The Early Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain. I–II.

This volume presents the results of research on the Early Neolithic Körös culture of tlie Great Hungarian Plain. Four years of small-scale but intensive investigations were centred on the site of Ecsegfalva 23, Co. Békés. The site lies beside an old meander – the Kiri-tó – of the Hortobágy-Berettyó river, northern tributary of the Körös river System. The site, first recorded by the Hungarian Archaeological Topography, was chosen for its proximity to pollen-bearing sediments in the meander and its position near the main northern limits of the Körös culture.
Within broader questions about the Körös culture and its place in the development and spread of the Neolithic, detailed aspects of environment, settlement and subsistence were the principal goals of the project. Ecsegfalva 23 is part of a distinctive, flat landscape. Other sites are known in the vicinity, around the meander and in former channels of the Berettyó; none are known at present in the depressions to the north, while rather more are recorded on the old alluvial terraces to the south. GIS-based study of the affordances of this landscape (chapter 3) and an account of its history (chapter 4) are followed by detailed investigations of the Kiri-tó meander: the sediments (chapter 5), pollen and phytolith analysis (chapter 6 and 7), and molluscan analysis (chapter 8). Early Neolithic people at Ecsegfalva 23 lived beside the waters of a shallow meander in a landscape probably prone to periodic flooding, surrounded by a mosaic of woodland and open ground.
Ecsegfalva 23 is known from surface finds and geophysical survey to stretch in total some 140 m along the edge of the Kiri-tó, though the main concentration of features occupies only the highest point (chapter 9). Only three small trenches (A, B, C) were excavated, and the largest, Trench B (10 by 15 m) was not fully excavated over its whole extent. In Trenches A and C, probably on the periphery of the occupation, pits were found; those in Trench A were shallow, but containcd quantities of carbonised plant remains, and were overlain by a burial of the Alföld Linear Pottery culture (chapter 25). In Trench B, a large pit was overlain by a substantial cultural deposit, rich in finds of sherds, daub, animal, bird and fish bons, shellfish, lithics, fired clay objects and bonc tools. Micromorphological analysis (chapter 11) indicates the presence of both animal dung and charcoal, and grasses and other vegetation were also introduced (chapter 24). Much of the deposit consists of ashy material (chapter 11), though it varies Chemically across the area uncovered (chapter 12). The deposit is probably the result of both middens and the burning of former structures. Only one posthole was located (though others may remain in the unexcavated portion of Trench B) but study of the daub (chapter 13) shows not only numerous impressions of reeds but also some of posts or wooden components. The pit fill and the stratigraphy may suggest a succession of structures. Radiocarbon dates suggest that occupation began after 5800 cal BC, and was concentrated between 5750–5650 cal BC, probably within a period of 70–80 years (chapter 10).