knob-like, perforated flat extensions of the rim found in the humus layer (PI. 5 :12) resembles the similarly ornamented deep bowls of the Vatya culture (mostly with double knobs on the rim). This type appeared from the Vatya III period onwards. The rim fragment from the settlement (PI. 5 :19) and one of the vessels of the cemetery (PI. 10:3) have close analogies from Tiszaluc and Szihalom. 31 A specific type is represented by four deep bowls from the cemetery (PI. 8:1, 2, 4, 5). All of them have four handles rising from projections of the rim and set on the shoulder. Two specimens have a fifth handle of smaller size (PI. 8:2, 4). The analogies for vessels with knob decoration on the shoulder (PI. 8 :2— 4) are to be found in the material from Piliny (Hatvan culture), Dunakeszi (Vatya III period) and Gelej (Late Füzesabony culture) 32 The vessel shown in PI. 8:5 can be compared with specimens from Piliny and Alpár. 33 It seems important to call attention to the peculiar decoration of the vessel in PL 8:2. The trapezoidal panels on the lower part of the belly are left undecorated. A vessel related to this one with similarly undecorated panels, and of matching shape with similar projections of the rim was uncovered at Buják-Taris zny a part (excavation of the author). The material of the Buják settlement contains numerous imports and motifs of the Late Vatya (Vatya III) and Late Füzesabony cultures but it cannot be doubted that the inhabitants of the site belonged to the population of the Hatvan culture. Since the bowl type in question can be dated to the latest phase of the Hatvan culture, it can be assumed that its appearance in the material of the neighbouring cultures can be attributed to the impact of the Hatvan culture. The intensification of the connections with the Vatya culture is also reflected by the finds from Buják settlement. 34 The four and/or five handled bowls may have appeared at the beginning of the third period of the Middle Bronze Age. The pedestalled bowl (PI. 10:2) and a small vessel (PI. 10:13) are unique forms in the cemetery material. In the subhumus layer of the settlement a fragment of a fish-frying pan (PI. 4:6) was found. Pots The settl a ment material—similarly to other Bronze Age sites —consist mostly of pot fragments. It has been mentioned that the potsherds of the upper layers were different from those of the earlier phase. Level III contained only a few characteristic fragments. Level II yielded more fragments of jars and so-called Hatvan pots (PI. 2:9, 14) Complete specimens of similar type and various size were found at Hatvan-Strázsahegy and on other sites. 35 The pots of level I mostly belong to this type (PI. 3:3—4, 5, 12) but a new form also appears: this is undecorated, coarse, with knob-like projections on the rim (PI. 3 :5). The larger vessels with incised rims (PI. 3 :5) and those of smaller size (PI. 11:1 —3) from the cemetery are similar. From the subhumus layer onwards the typical Middle Bronze Age jars are dominant—only one Hatvan pot fragment was found in the subhumus layer. The jars are ornamented with incised ribs under the rim (PI. 4:5, PI. 5 :4), impressed lugs or ribs on the rim or under it (PI. 5:7) and incisions on the slightly outward leaning rim (PI. 4:11,15). The so-called Hatvan pot was not attested in the cemetery. The complete jars from the graves represents the above-mentioned Middle Bronze Age types with lug handles and ribs (PI. 11:8),
