Savaria - A Vas Megyei Múzeumok értesítője 30. (2006) (Szombathely, 2007)

Régészet - Choyke, Alice: A mindennapi élet és halál árnyjátékai: Gór–Kápolnadomb a proto-lengyeli kultúrában

Alice M. Choyke: Shadows of Daily Life and Death at the Proto-Lengyel Site of Gór-Kápolnadomb their use may have been strict in some periods while at other times these rules seem to have become looser. However, beyond their the way they functioned, bone tools could often be used over many years, becoming associated in the mind of the community, and most closely by the immediate household, with the experience and expertise of the persons using them in a variety of craft activities. Unlike ornaments meant for display, the form and manufacture sequence used to produce bone tools tends to be conservative, less widely distributed, handed down by parent to child. What is unique for each object was the way individuals handled these tools resulting in the continuous transformation of such objects through their use and re-working as they broke. This attitude to the tools of everyday existence is shown in the way these objects were worn down and renewed so that at any one moment an individual might work with very old tools, moderately worn tools and, new tools replacing broken ones that could no longer be repaired. People would also have been continuously producing new utensils and have in their possession half-finished objects as well. The end of the Neolithic across Europe marks a time when the rules of manufacture for bone tools were quite strictly adhered to including a more narrow choice of raw materials (species, skeletal element and bone part) and sequence of manufacture (SCHIBLER 1981, 1987, 1998; SCHIBLER et al. 1997a; SIDERA 1991; MAIGROT 2003) of particular bone tool types such as awls and spatulas. Personal observation seems to suggest that these clearly defined rules, differing slightly in detail of course between regions, may also have been followed in the Carpathian Basin. Unfortunately, little formal work has been published in this regard although wonderful, large assemblages await study from a number of sites in both Transdanubia (Western Hungary) and the Great Hungarian Plain (Central and Eastern Hungary). A total of six objects made of bone, wild boar {Sus scrofa Linneaus 1758) tusk and red deer {Cervus elaphus Linneaus 1758) antler tine were recovered from a large pit at the Late Neolithic Proto-Lengyel culture site of Gór-Kápolnadomb in Vas County in western Transdanubia. Details of the site and excavation can be found in the article by Zsuzsanna Tóth in this same volume. Although the archaeological material from the pit was somewhat mixed with material from other periods, the manufacturing style of most of these bone objects was unequivocally typical of sites from this time period across Europe and match my own preliminary observations of the bone tool material from Öcsöd-Kováshalom and Polgár 6 (CHOYKE 1997a). Some of these manufacturing rules will survive into following Chalcolithic (i. e. Copper Age) times although in general, the strict rules of manufacturing this raw material begin to fall apart by that time (CHOYKE in press). A UNIQUE FIND ASSEMBLAGE This small material presents an interesting case in that four of the six tools were abandoned when they were still usable, or easily renewed. These four objects show 94