Folia archeologica 6. (1949)

BANNER JÁNOS: HERMAN OTTO LEVELE PÓSTA BÉLÁHOZ A MAGYAR ŐSKŐKOR KUTATÁS HARCOS IDEJÉBŐL

BANNER—

FOL.

TI

N Y: THE THIRD EXCAVATION ON THE KÖKÉNYDOMB Í5 T

Л I THIRD EXDAVATICM ON THE KÖKÉNYDOMB AT HÓDMEZŐVÁSÁRHELY. (4th—30th August 1941) The observations and the rich material of the two previous excavations of the settlement on the Kökénydomb, which belongs to the Tisza-culture, are ^already known by the experts.

1 Not only the extraordinarily rich material but chiefly the developing picture of the houses and of the settling system deserve great attention, because they essentially contribute to the description of the picture of the Tisza-culture with their authentic observations. The third excavation territorially joined immediately the excavation in 1940. This could not report only a settlement occurring on two levels, but also the remains of houses indicating a more permanent settlement on two levels, while the excavation in 1941 had generally only one permanent settling level even then, when certain settling phenomena can be determined from the periods before the building of some houses. We mean by the above that the objects, coming to light from beneath two houses, and the observed phenomena (hearth, pit) show that this ground played a part formerly too, at least as a collecting place for refuse, and even open fireplaces were on it. The excavation was carried out on the farm no. 444 of István Gy. Szabó at Grozsatanya, on that part which is between the areas explored in 1929 and 1940; and yielded the following results: During the four weeks we found three houses, eight hearths, ten pits, a heap of 1 Dolgozatok, 1929, pp. 115—131. — Ibid. 1930, pp. 49 158 and Folia Arch. 1945, pp. 8—34. See the referring Hungarian and foreign literature in the second note of the latter article. — See further Délvidéki Szemle, 1942, pp. 458—463 and Szeged Városi Múzeum kiadványai, 1942, II, 3, pp. 3—8. In these two latter a part of the material of the 1942 excavation te also published. ,, sherds, two larger and several smaller extending layers of burnt mud-plaster, as well as seven graves of different periods on the explored part of the settlement (570 sq. m.). The first house (PL VII, fig. 6; Pl. VIII, figs. 1—G, 8, 10—12) differs essentially from the forms found hitherto.

2 Opposed to all our dwellings of the Stone Age, coming to light so far, this is the only one which deserves the name of a house. It is not like a hut, because it had actual walls. From the waEs remained only fragments, from which comparatively thin walls (8—15 cm) may be concluded, but the lumps of burnt plaster (PI. VIM, figs. 10—12) found in the burnt mud-plaster, which is in some places half a meter thick and is above the foundation of the house, show that the walls must have been as thick as 40 cm. The foundation of the house is an elongated oblong, of which longer sides are 9.50 m and the smaller ones 2.80 m long.

3 These measurements are gained from the average calculation. Its floor was repeatedly plastered. The upper layer of plaster was separated from the one under it in a 1—2 cm thick layer. The lower one was by no means so carefully carried out and so particularly smoothed as the upper one* The upper layer was stuck to a layer of burnt mud which was 8—10 cm thick in some places* and whose surface was coarse and granulated and was made of a material plentifully mixed with chaff. The unequal thickness of this layer 2 Dolgozatok, 1929, pp. 115—131. 3 The original measurements, considering also theremaining parts of the walls, allow also a conclusion, concerning the thickness of the waUs, though evem these do not show in the least that thickness as the lumps of plaster. The north wall is 2.72, the south 2.90, the west 9.48 and the east 9.68 xn..