A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 36. - 1994 (Nyíregyháza, 1995)

Pál Raczky–Walter Meier-Arendt–Katalin Kurucz–Zsigmond Hajdú–Ágnes Szikora: A Late Neolithic settlement in the Upper Tisza region and its cultural connections (Prelminary report)

RACZKY - MEIER-ARENDT - KURUCZ - HAJDÚ - SZIKORA the Tisza culture in the Great Hungarian Plain did the separate and distinctive development of the smaller regions begin, marked by the appearance of the Herpály complex in the Berettyó region and that of the Csőszhalom group in the Upper Tisza region. By this time the Tisza territory was restricted to the central and southern areas of the Great Hungarian Plain. It needs to be emphasized that the close links between, or even the possible identity of, the Herpály and Csőszhalom assemblages was suggested by the fact that both were characterized by a ceramic assemblage ornamented with paint applied after firing. This in turn prompted a number of scholars to challenge the legitimacy of the label 'Csőszhalom', and to suggest that the appearance and expansion of the Herpály culture in the Upper Tisza region ousted the Tisza culture from this area, this being a more plausible explanation for the presence of Csőszhalom type assemblages in the area (KALICZ-RACZKY 1987.a.20). The Polgár-Csőszhalom tell settlement occupies an extremely important position in terms of the cultural interrelations and the distribution of tell settlements in the Late Neolithic of the Tisza region. Its strategic importance is underlined by its proximity to obsidian sources in the Tokaj Mts. This explains the need for the systematic investigation and representative excavation of the Csőszhalom site, as well as for a fresh look at its material culture. Large-scale excavations have also recently been carried out on other Tisza sites in the Great Hungarian Plain, such as Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa (HORVÁTH 1982., HORVÁTH 1987.) and Öcsöd-Kováshalom (RACZKY 1986., RACZKY 1987.), as well as on Herpály sites such as Berettyóújfalu-Herpály (KALICZ-RACZKY 1984., KALICZRACZKY 1986., KALICZ-RACZKY 1987.b.), enabling a quantitative comparison of the finds and observations made on these sites. The investigation of the Polgár-Csőszhalom site was begun in 1989 with support from the Archaeological Department of the Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) and the Museum für Vor- und Uhrgeschichte (Frankfurt am Main). The aerial photographs revealed a roundel of five ditches around the tell settlement (Fig. 3). The Geophysical Department of the Eötvös Loránd University carried out a magnetometer survey in the area which gave an indication of the form and size of the roundel enclosing the tell (Fig. 4): five concentric ditches with an outer diameter of 180 to 190 m surround the longish, N-S oriented settlement mound whose internal diameter is 70 to 75 m. The surveys revealed four distinct breaks, i.e. four entrances in this roundel in a NW-SE and NE-SW direction. The two pairs of magnetic anomalies registered in the area lying opposite to these four entrances in the innermost roundel can probably be interpreted as .some kind of 'gateways'. House remains were detected over a fairly large area, 40 m in diameter, in the central part of the tell. The surveys indicated that these settlement features were enclosed by a wide open area 15 to 17.5 m wide, which apparently lacked any settlement features. Subsurface probes were also made along N-S, E-W, NE-SW and NW-SE oriented lines traversing the central area of tell. The stratigraphic data gained from these probes enabled a rough reconstruction of the stratigraphy of the site. The ditches of the roundel enclosing the tell were 7 to 10 m wide and lay at a depth of 38 to 4.2 m from the present surface; the probes indicated a V-shaped cross-section. No traces of an outer settlement were detected by these probes, which suggests that the central tell represents the whole settlement. A 3.5 to 4 m thick layer sequence could be inferred from the probes, and the remains of strongly burnt layers indicated the presence of the one-time houses. These preliminary surveys gave a fairly clear picture of the Polgár-Csőszhalom site which apparently combines two structural units: the roundel with four entrances and a tell settlement characteristic of the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain (or rather, of the Herpály type) with approximately 13 to 16 houses. This data in itself yielded new information about the Csőszhalom site, in spite of the fact that the site has often been discussed in prehistoric research in Hungary. On the basis of the data gained from the aerial photographs, magnetometer surveys, and subsurface probes, two trenches were opened that cut through the two outer ditches of the roundel, which lay to the east and to the west of the central area. In accordance with the indications of the probes we found 38 to 4.2 m deep, 7 to 8 m wide V-shaped ditches. The three outer ditches of the roundel were radially connected at their entrances, forming a single system and thus they were probably contemporaneous. However, the chronological position of the two inner ditches is uncertain. Two main phases could be distinguished on the basis of the fill from these ditches. The lower part suggests a slow, natural infill with few finds, whilst the upper part indicates a large-scale levelling of the occupational debris which contained diverse organic matters and a wide variety of finds. In 1990 we opened a large trench in the northern part of the central area of the tell which, on the basis of the preliminary investigations, included the innermost part of the roundel, the apparently empty, roughly circular zone, as well as the central part with the houses. We thus began our excavations in a 25 m x 20 m large trench that we hoped would be representative of the entire settlement site. We have so far excavated to a depth of 1.5 m, removing the uppermost occupation deposits and fill levels. We could distinguish three occupation levels and have uncovered six houses. A bedding trench containing the postholes of a triple palisade construction were uncovered within the roundel (Fig. 5). The traces of 2-2.5 m high posts, having a diameter of 30 to 40 cm, were identified in these bedding trenches, suggesting 232 Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1994