Tálas László szerk.: The late neolithic of the Tisza region (1987)

The Late Neolithic of the Tisza region: A survey of recent archaeological research (N. Kalicz and P. Raczky)

N. KALICZ-P. RACZKY Berettyóújfalu-Szilhalom must be mentioned (MÁTHÉ 1981, 34-37). The distribution territory of the Tisza and Herpály cultures extended also into western and northwestern Transylvania. Finds assigned to these cultures have been reported from Vársand/Gyulavarsánd-Laposhalom (POPESCU 1956, 89-103; COM$A 1974, 21-22), Oradea/Nagyvárad (COMSA 1974, 22; ICNAT 1981, 43-46) and Dábíca/Doboka (VLASSA 1969, 27-45). The interpretation of the cultural components of the Late Neolithic of the Tisza region has been significantly modified on the basis of the above-mentioned excavations by present-day research. One basic change in the interpretation is that in contrast to previous approaches based on ceramic styles alone, recent studies focus also on regional differences in settlement patterns and subsistence. Thus, the emergence of the Late Neolithic in the Great Hungarian Plain is now generally correlated with the appearance of tell settlements and tell-based economies (MAKKAY 1982, 60; RACZKY 1985,106-107). The lowest layers of most tell settlements and contemporaneous single-layer settlements are now thought to represent the period that was until recently termed late Szakáihát or SzakáihátTisza transition on the basis of pottery styles. The beginning of the Late Neolithic over the entire Great Hungarian Plain is presently equated with the appearance of the formative, early phase of the Tisza culture. It has also become clear that the Herpály and Csőszhalom complexes did not evolve directly from the local Middle Neolithic groups, but from this remarkably uniform early Tisza culture (KALICZ-RACZKY 1984,131-132). SETTLEMENT PATTERNS The distribution territory of the Tisza culture varied during its successive developmental phases. In its early phase it was distributed in the area east of the Tisza and Zagyva rivers, as far as the East Transylvanian Mountain Range (the environs of Lipova/Lippa, Herpály, Nádudvar, Kenézlő, Bodrogzsadány, Zemplín/Zemplén, Mukacevo/Munkács). These sites mark the eastern boundary of its early distribution territory. By the classical phase, this uniform early Tisza complex had disintegrated into smaller cultural units: the Herpály culture and Csőszhalom group in the east and northeast. In the Körös region and in the Middle and Southern Tisza region the development of the Tisza culture was uninterrupted. The territory occupied by the Tisza culture in its classical phase can be divided into two distinct zones: one extending from the Aranka stream to the Körös région, the other from the Körös rivers to the upland region and to the Csőszhalom territory. The Körös valleys form a kind of frontier zone between these two main areas. The settlements of the Herpály culture are restricted to the Reconstruction of the so-called Venus I oí Kökénydomb. Hódmezővásárhely—Kökénydomb. Tisza culture. H: 23 cm [21 Berettyó and Rapid Körös valley, and form a distinct settlement unit extending to the Transylvanian Mountain Range. However, the Northwest Transylvanian sites can be assigned only to the later phase of the Herpály culture (e.g. Dábíca/Doboka: VLASSA 1969, 27-32). The site at Hajdúböszörmény-Pródi halom, yielding sporadic Herpály finds, is an exception in this respect since it lies to the far north of the Herpály distribution territory and is the only apparently independent Herpály site in the Hortobágy and the Nyírség areas. The contact zone between the Tisza and Herpály cultures lay in the Körös region. Vésztő and Szeghalom mark the eastern boundary of the Tisza territory, whilst Körösújfalu, Csökmő, Darvas and Bihardancsháza the western boundary of the Herpály territory. In other areas the contact zone cannot be precisely defined owing to the lack of topographical investigations (KALICZ 1985, Fig. 1). 14