Marta, Livius et al.: The Late Bronze Age Settlement of Nyíregyháza-Oros „Úr Csere” (Satu Mare, 2010)
VII. Ioan Bejinariu - Liviu Marta: Activities int he Settlement
batta - Földvár), the presence in a settlement of craftsmen processing the metal involved their interaction with other categories of artisans (builders, potters, etc.) and, therefore, the mutual transfer of knowledge and technology.289 Such a process favored the development dynamics in these settlements. Just as an area of the settlement gathers several artifacts related to metallurgy, another one, even better represented, located at the settlement boundary, contains elements of the cult and religious activities carried out here. Most of the pits contain one cup (complexes 32, 245, 263 and 286). In one of the cases this ceramic form is associated to amphorae (complex 33), while complex 34 contains only one amphora. Cups and amphorae are types of vessels used for storage and handling liquids, operations that can be considered connected to the rituals that led to the burial of such pottery290. As mentioned when describing the offerings pits, the cultural group Hajdiibagos-Cehăluţ has numerous pits with a single cup. Alongside these, as in the case of pit no. 33 of Oros, there are several deposits in which the cups occur in association with other types of pottery (often amphorae). This situation occurs in the settlement of Biharea291. Pit 19 (Figure 7) is one of the ritual pits of the settlement which had two overlapped grinders on the bottom. We have no data on the existence of pits containing only grinders in the Hajdúbagos cultural environment, but this kind of items is contained in some ritual pits in the north of the Tisa Plain292. An important element about the religious ritual activity in the settlement of Oros is that it concentrates in one particular area within the site, respectively in the area located in the northwest of the settlement boundary. This area also includes, among the pits with deposits, a large number of pits with no archaeological inventory, which, given their position, may be thought to be linked to certain ritual practices. The concentration of some pits with ritual deposits at the edge of a settlement could be found in the case of Suciu de Sus culture of Petea-Csengersima and it 289 Sofaer 2006, p. 134-141. 290 Lindinger 1999, p. 83-85. 291 Dumitraşcu 1995, p. 104-107 (Ml, M3, M4, M5?, M6, M10). Amphorae associated with one/a small number of cups are encountered in several cultural environments of the late Bronze Age (Kemenczei-Genito 1990, p. 113-125, PI. 4/7; Dumitraşcu-Sfrengeu-Sărac 1997, p.7-10; Marta 2008, p. 118; Marta 2009, p. 86-87. 292 Dumitraşcu 1995, p. 106-107 (Biharea - M 3, M 6); Marta 2008, p. 113 (Lazuri); Marta 2009, p. 86-89 (Petea-Csengersima). Deposits of pottery associated with grinders are present in other areas of Europe, too (Stapel 1999, p. 108, note 496). 59
