Északkelet-magyarországi és északnyugat-romániai középső neolit festett kerámiák festékanyagának azonosítása Fourier-transzformációs Infravörös Spektrofotometriai (FTIR) módszerrel

Middle Neolithic painted ceramics of the northeastern Great Hungarian Plain region have been enriched with new assemblages in Hungary in the last decade. Based on the newly excavated sites, the theory of the different developmental patterns of the neighbouring Hungarian and Romanian part of the Szatmár Plain, previously proposed by Romanian researchers, came into new light. Gh. Lazarovici and C. Virag assumed, that the second period of the Piscolt group shows the fl ourishing of the Middle Neolithic ceramic painting in the Romanian side, while at the same time in Hungary the painting was reduced, and incised decoration increased. The decreasing rate of the painted pottery in the Hungarian Szatmár and Szamos region was explained by its greater distance from the bitumen sources located in the Bihor area. The extensive utilisation of raw bitumen in the questioned region has been mentioned in Middle Age written records and also industrial historical papers in the Modern Age. In the present paper we publish the results of our complex analytical and experimental investigations. First of all by using FTIR spectroscopy we performed comparative analysis on painted pottery samples from Romanian and Hungarian sites and a raw bitumen sample collected from Suplacu de Barcau. The fi rst examination disproved the use of bitumen as ceramic painting, since in all cases the black residues on the pottery surfaces were proved to be wood tar. This result is not so surprising if we consider that the use of wood tar was a Pan-European phenomena in prehistory, while the Neolithic use of bitumen was reported only from the Near East. The painted sherds were compared with experimentally produced wood tar, and with one Early Bronze Age pot from Döge, which was pierced with one hole on the base. The interior of the base fragment showed carbonised remains and on the exterior and within the pierced hole thick and black tarry substance was identifi ed. It can be assumed that we are dealing with a retort, used for distillation of wood tar. The chemical composition of the black residue shows similarity with the experimentally produced tar and with the Neolithic samples as well. Our results demonstrated the utilisation of wood tar in the Middle Neolithic eastern Great Hungarian Plain region as well as later, in the Early Bronze Age, and it was proved that the spread of Neolithic painted pottery was not depended on the bitumen sources of the Romanian Bihor area

Súlyos, fertőzéses eredetű csontelváltozás előfordulása a Kr. e. 6. évezred utolsó harmadában Versend-Gilencsa lelőhelyén

This article presents a new skeletal infection from the Middle Neolithic (Sopot culture) in the Carpathian Basin from the site of Versend-Gilencsa (6th millennium BC). The site yielded 27 burials from this period. During the biological anthropological and paleopathological examinations, the skeletal remains of an adult male (Grave 1078) displayed lesions: severe cavitation, collapse of vertebrae, hypervascularisation, inflammation on the sternum and periostitis on the long bones. Based on these alterations, the presence of atypical spinal tuberculosis or brucellos infection may be assumed in the community of Versend. The planned paleomicrobiological investigation may confirm the presumed diagnosis

Seeking the Holy Grail: robust chronologies from archaeology and radiocarbon dating combined

The strengths of formal Bayesian chronological modelling are restated, combining as it does knowledge of the archaeology with the radiocarbon dating of carefully chosen samples of known taphonomy in association with diagnostic material culture. The risks of dating bone samples are reviewed, along with a brief history of the development of approaches to the radiocarbon dating of bone. In reply to Strien (2017), selected topics concerned with the emergence and aftermath of the LBK are discussed, as well as the early Vin≠a, Ra∫i∏te and Hinkelstein sequences. The need for rigour in an approach which combines archaeology and radiocarbon dating is underlined

Transforming Traditions of Material Culture : Spatial and temporal patterns in pottery style, production and use during the second half of the 6th millennium cal BC in south-eastern Transdanubia and beyond

International audienceOne of the most salient traits of a major milestone in European history, the shift to a Neolithic life-style in Central Europe and the associated social changes, was the emergence of pottery production. The main goal of the research project described here is the study of Neolithic pottery production from a complex perspec- tive and the addressing of the associated distinctive social activity types and potential range of meanings during the period from the late Starčevo to the appearance of the Lengyel culture (5500–4900 cal BC). The springboard for our project was the series of intensely investigated sites in southern Transdanubia, a region that acted as a contact zone between the Neolithic communities of Central Europe and the northern Balkans, and thus played a key role in the neolithisation of Central Europe. The research findings from this region are complemented and compared with the data from various sites along the Danube. Aside from our academic colleagues, our research results can be of interest to the broader public too, and our reconstruc- tions of various artefacts and the documentation of our archaeological experiments can be later used as illustrations to museum exhibits. The expected results can be fitted into the broad picture outlined by other research conducted on these sites and offer an exceptionally detailed picture of how the region’s settlements developed during the second half of the 6th millennium BC

Változó tradíciók. A kerámiastílus, -előállítás és -használat tér- és időbeli mintázatai a Kr. e. 6. évezred második felében a Délkelet-Dunántúlon és a környező régiókban

International audienc

Between the Vinča and Linearbandkeramik worlds: the diversity of practices and identities in the 54th–53rd centuries cal BC in south-west Hungary and beyond

Szederkény-Kukorica-dűlő is a large settlement in south-east Transdanubia, Hungary, excavated in advance of road construction, which is notable for its combination of pottery styles, variously including Vinča A, Ražište and LBK, and longhouses of a kind otherwise familiar from the LBK world. Formal modelling of its date establishes that the site probably began in the later 54th century cal BC, lasting until the first decades of the 52nd century cal BC. Occupation, featuring longhouses, pits and graves, probably began at the same time on the east and west parts of the settlement, the central part starting a decade or two later; the western part was probably abandoned last. Vinča pottery is predominantly associated with the east and central parts of the site, and Ražište pottery with the west. Formal modelling of the early history and diaspora of longhouses in the LBK world suggests their emergence in the Formative LBK of Transdanubia c. 5500 cal BC and then rapid diaspora in the middle of the 54th century cal BC, associated with the ‘earliest’ (älteste) LBK. The adoption of longhouses at Szederkény thus appears to come a few generations after the start of the diaspora. Rather than explaining the mixture of things, practices and perhaps people at Szederkény by reference to problematic notions such as hybridity, we propose instead a more fluid and varied vocabulary including combination and amalgamation, relationships and performance in the flow of social life, and networks; this makes greater allowance for diversity and interleaving in a context of rapid change