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

One of the most important chronological problems of the Szilhalom mound-similarly to other tells—is the date of its final phase. The pottery included vessel types —such as the specimen recovered from the pit dug into level 1/1 (PI. 29:5, 7-8; PI. 30:8-9), as well as other pieces (PI. 34:4, 11)—which are dominant in later periods judging from the known Füzesabony analogies. Nonetheless there is no substantial evidence suggesting that the settlement survived into the Koszider period. Diagnostic metal finds that would resolve this issue have not been found. For the time being bronze finds from the tells are outnumbered by gold items which, however, do not represent Koszider types. A heart-shaped lockring of solid gold was found on top of the Szilhalom site (PI. 46:2). It represents an early type dating to the Hajdúsámson period, and is thus contemporary with the Tiszaug-Jászdózsa circle.

38 Similar finds published recently do not contradict this.

39 Since most of the sherds from large-sized storage vessels survived under the thick debris covering the floor, it proved possible to reconstruct some of these vessels of which only fragments were known previously and thus their size was not known earlier. The decoration is dominated by doubly incised lines mostly in the form of spirals, but other combinations also occur. The pattern only covers the shoulder of the vessel (PI. 25 :7—

8). The neck of the large storage jars is often undifferentiated. The carination Une is accentuated by spiral decorated knobs, and the small strip-handles are generally placed on the shoulder. The areas left void by the incised ribbon patterns are often filled by parallel incisions (PI. 30:3; PI. 34:9, 10, 12). Scored coarse ware dominates among the storage jars. They are mostly thin walled, the score lines covering the surface are light and closely spaced (PI. 31:5, 6, 8; PI. 32:11, 12, 14), but undecorated vessels with roughened surface and polished specimens also occur, occasionally with thick ribbon handles that terminate in a plastic moustache ornament (PI. 29:15; PI. 33:10, 14). Handles are more frequent on smaller vessels (PI. 32:10, 13, 15). Tne jars ornamented with the traditional, incised spiral motifs resemble the one-handled Gyulavarsánd style cups, but they are larger (PI. 27:1—2). The undecorated jars with rounded body and short neck have good Füzesabony analogies (PI. 29:17; PI. 33:14). Comparable finds are known from Megy aszó and Gelej as well.

40 It must be noted that a fragmentary jar or jug resembling Szöreg forms,

41 but with incised decoration of Gyulavarsánd style was also recovered (PI. 27 :3). The bowls show a variety of forms. Two variants of the traditional fish-frying pan were found, the deeper one is of truncated conical form with more flaring sides than the other (PI. 25:6; PI. 26:5). A related form is represented by a small truncated conical bowl (PI. 27 :2). The "Swedish helmet" form is perhaps the most elegant bowl type of this period. It appears to have been popular throughout the different layers of the longeval tells and it is thus unsuitable for finer chronological dating. At Herpály, for example, it already makes its appearance at an early date, in level 3.

42 The Szilhalom specimen and its miniature variants are very similar to the "Swedish helmet" from Herpály (Pl. 25 :3; Pl. 26:3; Pl. 32:2). In contrast to the other fine ware these bowls are thick walled, rather robust and their grooved patterns of unevenly spaced semicircles with flat knobs are in no way masterpieces of the potters' art. The execution of these bowls is reminiscent of the specimens recovered from the upper Tószeg layers that can be assigned to the Koszider period which similarly do not reflect the high technical sküls of the Füzesabony potters.

43 A separate group of fine ware is represented by the black-burnished carinated bowls that are ornamented with ribs marked by vertical cuts on the rim and with incised garlands under the carination line (PL 33:1; PL 34:8). A bowl-or jar and a cup (PI. 29:6) of this type were recovered from the fill between levels 1 and 2 at Herpály,

44 as well as from the corresponding layers of Gáborján (Pl. 41:12), Esztár (Pl. 36:12) and Békés,

45 suggesting that this type was confined to the Gyulavarsánd period. A few sherds from thick-walled open bowls with bulging belly and inturned rims were also found (PL 33:9—10). These can in no way be assigned to the decorative bowls which appear to have been more popular in the Füzesabony area than in the Berettyó valley

. The cups showed by far the greatest variety in form (perhaps owing to the fact that this vessel type mostly survived completely). The leading type is the low cup with rounded base and without neck (PI. 25 :2, 4), or with a cylindrical neck ornamented with channelled or incised lines (PI. 26:1—2) that can be considered the mass-products of the Gyulavarsánd culture province since they are the most characteristic cup forms in all layers of the Gyulavarsánd culture. The small jugs with narrow neck and flattened globular body are decorated with half-knobs or vertical incisions on the shoulder (PI. 26:4, 6; PI. 29:10; PI. 34:5; PI. 35:4). Similar jugs have been reported from the contemporary tells at Herpály

46 and Esztár (Pl. 36:5). Patterns of incised semicircles against a hatched background make their appearance on various vessel forms at a rather early date. It ornaments a Vattina type cup at Szilhalom (Pl. 25 :1) and Zoltai recovered a similar one at Bakonszeg from a depth of five spits. This pattern is one of the most widely used motifs of the Gyulavarsánd culture at Székudvar (Socodor),

47 Békés

48 and numerous other sites. The most beautiful and artistic ceramics of the period are undoubtedly the thin-walled rounded cups with the handle rising elegantly above the rim, ornamented with continuously incised spirals and knobs (PI. 33:3; PI. 35:1, 2, 10). These cups occur together with plain, undecorated variants (PI. 34:2, 6; PI. 35:3), as well as with fragments representing later types (PL 29:8; PI. 32:1, 9; PI. 34:4, 11). Finally the occurrence of cups with turban-form belly must be noted, even though their number was lower than in the upper levels of other tells (PL 25:5; PL 33:11). Even though this type was earlier traditionally assigned to the Füzesabony culture it appears to have been one of the decorative vessels popular in all Bronze Age tell cultures. This is ülustrated