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

Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa (F. Horváth)

HODMEZOVASARHELY-GORZSA Om lm 2m A section of the site showing the main levels and phases 12] kés-Povádzug) (BOCNÁR-KUTZIÁN 1966, 249-280, 266-268). Unfortunately, the evaluation and final publication of the excavations were prevented by Gy. Gazdapusztai's premature death, and thus the problems concerning the layer sequence, chronology and spatial organisation of the Gorzsa settlement remained unresolved for the greater part. Moreover, Gazdapusztai's two preliminary reports also contributed to the misunderstandings surrounding the Gorzsa group in that his definition of this archaeological assemblage and its chronological position was mistaken, and in that he considered this group to be a cultural unit distinct from the Tisza culture. In order to resolve these issues the present author began a control excavation on the site in 1978 that eventually grew into a long-term research program with the goal of clarifying also other problems concerning the Tisza culture, and that involved also smaller control excavations on previously known sites such as Hódmezővásárhely-Kökénydomb, Szegvár—Tűzköves and Tápé-Lebő, as well as stratigraphic soundings on recently identified sites such as Deszk-Ordos and Deszk-Vénó. Prior to excavation these sites were investigated by subsurface borings. This method of investigation, first applied at Gorzsa, has by now become a more or less standard procedure in Hungary. The samples obtained by these borings offer a reliable indication of the stratigraphy of the given site and also indicate the subsurface presence of houses and their burnt debris, pits, as well as of various levels of fills that could be distinguished on the basis of their composition and colour. The information thus gained generally proved sufficient for choosing the area to be excavated. The chosen area was then uncovered level by level and using hand tools only. The complete excavation of the 989.25 m

2 area opened at Gorzsa will probably need several more years. The main findings of previous campaigns have already been published in preliminary reports (HORVÁTH 1982, 201-222; 1985, 89-102). The occupation deposits of the tell-like part of the settlement accumulated to a height of 2.60 to 3 m, with levels dating to the Late Neolithic, the Early and Late Copper Age, the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Sarmatian period. Sporadic traces of a Medieval settlement have also been detected. Most significant among these are the 180 to 200 cm thick Late Neolithic levels spanning the latter half of the Tisza period. On the basis of the present extent of the settlement this site can be classed among the largest tell-like settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain. The site itself covers approximately 7 ha; however, this can be viewed as a result of the shifting settlement foci since this area had not been occupied simultaneously during the Neolithic. The built-in area, the focus of settlement, had shifted from time to time, as did the location of the cemetery lying in the temporarily unoccupied part of the settlement, and the areas used for animal keeping. Moreover, the slopes of the tell-like central part had probably been under cultivation, even though agricultural activity had been concentrated on the flood-free elevations lying within a radius of a few kilometers. The area excavated and investigated by the present author until now comprises about 1.4% of the total settlement and thus our knowledge of the extent of occupation and the spatial organisation of occupied areas is rather sketchy in spite of the fact that the investigated area, counting also previous excavations, totals 1457.25 m

2 (2.08%). However, the methods employed in previous campaigns and the deficiencies in documentation offer little in the way of useful information that can be incorporated into the present analysis. The Neolithic settlement can be divided into five settlement phases on the basis of changes in occupation patterns and the find material (phases D, C, B, A, and A). The earliest settlement (phase D) dates to the close of the early Tisza period and was established directly on the Neolithic surface, a black clayey prehistoric humus level overlying the loessy clay of the natural elevation. This represent the earliest settlement in the presently investigated area and has only been detected in the central trenches. Houses belonging to 33