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.

heavily on the outside of the upper portion of the pedestal. There is a highly distinguishable group formed by sherds of a very fine paste and a black high polish. Among these sherds the core and the walls are either uniformly black or dark grey with heavy polishing on the outside and in the case of fragments from pedestalled vessels also on the inside of the bowl (Cat. Nos 2, 25, 30, 55, 68, 69, 89, 90, 159, etc.). On some sherds of this type appears streaked polishing on the outer surface with darker and lighter lines (Cat. Nos 30, 146, 147). Some of these sherds appear with a surface decoration that marks a transition between this streaked polishing and a regular banded stroke burnishing (Cat. Nos 31, 32, 38). The three most common colours found among these polished vessels are brown, gray-brown and gray (Cat. Nos 129, 130, 52, 140, 148-157, etc.). At Bicske there is only one sherd from a small thin-valled vessel whose outer surface is gray but whose inner surface was covered by a yellow slip, which was later highly polished and finally decorated with a network of fine grooves made by a blunt tool (Cat. 40). The finest surfaces are produced by burnishing. Burnished surfaces may be differentiated from polished or highly polished surfaces by their tendency to flake off from the surface of the vessel. It is possible however, that weathering, ground water or secondary firing might have also removed the traces of the burnished surface. The colour of the burnished vessels is normally brown, dark gray or gray-black with a shiny finish. In places where the burnishing has flaked away it is possible to see the original colour of the vessel, which usually differs from that of the burnished surface (Cat. Nos. 10, 12, 25, 27, 46, 48, 67, 111, 117121, 133, 135, 142-145, etc.). From this point of view the upper part of one of the pedestalled vessels is very interesting (Cat. No. 24). On the inner side of the vessel the walls are finely polished and graybrown, while the outer walls are reddish-brown and burnished. In some places this burnishing has flaked off. This burnishing was followed by an irregular zig-zag linear motif of shallow lines produced by a blunt tool. Some portions of this vessel were repolished after decoration. There are two unusual sherds among these burnished pieces. The temper of these sherds is organic + micaceous sand + small broken pebbles. The core is red and porous. Both sides of sherds are covered with an extremely thin burnished yellowish white slip of no more than 0,16 mms in thickness and which has flaked off in some places (Cat. Nos 57 and 58). The exact form of the vessel is not known, but a high-necked jar-like form seems most likely. Most polished sherds are slightly mottled due to uneven firing. The spotting occurs in combinations of gray and black or brown and gray (Cat. Nos 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 19, 23, 29, 53, 60, etc.) There are also discoloured blotches on the vessel surfaces caused by contact with burning fuel or another vessel during firing (Cat. No. 29). There is one very unusual vessel found at Bicske (Cat. No. 16, PI. V, la—lb). This vessel is pedestalled with a carinated bowl whose outer surface is black polished and channelled. The temper of this vessel is inorganic, being composed primarily of micaceous sand. It is thin-walled, red fired and the inner surface is gray-black and well smoothed. The outer wall slip most probably contains graphite and in profile can be easily distinguished from the red inner core. The bowl was decorated in the channel motif before the black graphite slip was applied, and later polished. The channels run vertically around the upper part of the low-necked bowl and represent the first example of real channelling and graphite slip(

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) use in the earliest phase of the Transdanubian (Middle European) Linear Band Pottery Group. The Vessel Forms 1. Pedestalled vessels. Pedestalled vessels are very common on this site. In proportion, the height of the bowl relative to the pedestal is similar. At the point where the pedestal joins the bowl it narrows so that its entire form is generally conical. The bowl portion may be hemispherical (Cat. Nos 10, 110), reversed truncated conical where the bowl narrows sharply at the juncture with the pedestal (Cat. Nos 15, 23, 24), globular form and lastly the carinated form mentioned previously (Cat. No. 16). Some of the vessels have a bowl with a globular underbelly and straight cylindrical walls on the upper portion of the bowl (Cat. Nos 30, 60). Other vessels commonly have bowls with globular underbellies and upper walls which extend outward especially at the rim (Cat. 51, 53, 108). Some of these bowls in profile have a slightly wavy appearance at the point of rim extension (Cat. Nos 51, 53). This bowl form in general is unique to the site of Bicske. Naturally, among these basic types there are many different variations, although there is less variation among the types of pedestals. All pedestals are hollow and the point of juncture between the bowl and pedestal is relatively very thin. There are three basic types of pedestals. The first has a straight cylindrical form with only a very slight broadening at the bottom rim (Cat. No. 114). The second is a normal conical form and the third is a conical form with a sharply exaggerated widening toward the bottom. A variation of the latter type is a form which presents a wavy profile where the lower rim straightens from the extended line of the wall. The lower rim of the pedestals are normally rounded, but in some cases have been cut straight across or else ground flat by use (Cat. No. 15). During the course of vessel reconstruction is was only twice possible to determine which bowls went with which pedestals (these succesful cases are Cat. Nos 10 and 15, (15) R. TICHY, К nejstarsi volutové keramice na Moravë. PA, LI, 1960, p'. 428, note 37. 20