TOTENBRETT ODER TOTENHÜTTE? ZUR STRUKTUR DER GRÄBER DER LENGYEL-KULTUR MIT PFOSTENSTELLUNG IN SÜDTRANSDANUBIEN
FUNERAL BED OR CABIN? ON THE STRUCTURE OF LENGYEL GRAVES WITH POSTS IN SOUTH TRANSDANUBIA.

Summary/Abstract: Funeral bed or cabin? On the structure of Lengyel graves with posts in South Transdanubia. The authors analyse the shapes and the structures of the graves of the Late Neolithic – Early Copper Age (Lengyel culture) cemetery of AlsónyékBátaszék (South Transdanubia) with the help of trait analysis (“Merkmalanalyse”). The primary aim of the analysis is to examine the evolution and the origin of the uncovered post structure graves, a new phenomenon in the Central and SE European Neolithic and Copper Age. A hundred and twenty-three graves (7.72% of all the graves) had an interior posthole in each corner of the shaft. Several types and versions of this grave structure could be distinguished based on metric and morphological traits. Beside the typology of the grave shafts, the authors examine the social status of the persons who were often buried in these graves with especially rare and unique grave furniture. According to the final conclusions, they were not immigrants but the members of the local Lengyel population. The data shed light on both the social and the hierarchical changes that took place in the life of the Lengyel communities at the end of the Late Neolithic and in the initial phase of the Early Copper Age.

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