Kovács Tibor - Stanczik Ilona (szerk.): Bronze Age tell settlements of the Great Hungarian Plain I. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 1; Budapest, 1988)

Márta SZ. MÁTHÉ: Bronze Age tells in the Berettyó valley

BRONZE AGE TELLS IN THE BERETTYÓ VALLEY Márta SZ. MÁTHÉ BAKONSZEG-KÁDÁRDOMB Introduction The environment of the site in the Bronze Age was presumably similar to the 1818 conditions depicted by an autographic map

1 of the area now called Kórógypuszta.

2 It lies in the parish of Bakonszeg, once in Bihar, now in Hajdú-Bihar county. The mound called Kádárdomb (Kádár hill) or Kádár-temető rising above the marshes of the Berettyó river first attracted human settlers in the Bronze Age when a number of tell settlements were founded in Eastern Hungary. Kádárdomb is an island-type tell, similar to those identified by Romanian researchers in the marshland of the Ér

3 and to the tells in the Nagy Sárrét region and in the Berettyó valley

4 (Fig. 4). The first mention of Bakonszeg-Kádárdomb in the archaeological literature is to be found in an article written by L. Zoltai

5 although the eponymous hero of the mound had been known previously from 17th century records.

6 Zoltai excavated the northwestern part of the hill top in 1920 (Fig. 3). Four trenches were opened, three of which were 5x2 m large, the fourth was also 5 m long but somewhat narrower. Zoltai identified the traces of the Bronze Age occupation already during his first field survey, and during the investigation of 17th century graves he took obvious care to keep the Bronze Age finds separate according to his spit-sequence. The total depth of the trenches was 5—6 spits, i.e. about 1.5 to 1.8 m. Unfortunately, no records of the excavation have survived, except for Zoltai's description published in the Debreceni Képes Kalendárium (Debrecen Illustrated Almanach) as well as his remarks and sketches in the acquisitions register of the Déri Museum in Debrecen.

7 According to Zoltai's description the Kádár domb "... appears to have originally been the protuberant tip of a large island that was at one time cut off—perhaps artificially— from the neighbouring highland since the two terraces of the Kádárdomb descend steeply into a narrow valley in the north. The mound was thus completely surrounded by water in the past. It lies at a height of 97 m above sea level, its relative height from the valley floor is 5.83 m. Its length is 120 m and about 160 m together with a southern hill connected to it by a saddle."

8 The Kádárdomb has not altered much since, except for the surface which was still cultivated in Zoltai's time, but which from the early sixties on became gradually covered by a thick clump of acacia and elm bushes. The site was thus saved from erosion caused primarily by intensive ploughing. Our excavation was carried out in 1974 (Fig. 2). The 5x5 m stratigraphie sounding was opened on the flat plateau of the mound about 50 m to the southeast of the Kádár grave-memorial in order to avoid the trenches of Zoltai's excavation. The internal chronology of the site The earliest occupation is represented by the remains of a yellow clay floor that was found at a depth of 1.76 m and labelled as level 7 (Fig. 5).

9 The floor is well preserved, its surface is evenly plastered with a thin layer of clay. No features were found on it which is hardly surprising since only a small part of the floor fell into the sounding. No pits were dug into the floor, even though this might have been expected from observations made at other Bronze Age sites. Neither were there found oven or hearth remains or daub fragments. The two well-outlined parallel edges of the floor could be observed in the northwestern and southeastern corner with a distance of 6 m between them. The habitation surface in the northeastern corner of the sounding extending towards the ditch noted since level 1 can also be regarded as a house remain since it lay at right angle to the other two edges. In this area remains of a groundsel containing a 0.28 m deep posthole were noted that suggests some sort of timber-framed building. A northwest—southeast oriented row of postholes having a diameter of 0.2 m and a depth of 0.22—04 m was found in the middle that may possibly have been dug for the posts supporting the roof construction. It is not entirely clear whether the feature found in level 7 was a house or some other structure. The 0.1 — 0.2 m thick layer used for levelling did not yield any finds. The fragments of a badly preserved floor plastered with yellow clay, which lay at a depth of 1.6 to 1.51 m was termed level 6. The floor-deposit included an