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

be seen. The emergence and expansion of the Füzesabony culture must have been responsible for these developments.

50 A certain synchronity of the two cultures is attested by the presence of Hatvan elements in the early cemeteries of the Füzesabony culture.

51 The assimilation of the surviving Hatvan population must have been a long lasting process after the expansion of the Füzesabony culture. This may have occurred first of all on the fringes of the settlement territories as I. Bona suggested in connection with the Tószeg excavation.

52 It can be supposed that the Hatvan groups intensified their trade with the neighbouring cultures owing to the loss of their territories and this may well have led to the appearance of foreign elements. According to N. Kalicz the late Hatvan period —which corresponds to the first phase of the Aszód settlement—is synchronous with the first half of the Füzesabony period,

53 i.e. with Füzesabony A and a part of Füzesabony B in Bóna's system.

54 The westward expansion of the Füzesabony culture may have taken place in period B and resulted in the devastation of the large settlements of the Hatvan culture. In the lack of excavation we cannot decide whether the foritifcation ditch encircling the Aszód settlement was built in this period or somewhat later, during the period of the Vatya expansion. Differently from the catastrophic fall of the central settlements, the abandonment of the site did not necessarily imply large-scale destruction. The population of the Füzesabony culture devastated the main Hatvan centres, and this sealed the fate of the smaller settlements like Manyik as well. Thus the settlement was abandoned within a short period. The Galga valley became a buffer-zone in the grip of the Füzesabony and Vatya cultures by the end of the second period of the Middle Bronze Age and it was by no means secure anymore. Judging from the parallels of the pottery material it seems probable that the inhabitants moved to the northern areas seeking well défendable places in the hilly region of Nógrád. The abandonment of the Aszód settlement may have taken place at the beginning of the third period of the Middle Bronze Age, when the Füzesabony C period began. A short remark is called for at the end of this chronological scheme. It can be assumed that the Hatvan population survived until the end of the Middle Bronze Age therefore a new internal chronology of the Hatvan culture must be worked out. The results of the last decades seem to suggest that instead of creating rigid geographical and chronological boundaries we must investigate the role of the Hatvan culture in the Middle Bronze Age on the basis of a deeper analysis of smaller regions. NOTES 1 I would like to thank Ilona Stanczik for allowing the publication of the material. Excavation report: HNM Archaeological Archives XDC. 245/1969 and STANCZIK 1969, 3. The finds are deposited in the Petőfi Museum, Aszód. Inventory numbers: 76.187.1-76.193.7. 2 KALICZ 1968, 124-125. 3 KALICZ 1968, 133. 4 STANCZIK 1982, 382, Fig. 3. 5 BÁNDI 1963, 40 and Formen

tafel 19-20. 6 KALICZ 1968, 159. 7 Ibidem and p. 176. 8 KALICZ 1968, 158; BONA 1960, 94-95. 9 ÉRDY 1854, 132. 10 KALICZ 1968, 124, Taf. 100:1,4,6,8-10, 12-14. 11 I am indebted to Nándor Kalicz for permitting me to publish the grave goods. The finds are deposited in the Petőfi Museum, Aszód. Inventory numbers: 66.80.1-8, 66.81,1, 78.14.1-10, 78.24.1, 79.55.1-32, 82.67.1-2. 12 The composition of the typological charts—especially in case of the settlement material-follows Kalicz's monograph: KALICZ 1968, Pis 128-129. 13 KALICZ 1968, PI. 90 :11, PL 97:10. 14 DINNYÉS 1980, Pl. 7 :4, Pl. 8 :2. 15 Ibidem, Pl. 7 left; KALICZ 1968, Pl. 66; Pl. 74 :2. 16 KALICZ 1968, Pl. 90:9, Pl. 98:14; SOMOGYVÁRI 1984, Pl. 7:3. 17 KALICZ 1968, Pl. 90:6, Pl. 97:1. 18 Ibidem, Pl. 82:10, Pl. 83:5, 12, Pl. 106:9; BÓNA 1979-80, 99, Fig. 33; DINNYÉS 1980, Pl. 8:6; TOMPA 1935, Fig. 19:1. 19 KALICZ 1968, Pl. 57:7. 20 Hatvan: SOMOGYVÁRI 1984, Pl. 2:4, Pl. 4:5, Pl. 7:2, 4, Pl. 8:1; KALICZ 1968, Pl. 40.7; Szirák: POSTA 1895, Figs 4-10; Bag or Vácszentlászló: RÓMER 1871, 39, Fig. 12. Similar sherds have been found in the upper layers of Jászdózsa-Kápolnahalom. I am indebted to I. Stanczik for the information. 21 SOMOGYVÁRI 1984, Pl. 5 : 3-4. 22 KALICZ 1968, Pl. 85 : 3. 23 KALICZ 1968, 184-185. 24 KALICZ 1968, PI. 40:5, 8, PI. 85:6; SOMOGYVÁRI 1984, Pl. 9:2.