The Prehistoric Settlement at Balatonőszöd–Temetői-dűlő

Regarding ​the size of the investigated area, the Copper Age site at Balatonőszod in Hungary is on par with Catal Hoyuk, one of the largest excavated settlements of the prehistoric world. The chronological, spatial and cultural relationship between Boleraz and Baden, initially regarded as successive phases of the same cultural complex, and between Baden and Kostolac, the latter variously interpreted as an independent culture and as a post-Baden, modified phase, can only be studied through sites on which all three, or at least two of these cultures are attested. Very few such sites have been identified during field surveys or excavated, and of the ones that have been archaeologically explored, no more than two have been published: Hlinsko in Moravia and Gomolava in Croatia, both tell-like, hilltop settlements. As such, the occupation area was restricted by the natural environment, and owing to the use of the available space and the long occupation of the sites, a series of superimposed occupation levels accumulated. The excavation of stratified settlements of this type is a challenge even if the most rigorous excavation techniques are employed: owing to the superimposed levels, the features cutting one another in the same level or in two successive levels can only be separated with difficulty. In contrast, this problem is rarely encountered on open, village-like settlements and thus the investigation of these sites can be performed more effectively and with greater precision, leaving fewer possibilities for mistakes. The single village-like, open settlement of the Late Copper Age where the relationship between Boleraz, Baden and Kostolac could be studied is the Balatonőszod–Temetői-dűlő site, which was excavated and documented according to modern standards; its finds have been systematically assessed both archaeologically and archaeometrically, the latter through contributions by specialists from other disciplines, and the preliminary findings have been thematically published in the form of Hungarian and foreign language articles and conference presentations. It is currently the single fully published site where all three archaeological cultures have been attested in the distribution of these cultures, extending across the territory of fourteen modern European states.