Tisza culture

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The Tisza culture (also Tisza culture ), named after the river Tisza ( Tisza in Hungarian ), was widespread in the end of the Neolithic in eastern Hungary and in parts of former Yugoslavia and Romania . The culture existed parallel to the Herpály culture in the Berettyó region (north-east Hungary) and to the Csőszhalom group in the Bodrog region (eastern Slovakia), hence the Tisza-Herpály-Csőszhalom culture . The Lengyel culture in western Hungary and the Vinča culture also ran parallel. It took elements of the Bükker culture , the Alföld linear ceramics , the Esztár and Szákálhat cultures . It should not be confused with the following Eeolithic Tiszapolgár culture .

chronology

Level Tisza neighboring cultures absolute date
I. Notenkopf-LBK, Želiezovce, Sopot, Bükk, Vinča B2
II (classic) Herpály I, II, Lengyel I, Vinča C
III Herpály III, Lengyel II, Vinča D1, Sopot-Lengyel
Prototiszapolgár Vinča D2, Sopot III, Lengyel IIIa

Ceramics

Vessels with vertical walls and painted (black, red and yellow) with a wickerwork of meander patterns (mat or textile pattern) are typical . In the early Tisza culture, vessels were often painted with pitch and covered with straws in geometric patterns. In the classic Tisza culture, there are already undecorated vessels with a shiny, polished surface and many small knobs; towards the end, incised patterns become rare. Individual houses could contain 40–50 vessels, and they often contained square, clay-lined storage pits for grain (capacity 700–1200 l).

The Tisza culture, like the neighboring Vinča culture in Serbia and in the Banat, knows idol figures and tonal altars. Biconical vessels with a conical neck and a high openwork base probably also served cultic purposes. The most famous clay figure is the so-called sickle god from Szegvár-Tűzköves . It is a seated figure of indeterminate gender who may be wearing a mask. A similar figure comes from Öcsöd-Kováshalom. Hollow ceramics with applications such as the three figures of Venus von Kökénydomb are also known . Human figures made of marble or rock crystal are rare .

bone

Harpoons were made from bones, among other things .

copper

Copper was already known, but was mainly used to make jewelry.

Flint

The use of Volhynian chalk and flint was also typical . Rare was obsidian used in Zemplén, imports of Krakow Tschenstochau- chert , quartz porphyry and chalcedony from the Mátra are rare. Blades of considerable length were made.

Settlement

A main focus of this culture is found along the Marosch and Kreisch . The size of the settlements is between 1 and 30 hectares. Tells are only found south of the Körös, this may have climatic causes. On the upper Tisza, central settlements such as those on the banks of the Berettyó near Mezőtúr and Öcsöd-Kováshalom, which are mostly located at estuaries, were surrounded by a regular network of smaller towns.

The rectangular houses were often made up of several parts and were built wall to wall. Some researchers see signs of a hierarchical social structure in these regularly established settlements . Some houses had rammed earth walls, but mostly split wood posts supported the roof. They were mostly oriented from northwest to southeast and between 7 and 18 m long. The unstable walls consisted of mud-smeared reeds or brushwood and were often painted or decorated with plastic. Animal heads made of clay were attached to the gables . The floor of clay-covered boards. Ovens and stoves belonged to every house.

Some larger houses, e.g. B. in Véstő, are interpreted as a temple , but this is controversial.

economy

There were einkorn , emmer , barley and flax grown.

In the upper Tisza region, cattle and pigs are the most important domestic animals, followed by ovicaprids (sheep and goats). However, some settlements have up to 60% wild animal bones, especially aurochs and wild boar . It is contemplated that the livestock population may have been replenished with the hunt. Jewelry made from wolf and deer teeth in the graves also indicates the importance of hunting. Bone harpoons show that fish were also caught. The spread of flint , copper and spondylus mussels took place over long distances.

funeral

Stool burials in settlements (east-west orientation) prevailed; the dead were only buried stretched out in the central Tisza region. Ocher , pearls and bracelets made of spondylus , animal teeth, stone beads, flint tools, ceramics and sometimes copper jewelry served as additions . At this time, however, the first cemeteries can also be found outside the settlements.

Important sites

literature

  • B. Gediga: Methodological problems in the evaluation of archaeological sources for the reconstruction of prehistoric religions. In: Friedrich Schlette, Dieter Kaufmann (eds.): Religion and Cult in Prehistory and Early History (= Historian Society of the GDR. Conference of the Pre- and Early History Section 13). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000662-5 .
  • Walter Meier-Arendt (Ed.) Everyday life and religion. Neolithic in Eastern Hungary. Museum of Prehistory and Early History, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-88270-314-8 .
  • N. Kalicz: The Szákálhat, Tisza and Herpály-Csöszhalom cultures of the middle and late Neolithic in Hungary. In: Joachim Preuß (Ed.): The Neolithic in Central Europe. Cultures - Economy - Environment. From the 6th to the 3rd millennium BC, overviews of the state of research. Volume 1, Part A. Beier & Beran, Weißbach 1998, ISBN 3-930036-10-X , pp. 307-315.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Tisza culture (Tisza - Herpály - Csőszhalom). Danube archeology
Predecessor:
Szákálhat 		Hungarian prehistory Successor: Tiszapolgár