Kovács Tibor - Stanczik Ilona (szerk.): Bronze Age tell settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain I. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 1; Budapest, 1988)

Márta SZ. MÁTHÉ: Bronze Age tells in the Berettyó valley

nation of panles filled with incised bundles of zig-zag lines and cut-marked narrow ribbons with undecorated ones is usually found on jugs with slender neck (PI. 16:4, 13), but these jugs with flattened globular body show a great variety of incised patterns (PL 16:4, 5, 7). The bowls found in this level are mostly decorated with the above-described patterns. Their shape is germane to the cover-bowl with rounded shoulder and with short, S-shaped rim from Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom (Pl. 16:3, 9). A segment-shaped shallow dish with curved sides (PI. 13:7) has no known parallels even though its deocration is of the usual type —panels filled with stabs alternating with undecorated ones. Shallow bowls with straight sides also occur (PI. 14:11). As regards cups, the flower-pot shaped and the slightly ovoid forms with a small handle attached to the rim makes its first appearance in this level and survives during all subsequent periods of the site (PI. 9:4, 13; PI. 14:3, 4, 6). The early specimens of this type are undecorated, whilst later ones are covered with geometric incisions. A similar type is represented by the mugs decorated with bundles of zig-zagging lines arranged in zones. The zones are separated by horizontally incised narrow bands (PI. 16:1, 2). This type is gradually replaced by cups of various size in the uppermost layers (Pl. 1:2,

12, 13,17; PI.

4:7; PI. 7:2,10). The primitive Early Gyulavarsánd channeling appears on a cup with cylindrical neck (PI. 14: 5). There are some thin-walled, delicate hanging vessels of flattened shape assignable to level 4 (PL 13:5, 6). Their decoration consists of traditionally incised panels. The precursors of these vessels can be traced to the Vattina culture and there are comparable types in the original area of the Hatvan culture.

24 These vessels appear to have been suspended through the characteristic lugs on their shoulder. Differently from these, our specimen has horizontally perforated lugs on its shoulder. The vessel contained five sheep astragali from different animals each (determined by S. Bökönyi). These perhaps suggest a special function for this kind of hanging vessel. The pottery of level 3 also belongs to the Otomani B period (PI. 12). It includes a variety of broomstroked coarse ware, jugs with wide mouth, bowls with rounded shoulders and sherds with grooves and ribs known from the Hatvan culture (PL 12:3, 12). Beside the ornamental bowls another type also appears, a shallow scored bowl with out-turned rim and a double line of incised horizontal ribs (PI. 12:14). The household pottery from level 2 consists of coarse pots with partly roughened surface (PI. 10:1, 16), carefully smoothed and sparsely incised pots (PI. 10:3, 24), as well as vessels ornamented with a few incised lines or bundles of scored lines (PI. 10:13, 20; PI. 11:17,19). The bowl with rounded shoulder and short, S-shaped rim still occurs (PI. 10:8), alongside a type with slightly inturned rim (PI. 11:5). A truncated conical fragment with slightly inturned rim has no comparable analogies and neither is it clear whether it had belonged to a bowl or to a conical lid. It is ornamented with the traditional motifs over its entire surface (PI. 11:1-2). Similar lids are known from the Wietenberg culture.

25 Thickened rectangular rims that are either left undecorated or ornamented with vertical notches occur on a variety of vessels (PI. 10:1, 19; PL 11:15). The framed stitch ornament still occurs sporadically (PI. 11:18) and its Wietenberg-style variant also appears (PL 10:15). The barrel or flower-pot shaped small cups (PI. 4: 6; PI. 9: 6, 8, 9) and the decorated mugs with slightly curved sides are also attested (PL 4:7; PI. 10:8, 11, 14; PI. 11:9), as well as squat jugs (PI. 10:18) and the ansa lunata handles (PI. 10:9). The largest quantity of pottery was recovered from the uppermost layer (level 1). The household pottery is still dominated by "Besenstrich" scored wares (PI. 6:18—22) with the coarse pots ornamented mostly with horizontal bundles of lines (PI. 5:1—13). Squat, ovoid pots with wide mouth and small handles below the rim are decorated with double or triple thickly incised lines. Their rim varies and their handle, occasionally ornamented with ribs, broadens into a decorative "moustache-ornament" (PI. 5:14, 15; PL 6:13). The presence of the Gyulavarsánd culture in this level is marked by finds of portable cauldron-like fireplaces with built-in grids (PI. 8), as well as by the early, neckless variant of the Gyulavarsánd cup (PI. 7:1,3,9), the flower-pot shaped (PI. 4:4, 5, 8) and cylindrical mugs (PI. 7:2, 11, 14). The dipper with high handle can be traced to the Wietenberg culture (PI. 4:2). Zoltai excavated similar types at Herpály at a depth of 0.9 m,

26 but it also occurs at Szalacs.

27 Although they are common in periods II and III of the Wietenberg culture, they occur but sporadically in Otomani and Gyulavarsánd layers and thus they cannot be used for synchronising these cultures. The horned jug-handle is unique in the Gyulavarsánd complex with possible analogies in the Balkans (PI. 13:3). A large-size variant of the conical lid (PI. 4:1; PI. 7:4) with incised patterns of Gyulavarsánd style (PI. 6:5; PI. 7:11) was also found in level 1. Another remarkable find is a miniature "Swedish helmet" shaped bowl (PI. 4:3). The few Nyírség sherds may probably have come from remains of a destroyed pit (or hut) of the Nyírség culture (PI. 12:15, 16). The pottery from the humus-subhumus layers consists of forms known from level 1, such as the small conical lid or shallow bowl (PI. 2:5, 12), the framed stitch spirals of the Wietenberg culture (PI. 2:9), the neckless large-size cups (PI. 1:1, 3, 6, 8). A jug of archaic form with incised spiral ornament representing an earlier tradition was also found (PI. 2:4). The material from the fill of the ditch can mostly be assigned to a later period when the ditch was filled completely, with the occasional occurrence of earlier types in different layers of the fill. The material of period B of the Otomani culture includes the rounded base-fragment of a jug decorated with a star-shaped scored pattern (PI. 21:15), and another jug with horizontal framed stitch band separating the shoulder ornamented with a zig-zagging line from its scored belly (PI. 22:9).