Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 16. 1975 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1978)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Excavations at Bicske. I, 1960. The Early Neolithic – The Earliest Linear Band Ceramic. p. 9–60.

pressions left by the burnt-out vegetable temper, the fallen-out mineral temper or inclusions of grain which have disappeared. Broken sherds were very commonly mixed into the paste as temper (Cat. Nos 10, 17, 59, 163, 173, 180— 184). It also happens that grains of undissolved clay not perfectly blended into the paste can be found in the walls of the vessels (Cat. Nos 14, 67 — 69, 92, 129, 136- 137, 146- 147, 159). One may even see the original very thin depositional levels of the clay as it was taken intact from the stream bed (Cat. No. 113). In only one case may the coiling construction be seen (Cat. Nos 131+132). The firing temperature was in general low so that the inner walls tend to be black in colour of poor quality. The overwhelming majority of sherds have a core blackened by underfiring. The majority of sherds having red inner core belong to thick-walled vessels. There are some few examples of thin-walled vessels with red inner core (for example a very fine thinwalled pedestalled vessel, Cat. No. 16, and the upper part of a fine pedestalled vessel, Cat. No. 24). The surface treatment on the vessels varies greatly. On the bases of the surface treatment one can clearly see the division between fine and coarse ware and further the division between smaller and larger vessels. In general, the heavier the vessel body, the more likely that it will be of poorer quality. The larger vessels in generally have a naturally roughened surface or else have been intentionally roughened. The prehistoric potter used a number of different techniques to achieve this intentional roughening of the surface. There will be a further discussion of these techniques later in the article. There are only two sherds, from large thick-walled vessels, where there is intentional smoothing and polishing on both the inner and outer walls. (Cat. Nos 136—137). A few sherds coming from vessel interiors show traces of some horizontal or oblique scoring with a blunt tool. The exact nature of these blunt tools is uncertain. In these cases no attempt was made to polish away the striations. Rubbing the soft clay with bunches of straw, twigs or grass also seems to have been used to produce a roughened effect. On the inner walls of most larger vessels one can see slightly smoothed surfaces as well traces of a probably wooden implement drawn across the surface in oblique lines to even out the irregularities (Cat. Nos 33, 34a, 59, 158). This decorative motif may occur on either the outer (Cat. Nos 102, 103, 104, 156, 157, 160, 162) or the inner walls, or on both surfaces (Cat. No 234). Those large vessels with slightly smoothed inner walls are usually grey-black in colour or pure black, sometimes with a smoky finish. This blackening may be the result of an intentional smudging, due to the incompletely bumed fuel which caused carbon to be deposited on the smoothed inner walls of vessels. Occasionally one finds such black smoky-finished sherds with this inner wall smoky finish spreading out from the inside of the vessel and over the outer rim. In such cases the roughening of the outer surface begins at the point where the smoky finish of the outer rim ends (Cat. Nos 100—101). The largest vessel found at Bicske also has such a divided outer surface (Cat. No. 21). There are both small and large vessels without a special surface finish either on the inner and outer surfaces, and even in some cases with intentional roughening on the outer surface (Cat. Nos 7, 13, 17). Both the fine small ware and the large coarse ware utilize a slip technique. This slip may be as thick as 1 — 2 mms and never contains chaff, but rather chiefly micaceous sand (Cat. Nos 111, 113). In all cases it is easily distinguishable from the original wall surface when the wall is viewed in profile. The difference in colour is a result, not of different firing techniques, but rather of different materials used in the pastes. Both surfaces are equally poorly fired in fact, so that the red-brown or yellowish-brown coloured slip derives from the raw material of the slip and not from heavier firing. Occasionally one finds black vessels covered entirely by yellow slip, but whose outer surface appears completely black either as a result of polishing or else firing in a strong reducing athmosphere (Cat. No. 25). The base of some large vessels is covered by a well defined gray or brown mat slip. In some cases there is an indication that these large vessels were kept on the floor and were dragged continuously. As a result of this dragging the bottoms of these vessels have been worn thin with slip remaining only on the central portion of the vessel base and a heavily worn ring around the perimeter of the base (Cat. Nos 18, 22, 128). Gray slip may be seen on a smaller unpolished vessel (Cat. No. 13) as well as on two sherds belonging to a larger vessel with incised lines (Cat. Nos 87 — 88). In the case of a pedestalled vessel the dark gray pottery was covered with a light yellow slip over which was later applied a fluted barbotine (Cat. No. 15). There are numerous other examples of the different slip techniques used at this site (Cat. Nos 28, 87, 103, 118, 129, 133, 142-145, 164, etc.). The surfaces of most of the small thin-walled vessels were first smoothed out, refined and finally polished. Unfortunately most surfaces are badly weathered probably as a result of soil action, ground water, or lime deposition. In spite of this problem there are some small thin-walled vessels (i. e. sherds) with a preserved mat finish, no slip and only very slight polishing (Cat. 33—34, and 34a). Interestingly, on two of these sherds, one sees a curvolinear impressed motif which appears almost as a form of polishing and was produced by a blunt-ended tool (Cat. Nos 33 and 34a). Except for these two sherds all small thin-walled slipped vessels (i. e. sherds) are polished on the outer surface. The location of polishing on the vessel was related directly to the vessel form. For example, the Bicske carinated bowls are only polished on the outer side, since access to the inner surface is difficult. Pedestalled vessels were polished slightly on the inside and 2* 19