Neolithic pottery from Transdanubia to be investigated in the framework of the project
Judit Regenye
Veszprém, Laczkó Dezső Museum
Abstract
Brief summary of the Neolithic settlement history in Transdanubia:
Transdanubia, strictly speaking the Balaton region played a very important role in the neolithisation of the central and western parts of Europe. On the inspiration of the populational group that had arrived to Southern Transdanubia from the Balkan (Starčevo culture), and the Mesolithic autochtonous population of the Balaton region developed a specific Neolithic culture, which spread in an astonishingly short time over the loess areas of Europe. This culture is called Linear Pottery culture. The process was going on in the second half of the 6th millennium BC.
The first farming communities lived on the bank of the lake, usually in swampy areas. Their lifestyle preserved much from the Mesolithic, farming could be only a supplementary activity. In the developed Neolithic, the villages can be found on loess areas next to watercourses or springs where the soil was soft and easy to turn. Neolithic period in Hungary coincided with the Atlantic climatic period when warm and humid climate dominated in Europe. It was a period rich in forests and waters. Closed, mixed deciduous forests covered the land, the tiny Neolithic villages composed of a few houses existed as islands in the thick woods. The fields were cleared out from the forests beside the villages.
The cultural impact coming from the south (through delivery of population) happened again at the very beginning of the 5th millennium BC. At that time the settlements of the Sopot culture appeard on the scene and subsisted for a short time in Transdanubia. On the basis of these influences and on the basis of existing local population Lengyel culture emerged, extending over large parts of Central Europe.
Clusters of settlements were characteristic of both the Linear Pottery culture and the Lengyel culture in the 5th millennium BC. The clusters were separated by uninhabited forest zones. The groups shared these forested areas, which, at the same time, acted as natural boundaries. There is a characteristic feature that the sites of the two cultures are usually not found in the same environment. Both cultures were farming cultures, they cultivated the land and bred cattle, both used the same raw material sources but with a different order of importance. According to their impact in the archaeological record, cultivation and horticulture were seemingly more important for the Linear Pottery culture, while cattle breeding and stone acquisition and processing dominated in the Lengyel culture.
The sites to be investigated in the framework of the project: