Coalescent community at Alsónyék: the timings and duration of Lengyel burials and settlement (original) (raw)
2016
The Neolithic settlement of Alsonyek reached its greatest extent during the Late Neolithic Lengyel period. Nearly 9000 features, including postholes associated with 122 houses, pits and pit complexes, and c. 2300 burials, could be assigned to it. The traces of Lengyel settlement and burials were found over the entire excavated area, with an estimated extent of some 80 ha. The burials uncovered mostly form part of groups of graves, actually being small cemeteries within the various parts of the settlement. Apart from the grave groups, several solitary or scattered graves were also found. Other large Lengyel burial grounds or large Lengyel settlements with numerous burials are known in Transdanubia, but the enormous number of graves at Alsonyek is unprecedented within the Lengyel cultural complex as a whole, and provides exciting opportunities for varied archaeological and bioarchaeological investigations. The discovery of 122 surface-level, timber-framed houses at a single site is al...
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Alex Bayliss, Osztas Anett, Tibor Marton, István Dr. Zalai-Gaál, Krisztina Somogyi, Gaal Istvan, Eszter Banffy, Éva Ágnes Nyerges, Anett Osztás, Alasdair Whittle, Köhler Kitti
2016
The Neolithic settlement of Alsónyék reached its greatest extent during the Late Neolithic Lengyel period. Nearly 9000 features, including postholes associated with 122 houses, pits and pit complexes, and c. 2300 burials, could be assigned to it. The traces of Lengyel settlement and burials were found over the entire excavated area, with an estimated extent of some 80 ha. The burials uncovered mostly form part of groups of graves, actually being small cemeteries within the various parts of the settlement. Apart from the grave groups, several solitary or scattered graves were also found. Other large Lengyel burial grounds or large Lengyel settlements with numerous burials are known in Transdanubia, but the enormous number of graves at Alsónyék is unprecedented within the Lengyel cultural complex as a whole, and provides exciting opportunities for varied archaeological and bioarchaeological investigations. The discovery of 122 surface-level, timber-framed houses at a single site is also unique for the area and the Lengyel period as a whole. These buildings help to build a better understanding of the architecture and lifestyle of the Lengyel population, which is a fairly new strand in the settlement archaeology of the Lengyel culture in Hungary and beyond. This and the sheer size of the site make Alsónyék exceptionally significant. Altogether 217 radiocarbon results are presented for the Lengyel phase. For the purpose of analysis subsites 5603, 11 and 10B have been modelled separately. The modelled estimates are precise enough that it is possible to estimate robustly the timing of activity across the site. The modelling suggests that burial activity in subsite 5603 probably began in 4790–4740 cal BC (68% probability) and that it began at a similar time, 4795–4745 cal BC (68% probability), in subsite 11. An intensive period of burial began slightly later, in 4715–4690 cal BC (68% probability), on subsite 10B. At this time settlement was established across a wide area, in subsite 11 from 4745–4690 cal BC (68% probability), on subsite 5603 from 4745–4665 cal BC (68% probability), and on subsite 10B from 4720–4700 cal BC (68% probability). After a brief episode of intense occupation, lasting at most a few decades, settlement and then burial ended on the northernmost subsite 10B, in the 4700s or 4690s cal BC (68% probability) and 4695–4670 cal BC (68% probability) respectively. Settlement also ended before burial on subsite 11, but endured for much longer. The settlement here ended in 4670–4620 cal BC (37% probability) or 4610–4565 cal BC (31% probability) and burial in 4585–4515 cal BC (68% probability). Both settlement and burial endured longest on subsite 5603, although here the end of burial preceded the end of settlement by well over a century. Burial ended here in 4515–4465 cal BC (68% probability), and settlement ended in 4345–4245 cal BC (68% probability).
THE FORMATION OF THE LENGYEL CULTURE IN SOUTH-WESTERN TRANSDANUBIA
Archaeolingua , 2017
Based on a wealth of exciting new evidence from a rich array of sources, the monograph covers the formation of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture in southwestern Hungary, a minor region of the culture's core territory. The process of the culture's formation is traced through an in-depth typological analysis of the fi nd material, various archaeological features and a study of the chronological position of three sites. The large-scale excavations at two sites in the Sormás area provided new perspectives for research on settlement structures, while the unique mass grave uncovered at Esztergályhorváti was the most important source for the physical anthropology of the period's population as well as for its absolute chronology, and served as a reference in the evaluation of the new radiocarbon data. Enclosure No. I at Sormás-Török-földek, dating to the formative Lengyel culture, can be regarded as one of the earliest genuine circular enclosures. The investigations at this site are of immense signifi cance for archaeoastronomical research. The archaeological chapters are supplemented with a wide range of interdisciplinary studies. The four sections of the Appendix covering the lithic fi nds and raw materials, archaeozoology, environmental history and physical anthropology offer many insights into the complex dynamics leading to the emergence of the Lengyel culture. An extensive settlement with houses and ditch systems of the Sopot and Lengyel cultures was investigated at Sormás-Török-földek, the fi rst instance of a site where both cultures were documented. A comparison of the two cultures at this site revealed that the Middle Neolithic Sopot culture played a far more decisive and complex role in the genesis of the Lengyel culture than earlier assumed.
Alsónyék-Bátaszék: a new chapter in the research of Lengyel culture
Documenta Praehistorica, 2012
There can be no doubt that one of the major archaeological discoveries made in Hungary during the past ten years was the prehistoric settlement at Alsónyék–Bátaszék. The area was intermittently occupied from the Early Neolithic to the end of the Late Neolithic and the onset of the Copper Age. The prehistoric settlement attained its greatest extent during the Late Neolithic Lengyel period, as shown by the 2359 burials and over 100 post-framed buildings uncovered at the site. This preliminary report describes previous research on the architecture of the Late Neolithic Lengyel culture in Hungary and the Lengyel settlement at Alsónyék and its architecture.
The early days of Neolithic Alsónyék: the Starčevo occupation
2016
The excavations at Alsonyek revealed numerous Starcevo features, over 50 in the southern part of subsite 10B and some 500 in subsite 5603. The overwhelming majority of the features uncovered were individual pits and pit complexes. Traces of houses or above-ground structures were recorded, but no certain house plans could be identified; numerous hearths and ovens were found. 25 Starcevo burials have been identified, with some in disused pits and ovens. The occupation excavated in subsite 5603 was substantial, the largest yet discovered in Transdanubia. The north-west distribution of the Early Neolithic cultural complex of the northern Balkans – the Starcevo, Koros and Cris cultures – represents the first food-producing communities in many parts of the Carpathian basin. Starcevo sites are now known in the southern part of western Hungary up to Lake Balaton, but there are many unresolved questions about the precise chronology of the Early Neolithic in Transdanubia and beyond, in the St...
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