Tihomila Tezak-Gregl

Zagreb

The phenomenon of the Lengyel Culture is mostly connected to the northern part of inland Croatia. It was first introduced into the Croatian prehistory by R.R. Schmidt, the excavator of the worldknown prehistoric site of Vu(edol, for some pottery finds from Bapska. The term was later accepted by V. Miloj(i( and S. Dimitrijevi( to describe the present-day Sopot Culture. They used the names Bapska-Lengyel or Sopot-Lengyel Culture, so emphasizing it belonged to the complex of Lengyel cultures. But Hungarian and Slovakian prehistorians argued against the other part of the name proving that the oldest phases of the Sopot Culture were previous to those of the Lengyel Culture and that the Lengyel elements in it were evident only in the last phase (Sopot III), mostly as the import. Dimitrijevi( accepted these arguments and in his last synthesis he introduced the name Sopot Culture, leaving out the term Lengyel. He concluded that the Sopot culture was in its beginning older than any of the Lengyel Cultures and its penetration into the region of Transdanubia stimulated the formation of the whole Lengyel cultural complex.

The elements of the Lengyel Culture or better to say its influence was recognized by Alojz Benac in genesis of the Butmir culture, though not so important as those from Danilo or Vin(a Culture, but still evident.

The Lengyel features were also detected by S. Dimitrijevi( in the Brezovljani type of the Sopot Culture and he compared it with the Sopot-Bicske type and Lu(ianky Culture, concluding that they all had a proto-Lengyel character. In the last two decades some more sites of Brezovljani type have been discovered in the northwestern Croatia and recently some sites from Western and Middle Transdanubia have also been ascribed to the Brezovljani type indicating thus that the river Drava was not the border between the groups of the Sopot Culture.

Until 1965 Josip Koro(ec published several articles presenting the archaeological material of Slovenian and some Northwestern Croatian sites determining them as the Late Neolithic and transitional period. As he had noticed many Lengyel features in the pottery of those sites such as clay spoons with a cylindrical handle, concave profilation of the lower parts of the vessels contrary to the rounded upper parts, and finally red crusted painting, he named that group of finds Alpine facies of Lengyel Culture.

In early sixties Dimitrijevi( defined the Lasinja Culture as "badenized Lengyel phenomenon" overstressing the role of the Baden Culture (what proved to be wrong from the chronological point of view). Later, discussing the genesis of the Lasinja Culture he noticed three main components: Vin(a Culture, Sopot Culture and Lengyel Culture, specifically Zengővárkony Culture But its intermediate substratum in western regions of Croatia and continental area of Slovenia was still unkown. At the same time Dimitrijevi( defined a new neolithic manifestation, first introduced by P. Koro(cc in 1975 on the basis of the finds and statigraphy of Ajdovska jama in Slovenia. For that new culture Dimitrijević proposed the name "Alpine Lengyel Culture" as a counterpart to Moravian Lengyel Culture. But he also pointed out that this term shouldn't be mixed with the old Koro(ec's "Alpine facies of Lengyel Culture" under which name in fact the Lasinja Culture was understood. So Alpine Lengyel should be the fourth substratum of Lasinja Culture and that was well proved by the stratigraphy of Ajdovska jama. This was the situation in 1979. In the following years more and more sites with similar archaeological material were found in Slovenia, all of them clearly indicating the existence of two succeeding manifestations, one Late Neolithic with all the features of Lengyel Culture and the other Early Eneolithic of the Lasinja Culture. The same situation was noticed in the western parts of Hungarian Transdanubia.

In 1991 an interesting prehistoric site was discovered in northwestern Croatia. During the restauration and conservation of the medieval castle in Ozalj, placed about 50-60 kilometers southwest from Zagreb, not far from the Slovenian frontier, a certain amount of prehistoric pottery was unearthed. The rescue excavation in 1992 and 1993 revealed more pottery, some sherds of it belonging to the Lasinja Culture, already known from a nearby cave Vrlovka (Dimitrijevi( 1961;33, sl. D), but the majority of the pottery was of a type previously unknown in the territory of the northern Croatia. Its typological features suggested its attribution to the complex of Lengyel Cultures. The position of the site, with the sort of half-pit dwelling structures, and above all its pottery production fits into the late period of the Lengyel cultural complex. Together with some Slovenian sites it forms a specific, most southern regional variant of the entire cultural complex. It can be discussed whether the term Alpine Lengyel is appropriate but we must admit that both prehistorians, J. Koro(ec and S. Dimitrijevi( were partly right. It is clear today that two closely and genetically connected manifestations can be distinguished, the regional Lengyel variant as the older and the Lasinja Culture as its successor.

According to the present situation it can be concluded that in Northern Croatia existed a proto-Lengyel horizon (Brezovljani type and Pepelana type of the Sopot Culture) succeeded by a regional Lengyel variant contemporary to the late Moravian painted pottery and Lengyel III of Transdanubia.