Budapest Régiségei 15. (1950)

Banner János: Adalékok Budapest újabb-kőkorához 7-25

The fifth vessel is an imported ware from the territory of the Bükk culture. Its rim is broken, but doubtless it was covered with a linear decoration belonging to the second period ot the Bükk culture. The decayed skeleton found in the grave was in contracted posture. As a result of the excavations at Békásmegyer, which yielded plenty of Tisza and Zseliz sherds, and of the excavation at Tállya, which settled stratigraphically the periods of the Bükk culture, the publisher rectified the relative chronology of the Hungarian Neolithic Age for the trans-Danubian and cis-Danubian districts. In the cis-Danubian district, he stated the following chronological order : 1. Older linear pottery, Bükk I., 2. Bükk IL, 3. Bükk III., Tisza I.

,4. Tisza I

—II., 5. Bodrogkeresztúr. In the transDanubian district : 1. Older linear pottery, 2. Younger linear pottery, Zseliz culture, 3. Zseliz culture, 4. Tisza 1—2., Lengyel. The most important statement, concerning the Nagytétény grave is that the II. period of the Bükk culture and the Zseliz culture were synchronous. Francis Tompa accepted this fact in the Guide written to the last exhibiton of the National Museum. He treated the same question in his essay »The Prehistory of Hungary« (Budapest őskora) and in his great summarizing work, written in German. We do not agree with Tompa as regards the conclusion he drew concerning the burial rite. He may be right in stating that the Bükk vessel came into the grave as imported ware, but he is wrong when he thinks that from the burial rite of the grave we get indirect information about the way of burial in the Bükk culture. The imported ware points to a contact of the cultures, and so to their synchronism, but does not mean without fail, that such a deeply rooted custom, we could say view of life was also taken over. This is true in spite of the fact that later, in Megyaszó, the skeltons in the graves of the Bükk culture were really in contracted posture. Tompa dealt once more with the Nagytétény grave. Here we get a description of the vessel, whose photograph the publisher does not publish because of its decayed state. This is the flat dish whose inside is decorated with the well known motives of the Zseliz culture. The description of the find does not agree completely either with the figures he published or with those of the publisher, but he drew very remarkable conclusions from the presence of the Bükk vessel. »The presence of the Bükk vessel proves that the trans-Danubian and eastern regions had been already in touch before the Tisza culture whereas the cultural change of the trans-Danubian district occured only later, when the Tisza culture also took roots here.« This is an important statement, for we told the same above, when we indicated the appearance of the Kőrös culture. So, we put the intercourse between the two regions to an even earlier period, even if we took into consideration only the Neolithic Age. Some data point to a communication in the Magdalenian period, but this does not concern the territory of Budapest and its prehistory. As Tompa has published the fifth vessel, now we can inspect tho whole find material of the grave, giving us an opportunity to examine again the whole in details. The fragmentary dish and the vessel with a neck (fig 2:2.), belong to the Zseliz culture, the bulgy vessel whose rim is broken, (fig 2:1.), to the second period of the Bükk culture. This is proved by the decorative motives on the vessels. When we desire to find out where the two other vessels belong, we must examine some other, recently discovered finds from more distant territories. One of them (fig 2:3.) is a small vessel with globular lower part, flat bottom, the mouth is slightly widened, the rim flat. It has four small cylindrical handles with horizontal openings. The same vessel type occurs with an angular lower part, but similar neck and 23