Vaday Andrea – Bánffy Eszter – Bartosiewicz László – T. Biró Katalin – Gogältan Florin – Horváth Friderika – Nagy Andrea: Kompolt-Kistér : Újkőkori, bronzkori, szarmata és avar lelőhely Leletmentő ásatás az M+-as autópálya nyomvonalán (Eger, 1999)
The site of Kompolt, Kistér
355 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR thus predominantly for geographical reasons that these typological features were linked with the heritage of the Szilmeg group, since our settlement is indeed located within the Szilmeg distribution area. It must also be admitted, however, that without considering such finds, the presence of the Szilmeg group would have been limited to only a few types of pottery. One thing still remains to be explained. It is conspicuous that the group in whose distribution area our site is located, is least represented at a settlement reflecting and admixture of several late groups of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. Although far from a sufficient explanation, one possibility should be considered: this phenomenon may in part stem from the fact that all settlements that mustered significant amounts of Szilmeg pottery had been located on well defended high ground. 16 This may let us conclude that the pertinent human population was relatively isolated from the rest of the people widely associated with the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. The limited success of this separation may be illustrated by Bükk, Esztár and Szakáihát stylistic influences on Szilmeg pottery. Nevertheless, movements from villages in the plains into the hills that were easier to defend may be linked with the intensive northward movement of Szakáihát groups. Naturally, these possibilities are raised here only as hypotheses to be tested by future research. Among the Neolithic features excavated at Kompolt, numerous sherds with Szilmeg characteristics were recovered from the following: Features 26/99 (elbow-like handle); Feature 123 (triple knob with pinched decoration on the bowl's entire surface below); Feature 125 (pinched decoration, knob decoration, oblique, irregular appliqué rib decoration with finger impressions, vessel with asymmetric spout, elbow-like handles); Feature 140 (surface with pinched decoration); Feature 251 (oblique, short rib decoration, elbow-like handle). The inner chronology of the Szakáihát group, more exactly independent culture, has been farther refined during the last two decades. This work has been carried out predominantly on the basis of material brought to light in the core area of the distribution of this culture: the Central Tisza Region and in the Körös River area and in general, the southern section of the Great Hungarian Plain. 1 7 As far as the northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, the ecotone between the hills and the plain is concerned, to date only a few sites, i. e. assemblages are known here in which Szakáihát type finds are occur among the finds of later periods. This phenomenon remains to be explained even today. Finds from two independent pots were studied by N. Kalicz and J. Makkay at the site of Tarnabod - Templomföld. They concluded that these two settlement features were not related to each other, and that the pit with Szakáihát finds was later. 1 8 It must be added that the pit associated with the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain did not contain an admixture of sherds associated with late groups in the region, but fragments characteristic exclusively of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. At nearby sites, however, (at Tarnabod - Nagykert and especially at Tarnazsadány - Sándorrésze) finds from the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain and of the Bükk and Szakáihát cultures. In the case of Tarnazsadány, however, two separate pits were hypothesised by the excavator of which the older belonged to the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain, while the younger dug into it represents the younger, Szakáihát period. 1 9 Subsequently, a transitional phase could be distinguished in the region of the Körös rivers which was characterised by the occurrence of finds from the Linear Band Ceramic culture of the Great Hungarian Plain and the Szakáihát group. 2 0 In addition, evidence for Szakáihát precursors were recovered in the lowermost layers of the late Neolithic tell settlements of the Tisza region, in strata which are also characterised by numerous import finds originating from territorial groups of the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain. 2 1 These not only include import objects from the Tiszadob, Bükk, Szilmeg and Esztár cultures, but also finds from the Zseliz culture in Transdanubia. 2 2 On the basis of these observations, it is not surprising that an extended village like Kompolt-Kistér that was evidently important in its time, also contained Szakáihát finds. Of the Neolithic features excavated at Kompolt, especially great numbers of sherds with Szakáihát characteristics were found in the following: Feature 13 (deep line decoration without smoothing, punctuated design between lines); Feature 26-99 (deep, arched line decoration without smoothing, altar plates with meander decoration); Feature 31 (clay weight); Feature 121 (rib decoration below the rim); Feature 137 (thick rims); Feature 140 (deep, arched line decoration without smoothing, incised rim and rib decoration with pinched decoration running below it); Feature 294 (oblique and upside-down "U"-shaped ornaments, early Szakáihát decorative patterns). Even this short list shows that practically each feature in Kompolt-Kistér revealed find materials representing the afore mentioned regional groups and, in some cases, all of them. These results were tested by the reverse of the previous analysis. On the basis of the 16 richest features, the following numbers were obtained: finds from the Linear Pottery culture of the Great Hungarian Plain occurred in 10 features, while sherds characteristic of the Tiszadob and Bükk cultures were both discovered in significant proportions in 11 features. Finds from the Szilmeg group were concentrated in 5 features, while those of the Szakáihát culture appeared in 6 of the features. The number of pits studied also indirectly shows that no assemblages contained only a single ceramic type.
