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

mos, Uzhgorod/Ungvár-Dravci (house 3-4), Tarnovci/ Ungtarnóc-Diuna, Velyki Heiivci/Nagygejőc, Diakovo/Nevetlenfalu-Mandics-tag and other sites in the villages of Novo Klinovo/Újakli and Bratovo/Batár. We include about 40 features within this group investigated at the settlement of Zastavne-Kovadomb I. At the present moment, we know of all together about 30 sites in the Carpathian Ukraine (Pi. I). In the Eastern Slovakian (Zemplin) Lowlands, the late stage of the culture is represented by 14 sites, which were included by S. Siska within the circle of the so-called „eastern version" of the Bükk culture/ group

: These are the following: settlements in Besa/ Bés, Cierne Pole/Feketemező (features 1, la, 2-9), Kasov/Kásó, Zemplínski Kopcany (features 6-7, 18, 20-21; burial-features 11, 15-17, 26), Malcice/Málca, Michalovce/Nagymihály, Oborín/Abara, Sirník/Szürnyeg, Streda nad Bodrogom/Bodrogszerdahely, Tirna, Velke Raskovce/Nagyráska, Zemplín/Zemplén, Zemplínska Gradica, Gnojne (features 13,15, 21, 30) (SISKA 1979. 246-257), as well as the settlement of Humené/ Homonna (VIZDAL 1989. 654-663.). Among the published sites from Hungary, the following sites seem to belong to the late Diakovo stage of the PPC: Debrecen-Tócópart and Derecske (KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977.125-126.). In the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg and Hajdú-Bihar counties of Hungary, similarly to the neighbouring districts in Roumania, the late stage of the culture is represented by all finds with painted pottery which were also found with Bükk imports. Within the framework of the Diakovo group, we can separate two phases on the basis of materials from sites of the Carpathian Ukraine. The basic criterium for the inner division of the group is the imported ornamented Bükk potteiy from different periods. The early phase is represented by the settlements of Orihovei-Valashchynec', Uzhgorod-Keramos, Uzhgorod-Dravci (house 3-4) and Tarnovci-Diuna where Bükk potteiy from phases A-AB was found. The late phase was represented by the settlements of Velyki Heiivci, Diakovo-Mandics-tag and Zastavne-Kovadomb I where imported Bükk pottery from late phases B-C was found. Thus sites of the Diakovo stage/group of the PPC on the basis of imported Bükk ceramics from phases A-C can be regarded as contemporary with the whole period of the Bükk group of the TLPC. The chronological framework of the existence of the PPC is the whole second half of the Vth millenium B.C. (45004000 B.C.), that is to say, the Middle Neolithic Period. This date is supported by C-14 data for a number of settlements in Hungary and Slovakia: Kopcany, Sonkád and Szamossályi (DOLUKHANOV-TIMOFEIEV 1972.54., KALICZ-MAKKAY 1977.110-111., SISKA 1989.125.). Within these chronological frameworks the Diakovo group must date to the end of Vth millenium B.C. or even to the turn of the Vth and IVth millenia B.C. As a whole, the PPC must be considered as a typical Middle Neolithic ethnic community, that existed in parallel with the early stage of Vinca (A-B

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), the whole period of the TLPC and was contemporary as well to the Linear Pottery Culture of the Middle Danube region. In the LJpper Tisza region, the PPC came to replace the Cris-Starcevo. The PPC was formed outside the Upper Tisza region and, perhaps, outside the Carpathian Basin. In its early stages it was contemporary with a late period of the Cris-Starcevo. The first groups of population with painted pottery appeared in the northeast Tisza region by the end of the first quarter of the 5th millenium B.C. and could be observed in the second phase of Upper Tisza group of Cris-Starcevo by the appearance of ceramics not typical of this culture. This pottery, at the same time is, from a technological and typological point of view, typical of the PPC. The percentage of this ceramics gradually increases and sharply decreases in the final phase of the Upper Tisza group of Cris-Starcevo which shows the mass expansion of this new population into the Upper Tisza region. This population is the one which in the Middle Neolithic Period formed an autonomous cultural community: the PPC (POTUSHNIAK 1992.16-17.). Thus the PPC in the Early Neolithic appears as a population mixed with the people of the Cris-Starcevo of the Upper Tisza region, while in the Middle Neolithic we see it as an independent archaeological culture. However, we are going to examine in more detail the question of the PPC in a recently prepared article dealing with the Early and Middle Neolithic of the Upper Tisza region, because these questions need more fundamental explanations. The historical fate of the PPC is closely related to the Late Neolithic population of the LIpper Tisza region. Tribes of the late Diakovo stage of the PPC became the substratum that was covered by later coming Late Neolithic elements which gradually assimilated it. The division of the Diakovo group during the formation of the Late Neolithic ethnos may be observed mainly in the coexistance of the Middle and Late Neolithicceramics at the settlements of Kovadomb II and Beregovo/Beregszáz-Ardivska hora. which belong to the early period of the Polgár Culture

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. Ceramic finds from the settlement of Kovadomb II inherited some forms of pottery from the settlement Kovadomb I, for example, bowls with wavy or petal shaped rim edges, spherical and pear shaped cups, tulip shaped vases on high pedestals and jugs. Late Neolithic ceramics kept some painted ornamental motifs of the late Diakovo stage of the PPC. In the Late Neolithic structures of the settlement of Kovadomb II, in addition to typical Middle Neolithic ceramics we also found Bükk pottery with an obviously late ornamental motif. In the same place, we have found fragments of typical Late Neolithic pottery (clay tempered with ground lime) with polished surfaces incised with a typical Bükk ornamental motif. The chronological position of the settlement of Kovadomb II can also be safely deteremined by the late Bükk ceramics, by imports from the circle of the Boian Culture or the Pre-Cucuteni I and Linear-Pointillé Ceramic Cultures. These imports date the settlement of Kovadomb II to the turn of the Vth-IVth millenia 1

1 Inder the term Polgár Culture we include all the sites of the Late Neolithic and Early and Middle Copper Age of the Tisza region. The Karly (Late Neolithic) period is represented by sites of the Tis/a Culture, the Middle period (Karly Copper Age) is represented by sites of the CicarovceCsőszhaloin-Oborin type, the Late (Middle Copper Age) period of the Polgár Culture is represented by sites of chronologically consequent groups: Tiszapolgár, Bodrogkeresztúr and LaZnany-Hunyadi halom (POTUSHNIAK 1985.291-301.). It seems that Polgár Culture is contemporary with a whole period of Lengyel Culture and Cucuteni-Tripolie Culture. 38 A Jósa András Múzeum Évkönyve 1997