Altogether 26 lithic finds were unearthed during the excavation at Tiszaug-Railway-Station.
All came from Feature 6. Of these, eight were made on obsidian and one on limnosilicite from the Tokaj Mountains, 14 originated from Transdanubia, from the Bakony Mountains, while
103 Füzesi 2016, 381–382, Fig. 12.
104 Csengeri 2011; 2014; Goldman 1978; Goldman – Szénászky 2002; Kalicz – Koós 2000; Raczky 2000;
Raczky – Anders 2003; Sebők 2017; Sebők – Kovács 2009.
105 Sebők – Kovács 2009, 82.
106 Csengeri 2011, Fig. 1, Fig. 3, 3, Fig. 8, 1–4; Csengeri 2014, Fig. 3. 2.
107 Raczky – Anders 2003.
three pieces of Felnémet-type opalite came from the Bükk Mountains. Among the obsidian pieces, only the Carpathian 1, Slovakian subtype could be distinguished, a classification con-firmed by three cortical pieces (Fig. 39.1–6). The chipped stones made on radiolarite are all liver-brown coloured, which assigns them to the subtype known as the Szentgál type in the literature (Fig. 39.7–9,13–19). Two are cortical and two show traces of heat shock. Three pieces are from a special raw material from the Bükk Mountains known as Felnémet-type opalite (Fig. 39.10–12). The last chipped stone is made on limnosilicite, a raw material widely known from the territory of the Northern Mountain Range, although this piece possibly originates from its Tokaj Mountain section.
The more frequent a raw material, the more varied the main technological categories made from a particular material. Accordingly, the only type that includes cores, flakes, blades and retouched tools is radiolarite: two cores, six flakes, one blade and five tools could be assigned here. Obsidian cores are missing, but two flakes, three blades and three retouched pieces are made of this rock type. All the Felnémet-type opalite artefacts are formal tools, and the only limnosilicite piece is a blade fragment. Both radiolarite cores are fragments: one is a remnant of a formerly orthogonal piece, the other is one-half of a prismatic type. Three flakes of the eight pieces have visible talons, all of them are plain, but they show wide angles of detach-Fig. 14. Retouched tools from Tiszaug-Railway-Station.
1 2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10
11
0 5 cm
ment, between 60 and 90 degrees. The assemblage lacks unbroken blades, only proximal (3 pieces) and distal (2 pieces) fragments were attested; moreover, they are evenly distributed among the different raw material types. The narrowest blade fragment is a 13 mm broad radiolarite, the broadest is a 20 mm obsidian piece. Talons were discernible on only three ex-emplars of two raw materials (obsidian, limnosilicite): two were plain and one was facetted.
The detachment angles fall between 80 and 90 degrees, which can indicate punch or pressure techniques. Two of the five unretouched blade fragments showed languette breakages, which can be directly associated with a knapping accident during the detachment.
Retouched pieces are present in relatively high numbers (11 pieces), especially considering the modest size of the assemblage. Laterally retouched blades are the most numerous with four pieces. Three are made on radiolarite (Fig. 14.2–3) and one piece on Felnémet-type opalite (Fig. 14.1–11). All are retouched on the dorsal side, two pieces are retouched on both edges, of which one piece is retouched on both sides on both edges with alternating detachments.
Sickle gloss was present on three of the four pieces, always parallel to the retouched edges of the tools. The rest of the tool types have an even distribution: two end-scrapers (Fig. 14.4–5), two combined tools (Fig. 14.6–10) and two retouched flakes (Fig. 14.7–8) formed the remainder of the tool-kit. End-scrapers are exclusively made of radiolarite, with both made on the distal part of a blade fragment. The two combined tools bear retouch on their left edges, both have end-scrapers on their distal ends, while one of them is from radiolarite, the other from Fel-német-type opalite. Both retouched flakes are made of obsidian: one is retouched on one side, the other on two opposed sides. The last retouched piece is a truncated blade fragment, which was also made on obsidian (Fig. 14.9). Traces of retouching can be made out on its proximal end, the talon part was truncated.
To sum up the results and set them into context, the raw material spectrum of the lithic finds from Tiszaug-Railway-Station fits into the broad picture already known from the literature (Fig. 15). The presence of Transdanubian radiolarite, especially from the Bakony Mountains, is a well-documented phenomenon in the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain, particu-larly from the Szakálhát period onward.108 Together with the obsidian and limnosilicite pieces, the Tiszaug assemblage resembles the ones from Battonya-Gödrösök, Battonya-Parázstanya, Dévaványa-Sártó, Gerla-Kászmán, Kunszentmiklós-Középszenttamás, Mezőberény-Bódishát and Tiszaföldvár-Téglagyár.109 The appearance of Felnémet-type opalite is a novelty because this raw material was generally considered more abundant in the Palaeolithic, although more recent data indicates its use in later periods too.110 Concerning technology and typology, the cited analogies are hardly known in these respects: nearly all contained but a low number of pieces, similarly to the assemblage from Tiszaug. Moreover, no conjoins were detected among the mentioned pieces, despite refitting efforts. The chaîne operatoire seems incomplete, although cores, flakes, blades and retouched pieces were mentioned. In general, the blade technology fits well into the broad picture drawn by previous scholarship on the Linear Pot-tery lithic industry.111 The half-broken cores are either prismatic, with one striking and one debitage platform, or orthogonal, with several striking and debitage platforms perpendicular to each other. On the testimony of the proximal parts and talons of the debitage products,
di-108 Biró – Regenye 1991; Biró 1991, 34; Biró 1998, 35.
109 Biró 1998.
110 Faragó et al. 2016.
111 Kaczanowska 1985; 2001; Kozłowski 2001.
rect percussion and punch techniques could have been equally employed, as the angles of the detachments vary between 60 and 90 degrees. Most of the times the talons show no further preparation, with the exception of three pieces which can be assigned to the facetted or dièdre types. The relatively high ratio and typological variability of the retouched pieces both con-firm the general impression of Linear Pottery assemblages. The greater part of the tool-kit was made on blades; it mainly consists of laterally retouched blades with sickle gloss, followed by end-scrapers, a combined tool, and a truncated blade.