Öcsöd-Kováshalom. Potscape of a Late Neolithic site in the Tisza region

The primary goal of the present study is the publication of the ceramic inventory from Öcsöd-Kováshalom, for which Dissertationes Archaeologicae, being an online journal, can provide the necessary space. We shall principally focus on the possible correlations between vessel forms and their decoration in our analysis, alongside the examination of other traits and dimensions. The ad hoc nature of the analysed finds, i.e. an assemblage of vessels that could be successfully refitted, nevertheless constrains the more general insights that can be drawn from this assemblage. Our primary focus is on three different groups of the site’s ceramic inventory, examined according to uniform criteria. The analytical units differ from each other in terms of size and, as a result, the quality of the recorded data. Until now, the so-called Tisza I and Tisza II cultural phases were essentially distinguished qualitatively, based on the differing ceramic style of the two superimposed occupation levels (A and B) at Öcsöd-Kováshalom. We took a bottom-up approach in our analysis, moving from the deposits of individual contexts towards the entirety of the settlement. We also strove to extend the Tisza I and II developmental sequence to a larger region in the southern Hungarian Plain by looking at the contexts with similar ceramic patterns on other sites. The essence of our approach is encapsulated by Katalin Sebők’s model for the Late Neolithic of the Tisza region, in which ceramic vessels are enveloped by the different (research) aspect connected with several lines, reflecting the intricate relationships between them. This model takes stock of both the European and the American theoretical approaches and also incorporates elements of various approaches based on system and network theories that figure prominently in modern research agendas. Another inspiring aspect of K. Sebők’s initiative is that she moved beyond the traditional boundaries of pottery assessment and sought new avenues for meaningful analyses, which was also one of our priorities in the current assessment of the pottery finds from Öcsöd-Kováshalom. The settlement complex represents a specific initial phase in the Late Neolithic development of the Hungarian Plain in the Tiszazug micro-region. Its position in the Tisza culture’s formative phase determined the nature of the site, made up of a tell-like and a single-layer settlement, and its layout of a central settlement area surrounded by smaller settlement clusters within a large triple and segmented enclosure, as well as the community’s social and economic milieu. The finds and features brought to light at the site preserve the imprints of complex, multi-scalar processes in the community’s life. The main goal of the analysis of the assemblage of 240 refitted and reconstructed vessels was to examine and interpret the possible imprints of these multi-level changes

Öcsöd-Kováshalom, Ungarn. Forschungen zu Tell-Siedlungen und ihrer Umgebung in Ostungarn. Die Arbeiten der Jahre 2018 bis 2021

The research of tell settlements coming from the first half of the 5th millennium BC go back to almost a century. Yet, earlier research was concentrated on the sites and barely on their perimeter. The new project of the RGK, in cooperation with the Eötvös Loránd (ELTE) University in Budapest and with the Hungarian National Museum, sets mainly these outskirts in focus. New data of non- or minimalinvasive surveay as well as small-sclae, targeted excavations will be compared with the results of earlier excavations, opening new avenues for so that a better understanding of social structure and networks within the late Neolithic Carpathian basin

Test excavation of the “pseudo-ditch” system of the Late Neolithic settlement complex at Öcsöd-Kováshalom on the Great Hungarian Plain

In 2018, the RGK’s research team led by Knut Rassmann undertook the magnetometer survey of the Late Neolithic site of Öcsöd-Kováshalom over a roughly 65 ha large area. An enclosure system of three concentric semi-circular ditches was detected around the tell-like mound that formed the core of the settlement. In order to resolve these issues, we organised a small field school excavation with the support of the RGK and with the participation of the archaeology students of the ELTE Institute of Archaeological Sciences between July 13 and 25, 2020. We opened an 8×2 m trial trench across the north-eastern part of the innermost ditch appearing on the magnetogram. We uncovered a ditch segment with a V-shaped cross-section, a width of 315 cm and a depth of 295 cm. We recovered a total of 17,430 finds with a weight of 194.4 kg (pottery sherds, daub, animal bones, bone tools, chipped and polished stone implements, quern stones, mussels, and ochre). In our preliminary report, we made a reconstruction of infilling process based on the quantitative distribution of the finds (frequency and weight data) and the different characteristics of the fill layers