FURTHER STUDIES ON THE LENGYEL CULTURE POLISHED STONE AXES FROM ASZÓD, PAPI FÖLDEK (N HUNGARY)

Judik Katalin- T. Biró Katalin - Szakmány György

Budapest

Aszód-Papi földek is one of the most famous localities of Lengyel culture in Hungary. Excavations directed by Nándor Kalicz were conducted here for more than 20 years (1960-1982). During this time, several houses and cemetery of the Lengyel Culture came forth. Results were published in the form of articles and a Hungarian monograph summarising the most important finds and features. The complete scientific publication of the material is still in preparation.

Already the first communications on the site emphasised its importance as trade and crafts centre. The geographical position of the site - along the "obsidian route" leading from the raw material sources of the Tokaj Mts. towards the heart of the Lengyel habitation area in Transdanubia and also in the junction of the Galga-valley route, leading towards raw material sources of the Carpathians and the Kraków Upland, all of them important components of the lithic industry of Aszód, with direct access to abundant local raw materials rendered the site, located conveniently at the border of the Great Alföld Plains and the mountains rich in exploitable raw material resources a natural centre of prehistoric industry and commerce.

The special significance of the polished stone industry was realised fairly early. Judit Antoni (1990) dealt with the technology of bone, antler and polished stone implements from the site while Katalin Biró (1988, 1992) studied the petroarchaeological features of the total lithic industry. As a result of these latter studies, the technological coherence of the site could be observed: typologically widely different elements of the lithic industry could be connected in a technological chain (raw material blocks, hammer-stones, large "clactonian" flakes, chips, polished stone tool pre-forms, rough polishers, fine polishers and polished stone tools, broken and cast-off pieces as well as pieces with traces of use.) Several petrographical thin sections were made, both from the polished stone tools and the other elements of the lithic industry (chipped stone tools and other stone utensils). A preliminary evaluation of the material was published in the context of Late Neolithic stone industries (Biró 1998) and a special study concentrating on the "polished stone axe workshop", the first and most fully documented in Hungary.

The raw material of the Aszód axe workshop was defined first as basalt, the nearest sources of which are in the distance of some 30 kms North from the site around Salgótarján. This is not an unlikely distance for raw materials to be carried for processing to the site. Later however field survey in the Cserhát Mts. resulted in the location of homogeneous dark andesite blocks looking macroscopically very similar to the raw material blocks found at Aszód, lying at a distance of only 5-10 kms from the site. Thus a reconsideration of the thin sections made on the polished stone tools became necessary. Petrographical thin sections were re-examined, and new field surveys initiated. New studies seem to support the original statement (Basalt), probably from the Karancs Mts. close to Salgótarján. More fieldwork and instrumental analytical techniques will be necessary to find a final solution to the problem.