Gaál Attila (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 28. (Szekszárd, 2006)

Sümegi Pál: A dél-dunántúli lengyeli kultúra tengeri kagylóékszereinek archeozoológiai vizsgálata

Pál Sümegi Archaeozoological investigation of the jewels of the S-Transdanubian Lengyel Culture The European thorny or spiny oyster {Spondylus gaederopus Linnaeus, 1758) artifacts found among European Neolithic communities are well-known in the literature, where they are interpreted as one the earliest expressions of an exchange network in luxury products. 644 jewels from Late Neolithic graves of the southern part in the Transdanubia (Hungary) were identified using by geological and archeozoological methods. A number of Holocene Spondylus gaederopus shells and beads of spondylus (431 piece-goods and shells = 67 %) and some Holocene shells of Glycimeris glycimeris and the pen shell (Pinna nobilis) can be found in the analysed grave goods. Spondylus gaederopus is living in the Mediterranean Sea and the coastal zone of the southern part of the Lusitania while Pinna nobilis is endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. These shells were harvested from the Mediterranean Sea but were transported far into the centre of the continent, into the Carpathian Basin. At the same time a number of fossil, Miocene shells, such as oyster (Ostrea sp.) and Dentalia badense were recovered in the analysed material. These data suggest that the Late Neolithic communities used living sea-shells and fossil shells to create their shell-based jewels in the Transdanubian area. 104