Folia archeologica 54.

Oravecz Hargita: Újkőkori arcos hombár töredékei Tiszaföldvárról

68 ORAVECZ HARGITA in the site's ceramic inventory; the latter are represented by the pottery fragments painted crimson, red, black and white before firing, and sherds decorated with bundles of delicately painted lines.) There is plenty of evidence for the contacts between the Esztár and the Szakáihát cultures, the most recent being the vessel fragment bearing a face depiction from Tiszaigar and the face pot from Szelevény. Another interesting feature of the two fragments is that they provide clues regarding the probable use and one-time location of the storage jar. Both fragments lay beside burnt floor remains and burnt daub fragments from a building destroyed by fire. Both fragments had been burnt, their surface was cracked and blistered. The extent to which the two fragments were burnt suggests that the storage jar had been either set near the wall or inside the house. The manufacturing technique of the vessel (the lack of tempering agents and that it was unfil ed) meant that the jar was a fairly weak affair, which would hardly have survived the wear and tear of daily life for long, and was therefore probably intended for minimal use only. Simple storage jars of this type have been unearthed in the houses of several Szakáihát settlements, for example at Battonya—Vidpart, Battonya-Parázs-tanya and Mezőkovácsháza. Not having been exposed to a strong fire, the jars from these sites disintegrated while they were lifted. It is no longer possible to determine the exact location of the jar in the house because the area around its findspot had been destroyed. (The pottery sherds and animal bones found beside the two fragments lay in a secondary position owing to later disturbances.) Cereals were generally kept in the storage vessels coming in various forms and sizes, ranging from pot shaped vessels to rectangular, chestlike containers and, later, separate structures. The function of these jars is clearlyindicated by the vessels containing cereal grains found at Dévaványa and Battonya. The variants bearing a face depiction were probably vested with an additional, "special" meaning, in part suggested by their treatment and in part by the interpretation of the faces. The special treatment is implied by the fact that many pots of this type had been intentionally broken and "buried". Pottery sherds bearing a face depiction, obviously cut out from the neck, have been found at Tiszaigar—

Csikóstanya and Tiszasas-Rév, and vessel fragments which had apparently been intentionally cut out and buried were uncovered at Csanytelek-Ujhalastó and Tiszaiig-Vasútállomás. The fragment with the face depiction was found together with a small vessel bearing an incised sign on its base at the latter site. (It seems likely that the face pots found in the Szentes area and at Kömlő too had been accorded special treatment judging from their irregular fracture and state of preservation, although this cannot be subsequently determined with certainty.) A face pot deposited in a pit surrounded by human burials was uncovered at Szelevény. The unusual role of face pots is evidenced by the storage jar from Gyoma-Ozed, which was recovered from a settlement feature interpreted as a sacrificial pit. The special treatment accorded to these vessels is reflected by the clay coating noted on the fragments. The decorated surface of the two fragments was coated with a 2-3 mm thick layer of clay tempered with chaff. This coating was applied after the manufacture and decoration of the vessel, at some point during its uselife. No other vessels with a similar coating are known from archaeological contexts; however, ethnographic examples do exist for a similar practice. Various native peoples often smeared mud on their face, body or masks as a sign of mourning and death, usually as part of a ritual. It is possible that the clay coating smeared over the jar had a similar function: the concealment of the being portrayed on the vessel perhaps signalled the cessation of the vessel's ritual function. The extraordinary role of face pots is also supported by the portrayals on them. The simple depictions appear to represent persons with closed eyes and mouth, without any individual features, recalling dead people rather than live ones. The eth-