A Multiscalar Approach to Modeling the End of the Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain Using Calibrated Radiocarbon Dates

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This article presents the results of a multiscalar analysis of 168 radiocarbon dates from Neolithic and Copper Age sites on the Great Hungarian Plain. We examined chronological patterns at different geographic scales to explore socioeconomic changes that occurred during the transition from the Neolithic to the Copper Age. The beginning and end of the Late Neolithic (5000-4500 cal BC) and Early Copper Age (4500-4000 cal BC) were modeled with 14 C dates calibrated with the CALIB 5.01 program and IntCal04 calibration curve. Our attempts to identify chronological subphases within these 500-yrlong periods were confounded by multiple intercepts in the calibration curve. The analysis indicated that terminal Late Neolithic (4700-4300 cal BC) and "transitional" Proto-Tiszapolgár occupations (4600-4250 cal BC) at tell sites were contemporary with initial Early Copper Age habitations (4450-4250 cal BC). Calibrated dates from small Early Copper Age settlements at Vésztı-Bikeri and Körösladány-Bikeri document changes in community and household organization that took place over several decades during the transition to the Copper Age. Bayesian analysis indicated that the small fortified sites were occupied contiguously in phases of 30-50 yr. The younger Körösladány-Bikeri site was established before the older Vésztı-Bikeri site was abandoned. When large nucleated Late Neolithic communities dispersed and established small Early Copper Age settlements, the pattern of vertical accretion that had created the Late Neolithic tells gave way to a pattern of horizontal settlement accretion at the smaller settlements.

Prehistoric animal use on the Great Hungarian Plain: A synthesis of isotope and residue analyses from the Neolithic and Copper Age

“…While we know from previous research that agricultural intensification occurred from the Middle to the Late Neolithic periods and was followed by a period of abatement from the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age (Kalicz, 1970;Makkay, 1982;Parkinson, 1999, 109;Raczky, 1989;Yerkes et al, 2009), the residue analysis results show that dairying played a minor role in this pattern. Only one dairy residue sample was clearly identified out of the 40 tested from the Late Neolithic and Copper Age (2.5% of samples tested to identify the type of animal fat present contained dairy fat residues).…”

“…Previous research on the Great Hungarian Plain has focused on the first farmers of the Early Neolithic (e.g., Whittle, 2007) and the tell builders of the Late Neolithic settlements (e.g., Raczky, 1987). It is not until recently that Copper Age sites have been systematically excavated (Gyucha, 2009;Gyucha et al, 2004Gyucha et al, , 2006Gyucha et al, , 2007Gyucha et al, , 2009Gyucha et al, , 2011Parkinson, 2006;Parkinson et al, 2002Parkinson et al, , 2004aParkinson et al, , 2004bParkinson et al, , 2010Yerkes et al, 2007Yerkes et al, , 2009. Despite this growing body of work on Copper Age sites, for comparison purposes the faunal data remain disproportionately under represented.…”

“…This system, based on mixed farming and animal husbandry, could be employed away from the nucleated tell-centred Late Neolithic settlement complexes. Furthermore, there seems to have been a change in social organization that favoured less integration at the household and settlement level and more interaction between settlements over broader geographic areas (Parkinson, 2006;Parkinson et al, 2010;Yerkes et al, 2009). Settlements composed of smaller household units dispersed, perhaps because smaller settlements were more economically viable in the heterogeneous or ''patchy'' environment of the Körös Basin, especially if they were occupied for shorter periods of time.…”

Osteological and Biomolecular Evidence of a 7000-Year-Old Case of Hypertrophic Pulmonary Osteopathy Secondary to Tuberculosis from Neolithic Hungary

“…This occupation span fits with overall ranges for the Tisza culture [34], [35] and the Hungarian Late Neolithic [38], 4970–4490 BC and 4970–4380 BC respectively. Using new recalibrations, Yerkes and colleagues [39] utilised 107 Late Neolithic samples to produce a range of dates from 5021 to 4402 BC for the whole period.…”

Petrological Analysis of Late Neolithic Ceramics from the Tell Settlement of Gorzsa (South-East Hungary)

“…This phase seems to show a close stratigraphical relationship with Phase A, therefore the ceramics of these phases are analysed together (marked as AB). According to calibrated radiocarbon dates, the Late Neolithic occupation of the Gorzsa tell occurred between 4846-4495 cal BC (Yerkes et al 2009;Horváth 2014), but the evaluation of new AMS dates is still in progress. Gorzsa belongs to the Tisza-Herpály-Csőszhalom cultural complex and was roughly contemporary with the Proto-Lengyel, Lengyel I-IIIa culture in Transdanubia; the Iclod group and Petreşti A/Foeni culture in Transylvania and Banat and with Vinča C1/first half of D2 phases in the northern Balkans (Horváth 2005;2014;Starnini et al 2015).…”