Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 2 - The Neolithic and the Copper Age (6000-2800 B.C.) (Nándor Kalicz, Pál Raczky)

19. The burnt debris and the hearth of House 2 at Berettyóújfalu-H erpál y. Neolithic, 4700-4400 B.C. the Carpathian Basin, however, eventually led to changes in the original "Neolithic package" - this is best illustrated by the growing dominance of cattle, replacing the initial animal husbandry based on sheep and goat. 2. THE DOMESTICATED WORLD: NEW LIFEWAYS IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN Following an initial period of local experimentation with the new subsistence strategies, the later centuries of the Neolithic saw the adoption of a food production economy in the northern part of the Carpathian Basin, whence it spread to the other regions of Europe. These changes led to the emergence of the Linear Pottery complex in Europe in the mid-6th millennium B.C.; the Carpathian Basin became a secondary centre from where the new subsistence strategy was disseminated. One recently excavated settlement from this period is Füzesabony-Gubakút in the Great Hungarian Plain, where the remains of a village made up of several houses were uncovered (Fig. 18). The large, timber framed houses were built next to each other and carefully aligned into rows. Everyday life, as well as various rituals, were conducted in and around these houses. The deceased were buried on the settlement, i.e. near the community of the living. The conquest of the wild natural environment involved the colonisation of new territories for settlement and for agricultural activity by clearing woodlands with the slash-andburn technique. The timbers were used as construction material for houses and wood itself was put to a various uses in the household. Cereal agriculture was initially practiced in the immediate surroundings of the first permanent villages, on the fertile soils along riverbanks and lake shores. Antler hoes and stone implements were used to loosen the soil. The ripe cereals were harvested with sickles made from tiny stone blades set into bone and antler hafts. Sickle hafts and their stone blades were brought to light during recent excavations conducted at Méhtelek, Füzesabony and Zengővárkony. Harvested crops were threshed and cleaned manually. The cereal grains were then stored in large storage jars, clay chests or baskets daubed with clay and sometimes in pits close to the houses. The clay chests of one Neolithic population living in the earlier 5th millennium B.C. in the Great Hungarian Plain, called the Tisza culture after its distribution, were ornamented with vibrant incised and painted patterns. These storage facilities were usually part of house furnishings (Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa, HódmezővásárhelyKökénydomb, Öcsöd-Kováshalom). It seems likely that the human faces incised onto the neck of large storage jars were vested with a "sacred" meaning: they were believed to protect the cereals stored in them. The amount of harvested cereals can be calculated from the capacity of the large storage jars found inside Neolithic houses (Kökénydomb). The advances in crop cultivation and improved agricultural techniques are indicated by the cereal remains found under the thick, burnt layers of