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)

Polgár Csőszhalom - A Late Neolithic settlement in ... that these posts stood at least 2-2.5 m high above the contemporary surface. Together with a series of smaller posts these formed a monumental wooden structure around the central core of the settlement. The gaps in this 'fence system' were probably filled with clay, but there is as yet only indirect evidence for this possibility. The burnt house remains, as well as the bedding trenches and postholes that can be associated with these houses showed that they were radially aligned, along their longitudinal axis, towards the centre of the settlement. The houses lying inside the roundel and the palisade system were not built randomly, but according to a strict, preconceived plan, implying the existence of a special place within the settlement which defined the orientation of all the houses. The magnetometer survey indicated the remains of a central building, or buildings, in the geometrical centre of the tell (Fig. 4). Recent excavations in this central area have brought to light the remains of two houses. One of these contained the remains of a clay oven, whose plastered baking plate was divided by a clay ridge. Comparable ovens have until now only been excavated on the eponymous site of the Herpály culture, and thus the presence of this oven type at Csőszhalom can indeed be considered of prime importance in socio-cultural terms. The other house yielded an assemblage of miniature vessels, clay sun discs and a small female statuette; this cult assemblage again indicates the special function of this building and, at the same time, offers tangible proof of cultural connections with the Balkans. Its closest parallel can be quoted from Ovcarovo, where depictions of the sun can be found painted onto small altars, whilst the miniature sculptures can perhaps be seen as the portrayal of some mythical narrative (TODOROVA 1976. Fig. 3 on p. 113 and Fig.l on p. 114-115). Miniature sun-discs also appear in special context at Cicarovce where these objects belonged to the grave-goods of some sacrificial burials (V1ZDAL 1980.145-146). The unique alignment of the houses within the Csőszhalom roundel itself suggests that the site was not a 'settlement' in the usual sense of the word. This is apparently confirmed by the fact that the construction of the roundel and the palisade must have required a great expenditure of time and labour for the estimated site population of 78 to 96 individuals that can be inferred from the 13 to 16 houses of the Csőszhalom tell (emphasizing again the lack of an outer settlement part and, also, of an outlying population). The earthwork necessary for the construction of the roundel involved the moving of an estimated 30,000 m

3 of earth. The most intriguing aspect of the Polgár-Csőszhalom site is the interpretation of the area enclosed by the roundel. The areas within the roundels of Central Europe and of the neighbouring Lengyel culture are usually empty (PETRASCH 1990.494-516., ZALAIGAÁL 1990., PAVÚK 1991.), the only exceptions being Bylany (MIDGLEY et al. 1993.), Bulhary (PODBORSKY 1983/84.117-118.) and Bucany (BUJNAROMSAUER 1986.). There is a general consensus that these areas, encircled by roundels and palisades, formed the settings for social or ritual activities for the population of one particular settlement or of several settlements (PODBORSKY 1975/76.184., PAVLÚ 1982. 188., LICHARDUS-LICHARDUS-ITTEN 1985.296., WHITTLE 1985.190-191., HODDER 1990. 111-114., PETRASCH 1990.512-516., TRNKA 1991 .316-318.). This supports the special, cultural role attributed to these roundels, suggesting that at Csőszhalom too the tell and the houses enclosed by the roundel served a different purpose from those in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. It is our belief that the Csőszhalom tell and its buildings served social and ritual purposes and, moreover, that they were not simply part of one or several settlements, but rather embodied the contact between two distinct cultures, namely the Lengyel and the Herpály complex in a geographical region which belonged to neither, but occupied a strategically important position owing to its proximity to obsidian resources. The combination of the Lengyel-type roundel and the Herpály-type central tell can perhaps be seen as the material manifestation of an 'agreement', not on the everyday, domestic level, but rather in the sacral, symbolic domain. In this interpretation Polgár-Csőszhalom is not a settlement in the classical sense of the word, but rather a 'central place' ensuring and sanctioning the exploitation of a raw material resource: it is, in this sense, culture-dependent, but is, at the same time, a structure transcending these cultures. The Central European roundels usually have an outer diameter ranging between 30 to 150 m (PETRASCH 1990.442-447.); Polgár-Csőszhalom, with its diameter of 180-190 m, is definitely unique in this respect too. The formal characteristics (such as the four entrances) of this roundel in the Upper Tisza region are matched by the features of similar Lengyel stnictures, but differ significantly from the simple round fortification ditches of the tells in the Tisza region (Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa, BerettyóújfaluHerpály). Consequently, the roundel and palisade system of the Csőszhalom site cannot be seen as a simple fortification structure, but can rather be interpreted as having a symbolic function, namely to emphasize the separateness and uniqueness of the enclosed area (in this case, the tell). An overall assessment of the finds from the Csőszhalom excavation is not possible at this point since we have not yet reached the virgin soil; only a preliminary analysis of the finds recovered from the upper three occupation levels and from two of the five ditches can be offered here. The pottery forms from Csőszhalom show a mixJósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1994 233