KOVÁCS TIBOR: TUMULUS CULTURE CEMETERIES OF TISZAFÜRED / Régészeti Füzetek II/17. (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest, 1975)
III.Some considerations on the cemeteries
The use of the so called seal-headed pin spread everywhere in the area conquered by the Tumulus Culture (PI. 2-2/7, PI. 4-50/1, PI. 10-102/4-5, etc.). One of the characteristics of its younger version is the horizontal division of its disc (see PI. 17-174/2). The examples of nail-headed pins with a funnel-shaped upper part (see PI. 26-356/2, PI. 33-354/8) appear in Central Europe in the R BB period already. 6 7 The open ended bracelets with scored line piles of circular wire are also characteristic for this period (for example PI. 4-51/2-3, PI. 10-110/2-3, etc.). 6 8 The earliest examples in our area of the similarly shaped rhomboid cross sectioned bracelets are known from the hoard of Rákospalota, whereas the youngest pieces can be found in the storage finds dated to the R BD period. 69 Two of the bracelets of Tiszafüred which belong to this group are decorated by scored bowed and straight line piles (PI. 23-252/3 and 253/3). The other objects of these two graves do not exclude the possibility that these objects represent the more archaic versions of the discussed type, whereas the pieces with solely straight line piles (for example PI. 1-8/2, PI. 2-19/8, PI. 26-357/1) represent the younger version which was a fashionable piece of jewelry for a long time to come. The tribes of the Tumulus Culture used similarly shaped arrowheads (see PI. 9-99/3), 7 0 and daggers almost everywhere. The dagger plates of moulded bronze were attached to the original wooden hilt by two or three rivets. A time difference can be noticed between the use of the daggers with rounded hilt plates and two or three rivets (see PI. 9-99/1, PI. 22-229/2, PI. 23-252/2). 7 1 Some data lets us conclude that the straight ending hilt plated daggers were the latest (PI. 12-135/1, Pl. 17-174/4). 7 2 D) We pointed out only a few aspects which helped to determine more or less the relative chronology of the Tiszafüred cemetery. The above details support those hypotheses and facts which are obvious from the circumstances of the conquest of the Tumulus Culture in the Tisza area. 1. The Tumulus Culture which developed in the middle of Central Europe as a first stage in its eastward expansion conquered the northwestern part of the Carpathian basin. 7 3 The inhabitants of this area partly escaped and partly assimilated. 7 4 This latter fact explains why many of the shape and motive elements of the Magyarád Dolny Peter appear among the remains of the Tumulus Culture of the Carpathian region in our cemetery, also, as mentioned before. 7 5 2. A similar process took place in the Upper Tisza area with only one difference. The majority of the natives most probably stayed in their original location. Here, the pottery and the metalware of the natives (Bodrogszerdahely phase of the Füzesabony culture) and the conquerors differed so much that the assimilation can be well followed. As a result of this a very specially coloured entity of the Tumulus Culture came into being in the northern part of the Great Hungarian Plain. 7 6 3. The fact that the graves of the natives and the newcomers can be well distinguished in larger or smaller numbers, shortly after the conquest, is applicable to the whole of the area conquered by the Tumulus Culture. (The following graves of the Tiszafüred cemetery can be mentioned: 143, 161, 172, 258 and graves C and D of the natives; and 55, 58, 138, 157, 188, 274 of the earlier burials of the conquerors). After the first generation signs of assimilation can be discoveredl in apparel, and in the changes of customs in grave objects, and in the variations of shape and motives of the pottery and metalware. This process took place in the R Bj— B-> period all over Central Europe. This is the period when the mutual knowledge of the progress of metalwork and its correlation came into being of the western part of Central Europe and of the Carpathian basin. The earlier commercial connections in themselves could not have exerted such influence as the Koszider metalwork reformed the metalwork of the contemporary people of Central Europe. The agent for both directions was the Tumulus Culture which combined the groups of people of different ethnic origin on different stages of development into an economic and political community of joint interests from the Elba river area to Transylvania. 7 7 4. It is worth-while to mention that in areas where the general economic prosperity was at a low level due to the lack of natural resources or control of key commercial routes, the fate of the population depended upon the unity provided by the Tumulus Culture for a long time. A good example for this is provided by the eastern border area of the Tumulus Culture. The Piliny culture, the people of the northern area of the Carpathian basin, next to the metal ore mines became independent shortly after the conquest and can be considered more as a neighbour of the Tumulus Culture than a part of it. 7 5 At the same time the shape and motive elements of the natives disappear during the early period of the culture in the northern Great Hungarian Plain region. The majority of the pottery and metalware are of the R BC period of the Tumulus Culture which can be found in other regions of Central Europe. 7 9 The traces of this phenomenon can be discovered in the Tiszafüred cemetery also. For example the variations of decorated or undecorated cone necked urns come into the forground during the later burials (PI. 1-2/1, PI. 2-19/2, PI. 9-100/1, PI. 14-156/1, PI. 19-186/1, PI. 25-265/1) and the stemmed pitchers almost completely disappear. Among the decorative motives the garland groups and the proportioned straight ribs become less frequent, but the thick vertical scoring on the shoulders of vessels become very frequent (for example PI. 3-21/1, PI. 7-75/1, PI. 21-220/1, PI. 23-242/2). The relative chronology of the Tiszafüred-Majorqshalom cemetery can be determined according to the mentioned aspects and detaüed analyses as follows. 45
