Tárnoki Judit szerk.: Tisicum - A Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok Megyei Múzeumok Évkönyve 19. (2009)

Régészettudomány - Reményi László - A nagyrévi kultúra kulturális és kronológiai kérdései

Régészettudomány | László REMÉ

NYI Cultural and chronological Questions of Nagyrév culture Summary The Nagyrév culture and its major sites, primarily the tell settlement of Tószeg-Laposhalom known since 1876, have been in the centre of attention of Hungarian and international research for more than a century. The formation of the culture, and its place in relative and absolute chronology, has been heavily debated in the past few decades as well, in which the addressee of the Festschrift, Marietta Csányi also played a significant role. Based on recent research, it is certain that the sites and characteristic finds of the Proto-Nagyrév horizon, which can be regarded as the precursors of the Nagyrév culture building on the local Makó bases, appeared due to the interregional changes taking place along the banks of the Danube and Tisza rivers in the beginning of the Early Bronze Age II Period (ca. 2500 BC). One of the determinative cultural changes involved the disintegration of the Vucedol culture. Following the fast expansion after independence, the culture broke up into independent regional groups around 2600-2500 BC, which continued the expansive processes of the earlier period. The spread of the Somogyvár-Vinkovci culture in the Transdanubia fits into these processes already outlined by István Bona, and placed in the Early Bronze Age II Period, and the appearance of the find groups of the Post-Vucedol cultural units, including the Proto-Nagyrév horizon (and also the Ada, Pitvaros, Gyula, Roçia groups and Nyírség cultures), in various areas of the Carpathian Basin. Another significant interregional cultural change of the midthird millennium BC involved the development of the Beaker culture complex groups in the Central European region. Apart from the fact, that the regional groups showing cultural unity also appeared in the Carpathian Basin, the cultural contact systems forming in this period can be identified as the integral antecedents of the contact systems coming into existence from the Reinecke A period among the later Bronze Age cultures of the Carpathian Basin and Central Europe. Parallel to the cultural changes, important economic processes took place in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. The intensification of complex agriculture (building on arable farming and animal husbandry) set the requirements for a population concentration enabling the development of multi-tiered tell settlements. While, it also made possible the requirements for specialization (e.g. with metalworking) and differentiation (social and settlement hierarchy building on a redistributive economy) within society. Thus, besides the Somogyvár-Vinkovci and the Nyírség cultures, tell settlement layers dated to the Proto-Nagyrév horizon (Early Bronze Age 2a) appeared along the banks of the Danube, which were followed by early Nagyrév culture layers from the beginning of the Early Bronze Age 2b period (ca. 2300 BC). As the strata of the tells from the regions of the Tisza River only emerged from the early, and primarily from the classical Nagyrév strata, we can place the appearance of the Nagyrév culture to the area of the Danube. Based on the continuity of the settlement history, in this region the tell system (economy, lifestyle, social structure) characteristic of the Nagyrév culture already developed during the Proto-Nagyrév period and advanced further in the Nagyrév period. The Early Nagyrév period is represented by the find-groups of the Ökörhalom type, which are known from the lowest layers of the tells in the Danube region, while thus far in the Tisza River area the earliest strata and characteristic burials at Tószeg-Laposhalom and Tiszaug-Kéménytető have been unearthed. Based on typology, the classical phase can only be separated from the early phase with difficulty, thanks to the unbroken development of material culture. The lives of tells along the Tisza River mostly started in this period, but in the area of Budapest (outside of the tell zone) individual sites of the phase are also known. The beginning of the classical period, considering stratigraphical data from the tells of the Tisza region (primarily Tószeg), can be dated to within the Early Bronze Age 2b period. At the same time, the classical phase also extends along the whole of the Early Bronze Age 3a period, while in the tells of the Tisza region the Nagyrév layers are followed by strata of the Hatvan culture sometime within the Early Bronze Age 3a period. The contact systems of the Nagyrév culture and the Beaker-Csepel group, and the chronological and cultural classification of the sites lying at the borders of the two cultures show a rather singular picture. Based on the similarities of the find-groups of the Proto-Nagyrév horizon and the accompanying pottery (Begleitkeramik) of the Beaker culture, the Beaker-Csepel group may have taken part in forming the material culture of the Proto-Nagyrév horizon, which also built on similar economic bases. However, in the zone of contact of the two cultures the sites belonging to the Nagyrév culture usually appear as distinct from the Beaker culture sites. While the Beaker culture sites concentrate around a well-definable ecological zone, near to the branches of the Danube, 253 |