A Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 23. (Veszprém, 2004)

Regenye Judit: Háztípusok és településszerkezet a késői lengyeli kultúrában veszprémi és szentgáli példán alapján

HOUSE TYPES AND SETTLEMENT STRUCTURE IN THE LATE LENGYEL CULTURE, BASED IN THE EXAMPLES AT VESZPÉM AND SZENTGÁL The houses excavated at two Veszprém County sites of the late Lengyel culture (Veszprém, Jutási St.; Szentgál, Teleki fields) differ from one another with regard to their ground plans and construction methods. With slight variations, the Veszprém houses belong to an identical type; just no. 9 appears to differ. They are all 18-32 m long, 7-8 m wide constructions, divided into two sections, and having a pile structure. They are characterised by construction of the north wall with close-set piles and solid foundations, an interior dividing wall with two or three very deeply sunk piles, and in the majority of cases a very strong supporting pillar is sunk in the middle of the open south wall. In two cases this supporting pillar is missing, the southern ends of the side walls being doubled instead. With the exception of house no. 1, it is also typical that the side walls of the north room are missing; presumably the piles did not reach the depth of the excavation level. It appears that it was the short walls that were load-bearing, i.e. for these houses the north wall and the interior dividing wall, as well as the single pillar of the south wall. Conversely, the side walls of the south room have sunk more considerably into the ground in all cases. The consistently repeated difference between the foundations of the two rooms raises the point that these may have been partially two-storey constructions. The consistent lack of a southern wall indicates that the south rooms of the buildings were open, or a construction which hardly sunk into the ground was used. Building no. 9 would be a long, narrow house, supported by a row of pillars along its longitudinal axis, if we accept the reconstruction in which the north wall and the south sections of the side walls have more solid foundations, in a similar way to the above. The Szentgál house is of smaller size, with a pile structure, and a dividing wall along its longitudinal axis. The positioning of the pile holes is significantly different, here they are less frequent, and shallow. Alongside the large, two-roomed houses constructed with a close-set pile structure, this other type marked by a thick layer of debris, hardly preserving traces of its wooden structure sunk into the ground, in some cases having irregular, shallow pile holes, is also frequent in the Legyei culture. The difference in arrangement between the two types of settlement presented here is eye-catching. In the Veszprém settlement, the houses stand close to one another, or are even built onto one another due to repeated, on the spot renovations. In settlements of the other type, on the other hand, a loose arrangement is characteristic, with the few houses being positioned in a scattered manner. These two kinds of structures cannot be explained by a difference in time period, as both types of settlement are present from the beginning of the Lengyel culture. Grouping according to area is also inconceivable. The explanation for the parallel existence can only be for some kind of social reason. It seems obvious that organisation of the society required the existence of the two types of settlement forms. It is a fact, that alongside the traditional agrarian (and industrial, based on the stone works in the Szentgál region) settlements, higher ranking settlements also existed in the social structure from the very beginning of the Lengyel culture. It is apparent from the examples dealt with, that differences in activities and lifestyle resulting from the organisation of society manifested themselves in the diverse characters of the settlements. 36