The Füzi-kút settlement is located to the West of the modern village, along the road lying to rkút on a steep hillside. Its area is fairly large within prehistoric settlements, extending over 700 * 500 square meters. During three years of excavation the ruins of a burnt house and further details of the settlement were found. The place of the house was indicated by traces of doub which preserved the print of twigs used for the construction of the walls. Refuse pits were opened with variable amount of archaeological remains, mainly pottery, doub and lithics. Animal bones unfortunately perished in the soil. There were two graves found on the settlement. One of them was a cremation grave. The ashes and a pot probably containing food or drink for the dead was placed into a shallow pit and later deteriorated by modern agricultural activities. The other grave was that of an elderly female buried into a deep ditch preserved by thick layer of silt. On the model of the site, these features are reconstructed on the basis of the original finds of the excavation.
The excavation of the settlement offered the possibility to
get an insight into the everyday life of prehistoric people
and reconstruct on models and drawings the contemporary
phases of work and corresponding technological solutions.
The village model is naturally idealised because not all the
finds could be found at the same time, on the same place.
Our aim was to present everyday activities like stone
working, grinding, production of vessels as well as
indicating plant cultivation and animal husbandry as basic
sources of living.
The technological level of the New Stone Age can be best
evaluated if compared to later periods of prehistory.
The technique of the construction of houses practically did
not change throughout prehistory. The sedentary way of life
appeared as a consequence of permanent agriculture and
resulted in the appearance of stable houses with constructed
walls. This type of housing was developped practically by
the earliest farming communities and remained unchanged till
the appearance of the first urban settlements. The only
technical difficulty was bolting large distances, a task
which was solved by the development of carpentry during the
Neolithic period. This development could clear the interiors
of the house from the rows of columns.
The structure of the Neolithic house was made of wood. The
pillars were deepened into the ground for about one meter.
The space between the pillars was filled by twigs and
plastered by clay. The length of the houses varied between
10-40 meters, and they were 6-7 meters wide.
The lifestyle of the Neolithic peasent communities was very
similar to that of any human societies who earn their living
basically of agriculture. It has a lot in common with
Medieval village life with the difference of lacking metals.
Animal husbandry has brought about the formation of
elementary technological inventions which were preserved by
tradition and need throughout the centuries. It was not
modified basically till the introduction of machines.
The rythm of life was determined, as for any farming
communities, by the sequence of agricultural activities
throughout the year. Everyday work included the production
of food and the production of implements for food
production.
Apart from the immediate needs of nutrition, the Szentgál-
Füzikút settlement housed two basic industrial activities as
well. The vicinity of the raw material sources allowed
mining and stone tool production to be essential in the life
of the village. The existence of the source area was
probably the most important motivation for the villagers to
settle here. Raw material prospection, mining, tool
production and trade were additional activities performed by
the inhabitants of the site.
As regards the actual technological level of plant
cultivation, similar observations can be made. The knowledge
of farming was established throughout the centuries all over
Europe. In the reconstruction of the working tools, however,
we have to use our imagination again because wooden
implements have perished. In the primeval agricultural
societies, new land was established by clearing forests. The
most likely function of the great technological invention of
the age, i.e., polished stone tools was probably felling
trees. Etnographical analogies indicate that part of the
polished stone axes could be used as hoes as well.
The hard, clayey soil around the Füzi-kút settlement let us
suppose the knowledge of ploughing by some wooden implement.
The crops were harvested by sickles. These are the most
ancient agricultural tools we have concrete evidences about.
Small bladelets were inserted into a wooden hafting or jaw-
bone for cutting cereals. Working with the sickle on wheat
and grass left visible traces on the implements known as
sickle polish.
After harvesting, further processing was needed to get
edible food from the crops. Treshing could be performed by
wooden sticks which is adequate for barley. Wheat had to be
roasted first to get rid of unwanted chaff. The grains were
ground in hand-mills, using a grinder.
