Folia archeologica 21.

Patay Pál: A javarézkor néhány etnikai és időrendi kérdéséről

SOME ETHNICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF THE MIDDLE COPPER AGE In the cemeteries of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture of the Middle Copper Age we find contracted skeletons orientated generally to E. In some of the cemeteries (Jászberény-Borsóhalma, Polgár-Basatanya, Tiszavalk-Kenderföldek) there is, however, an orientation W-E dominant, of this latter we find a couple of graves in some other cemeteries as well (Fig. i). Zs. Csalog threw out the suggestion that the different orientations could be traced to chronological reasons. At Polgár-Basatanya the graves orientated to E-W are found in the part of the cemetery belonging to period II and there, too, on the eastern side, which represents a younger phase (Fig. 2). At Jászberény there are only two such graves on the edge of the cemetery. These graves occur at Tiszavalk also at the eastern side (Fig. 3). Judging by this fact it may be presumed that the people of the Bodrogkeresztúr culture orientated their graves originally to W-E and only after some time changed to the orientation to E-W. The formation of the rows of graves points to the fact that the order of the burials was, as at Polgár-Basatanya too, directed roughly from W to E. Cemeteries with graves in orientation to W-E are to be found - with the exception of that of Szentes-Kistőke - in the northern part of the Great Plain. This is contradictory to our former hypothese and suggests ethnical causes for this phenomenon. It would mean that while the people of the culture used generally the orientation to E-W, there were tribes on the Northern Great Plain which influenced by the local traditions used W-E orientation. But after a time the rite of E-W orientation gradually gained ground among them, too. There are other common features in the Polgár-Basatanya, Tiszavalk and other cemeteries of the Northern Great Plain and judging by these closer ethnical connections may be assumed between the communities using these cemeteries. These common features are: the wild boar (or pig) mandibles (stripped of their rami mandibulae) occurring in the graves, amulets made of tusks, small-size copper pins (Fig. 4). These concentrate also on the northern part of the Great Plain, though they occur in single cases in other cemeteries as well. Though the wild boar (or pig) mandibles and tusk amulets were widespread (on larger areas) in the Late Neolithic Period and Early Copper Age, it can be observed very well that in this very environment of Polgár how these came down in burial rites to the Middle Copper Age. Judging by this part I. Kutzián assumes a genetic continuity among the peoples of the different ages in this area. At Tiszavalk this tradition survived even stronger than at Polgár-Basatanya. In the cemeteries of the Northern Great Plain - as observed also by N. Kalicz - there are peculiar shapes among the ceramic grave goods. (It does not mean, however, that these finds would be already the inheritance of the Ludanice group.)