Folia archeologica 25.

Kovács Tibor: Bronzkori urnatemető Törtelen

T. KOVÁCS lived on a part of the formerly ground territory of the Vatya culture, preserved in the course of intensive commercial connections

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0 resp. ethnic amalgamation

22 with the cultures of the Tisza region its key position, due to a central situation, to the extent that the settlements along the Danube maintained a leading role among the major métallurgie centres, as SW-Slovakia or the Upper Tisza Region. 3. During the Koszider period the Szeremle group occupied the southern part of the former Vatya ground territory;

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3 in its north-eastern regions (between the Danube and the Tisza) the find material indicates a certain amalgamation among the tribes of the Vatya and Füzesabony cultures.

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4 We have to give, consequently, a new name to the population occupying the remaining parts of the ground territory, which would mean now the Transdanubian territories; or, if we keep using, at least provisionally, the nomination Late Vatya culture, we have to do so with a territorial restriction.

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5 Though recent evaluations of the Vatya culture are based on a large source material, as long as about 80 per cent of the finds, coming from authentic excavations, is unpublished, final conclusions can not be drawn. This disadvantageous proportion between finds published and not published is, therefore, to be ameliorated and this is the aim of the present sequel of articles, giving a report on the finds of the culture available at the present time. II. The large urn cemetery, situated west, to the village Törtei, County Pest, has been disturbed for some decades by earthwork. For the number of the graves destroyed not even a rough estimate can be given.

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6 In spring 1968 20 to 25 urn burials were disturbed, in one of them a bird-shaped pottery vessel, richly decorated, was found.

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7 It was followed by an authenticating excavation on an area of 106 m

2, yielding 10 urn burials. Grave 1. 1. Urn (Fig. 2, 9), 2. Mug with a handle (the fragmentary piece got ruined), 3. Urn (Fig. 2, 5).— Grave 2. 1. Urn (Fig. 2, 11), 2. Pot (Fig. 3, 11), 3. Bowl (Fig. 2, 10). — Grave 3. 1. Urn (Fig. 2, 1) 2. Pot (cf. Fig. 3, 6), 3. Mug with a handle (ruined). — Grave 4. 1. Urn (Fig. 2, 6) 2. Bowl (Fig. 2, 7), 3. Mug with a handle (fragmentary), 4. Urn (Fig. 2, 8). — Grave 5. 1. Urn (reconstruction: Fig. 2,4), 2. Pot (Fig 2, 3), 3. Pot (Fig. 2,2). — Grave 6. 1. Urn (Fig. 3, 6). — Grave 7. 1. Urn (Fig. 3, 3). 2. Bowl (Fig. 3,1),Ъ. Mug with a handle (Fig. 3,4), 4. Bowl (Fig. 3, 2). — Grave 8. 1. Urn (Fig. 3, 5). — Grave 9. The urn of the grave, chipped at the rim, decorated with bundles of garlands and knobs encircled with grooves, fell into small pieces and cannot be reconstructed. — Grave 10. 1. Urn (Fig. 3, 9), 2. Pot (Fig. 3, 8), 3. Mug with a handle (Fig. 3, 7 ). — Stray finds, collected at the time of the excavation: a large-sized urn (Fig. 3, 13) as well as lateral fragments (Figs. 3, 10, 12). The distance of the graves (belonging presumedly to the same grave group), the way the ashes were laid into the urn, the position of the grave goods correspond to burial customs observed in similar cemeteries.

282" The finds of our graves represent type variations of pottery used in the late period of the Vatya culture. Taken as a whole, we may allude to the single publication of a Vatya cemetery, issued in the last decade, namely to the finds of the early graves, unearthed at Ercsi-Sinatelep.

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0 The discrepancies are unambiguous. As for the details, our position is more difficult, as the closed Late Vatya cemeteries were annihilated during the war (as Izsák and Kecskemét),

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1 or their finds come from