A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 37-38. - 1995-1996 (Nyíregyháza, 1997)

Régészet - Mikhailo Potushniak: Some results of research on the Middle Neolithic layer froma multilevel settlement near the village of Zastavne/Zápszony-Kovadomb in the Carpathian Ukraine

Some results of research on the Middle Neolithic ... the ornamental composition was inlaid with white or red paint. This type of inlay and the motifs in general are typical of the late B-C phases (LICHARDUS 1968. 100-104.) of the Bükk stage (group) of TLPC (Tisza Linear Pottery Culture). Among the other finds of this settlement there are solid, biconical clay beads, spindle whorls made from pottery fragments, loom-weights and some pieces of anthropomorphic plastic figurines found inside a pottery kiln. Tools are represented by instruments made of obsidian (70-80 percent), or more rarely, of flint, andesite, and other types of stone raw materials. In the tool complex there are knife like blades, chisels, scrapers, borers, projectile points and polished stone axes. We have found a large number of querns at the settlement. The Middle Neolithic layer of the Kovadomb I settlement is directly analogous with the Neolithic layers of the settlements of Diakovo-Mandics-tag and Mali Heiivci/Kisgejoc. We place these sites to the final Diakovo stage (group) of the Painted Potteiy Culture (PPC). Within the framework of this culture, these sites represent its late phase contemporary with phases B-C of Bükk stage (group) of the Tisza Linear Potteiy Culture (TLPC). We have already dealt with the question of the PPC (POTUSHNIAK 1985.144-150, POTUSHNIAK 1992.1617.). We have separated the sites of this culture from the circle of the Alföld Linear Pottery Culture (according to the terminology of Hungarian researchers: KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977.), or the eastern Linear Pottery Culture (according to the terminology of Slovakian researchers: SISKA 1989.)- It appears that foreign scholars united under single archaeological culture with these terms sites of two contemporary, but different from an ethno-cultural point of view ethnic communities. These communities inhabited different areas of the Tisza region. The PPC is represented by sites placed in the localchronological groups of Kopcany, Szamos (Szatmár II by J.Korek), Esztár, Raskovce, Diakovo and that of the Sacuieni type, spread over the eastern parts of the Tisza region including Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Hajdú-Bihar counties, the territory between the Bodrog and Tisza rivers (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county) in Hungary, the Eastern Slovakian Lowlands in Slovakia, low and foot hill mountain parts of the Carpathian Ukraine, Satu Mare/Szatmár and Bihor/Bihar counties in Roumania. The TLPC is represented by sites united into the Barca III (the same as for early and Late Alföld Linear Potteiy), Tiszadob, Szakáihát, Szilmeg and Bükk groups that occupy the rest of the Tisza region in Hungary and eastern Slovakia (Pi. II). We do not understand upon what basis the Hungarian scholars N.Kalicz and J.Makkay united groups with such different material cultures, into a single archaeological culture. Even at first glance significant differences can be noted between the groups with painted patterns and incised lines. More than a clear difference can be observed in the typology and tech' The author is going to present a more detailed and wide characterizatic the Early and Middle Neolithic of the Upper Tisza region. nology of the ceramics. From a territorial point of view PPC and TLPC are not congruent.

1 On the basis of the analysis of the sites published to elate and, taking into account the data from about 30 settlements in the Carpathian Ukraine, three stages in the development of the PPC can be clearly followed. The whole stratigraphic column of the culture was found by S. Siska at the settlement of Zemplinski Kopcany (SISKA 1974.3-15., SISKA 1979.249-256, SISKA 1989.171-178.). However, the Slovakian scholar improperly interpreted the ethno-cultural identity of this settlement and other sites of this period in the Eastern Slovakian Lowlands. In the settlement in question, on the basis of vertical stratigraphy, three consequent layers were observed, that in fact, correlate with the three stages of the development of the PPC in the Zemplin Lowland and may prove to be etalons for the chronological division of sites over the whole territory of the diffusion of the culture. The EARLY STAGE of the PPC is represented by the sites of the Kopcany group (Slovakia), that of the Rivne-Kismező II (Carpathian LIkraine) and Sonkád (Hungary) types. This stage is contemporary with an early stage of the TLPC. S. Siska chronologically synchronized sites of Kopcany group with the Barca group (SISKA 1989.126.). The MIDDLE STAGE of the PPC is represented by the sites of the Raskovce group, which are contemporary with the middle stage of the TLPC. S. Siska chronologically synchronized the Raskovce group with the Tiszadob group (SISKA 1989.135-138). The LATE STAGE of the PPC is represented by the sites of Diakovo group, which had already been separated by the author in the second half of the 1970's on the basis of excavations at Diakovo and other sites known at that time (POTUSHNIAK 1979.7374.). We localized this group to the territory between the Serne-Borzhava-Tisza-Botar, Tur and Kraszna rivers. However, the territory, origin and cultural attribution of this type of site was not sufficiently clear for us at that time. It is for this reason that the sites of the Diakovo group were included within the circle of the TLPC. Their chronological position was safely determined by the presence of Bükk ceramics imports. Excavations in the following years and the discoveiy of new sites, as a whole, have supported the chronological position of the group. However, it has come to light that sites of the Diakovo group belong to its later period and is the genetic continuation of the ethnocultural complex of groups with painted ceramics: Kopcany, Szamos, Raskovce and Esztár. They have a broader chronological and territorial scale of existence. That means that these sites were spread over the whole territory of the Upper Tisza region and are contemporary not only with the late phase, but with the whole Bükk stage (group of the TLPC) (POTUSHNIAK 1985.149.). The late Diakovo stage of the PPC in the Carpathian LJkraine is represented by the settlements of: Orihovci/ Rahonca-Valashchynec", Uzhgorod/Ungvár-Keraof the PPC in an article prepared for press, devoted to the questions of A Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1997 37