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)

28. Clay urns modelled on the human body from Ózd-Center. Copper Age, 3500-3000 B.C. burials, whose grave goods eclipse the average (Jászladány, Tiszavalk, Magyarhomorog) are the imprints of this development in the archaeological record. 7. CARE FOR THE DECEASED: BURIALS The burials of the Neolithic and of the Copper Age are characterised by a striking dichotomy: care for the deceased and, at the same time, a fear of the dead. At the dawn of the Neolithic, the world of the dead and the community of the living were not separate from each other. During the Early Neolithic, the deceased were buried within the confines of the settlement, near the setting of daily activities (Szolnok-Szanda, Füzesabony-Gubakút, Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás). On some sites, burials have been found under house floors, and in some cases the house was intentionally set on fire after the burial. In these cases, the house itself was the burial place (Szajol, Szolnok-Szanda). Infants and small children were sometimes interred under the floor or into the foundation trenches (Berettyóújfalu-Herpály, Veszprém); these burials were perhaps motivated by a desire to avert evil spirits, although it has been suggested that these burials were in fact foundation deposits. In the later Neolithic, the deceased were laid to rest in smaller clusters in an area farther away from the houses, but still within the confines of the settlement. These grave groups perhaps contained the burials of individuals related to each other (Aszód-Papi földek). Cemeteries