Agria 39. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2003)

Domboróczki László: Radiokarbon adatok Heves megye újkőkori régészeti lelőhelyeiről

László Domboróczki RADIOCARBON DATA FROM NEOLITHIC ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN HEVES COUNTY (NORTH-EASTERN HUNGARY) in memóriám Ede Hertelendi Introduction With the publishing of 26 pieces of radiocarbon data, all found in Heves County, we intend to settle debts incurred almost five years ago. This year it will be five years since Ede Hertelendi successfully dated the animal bone specimens sent to him from the finds of the Neolithic sites uncovered during the rescue digs on the Heves County stretch of the M3 motorway. It had been intended to present this data at the Jerusalem Radiocarbon Conference, until a tragic accident put an end to these plans forever. It is therefore only now that we publish the data with the consent of Ede Hertelendi

's legal successor

1 in the hope that the analyses will prove useful to those engaged in the research of the Neolithic period. The data comes from four different excavation sites situated alongside the intended course of the M3 motorway investigated during the emergency digs of 1994-1997. In each case the remains of Neolithic Alföld Linear Pottery (ALP) settlements were excavated over considerable areas. Thusfar, our published findings have tended to concentrate on the description and analysis of what some consider to be the novel layout of the settlements,

2 as well as the publication of the most beautiful and most interesting objects.

3 Now, by publishing the radiocarbon data, we will be able to analyse the finds in an altogether different way. The publishing of the material is made all the more timely by the fact that restoration work at a number of the sites was completed in 2002, with the result that we had a new and important set of data with which to control the С

14 datings. When sorting through the ceramic fragments in an effort to find the relationships existing between them it became clear that a relatively large number of vessels had fragments which were spread over a number of 1 We would like to thank Zsuzsanna Szántó for giving the permission to publish, for the additional information provided on the C14 data and the instructive comments she gave having read an early draft of this article. 2 DOMBORÓCZKI László 1996., DOMBORÓCZKI László 1997a., DOMBORÓCZKI László 1997c. 3 DOMBORÓCZKI László 2000b., DOMBORÓCZKI László 2000c, DOMBORÓCZKI László 2001a., DOMBORÓCZKI László 2001b. Az egri Dobó István Vármúzeum Évkönyve, 2003. 5