The research by Eszter Solnay and Zsuzsanna Siklósi (Institute of Archaeological Sciences) examines Early and Middle Copper Age pottery (c. 4500–3650 BCE), with a focus on the continuity and variation of manufacturing techniques.
The territory of present-day Budapest was already an important region in prehistory, serving as an interaction zone between the eastern and western parts of the Carpathian Basin: between the Great Hungarian Plain and Transdanubia. This research focuses on the Early and Middle Copper Age of the region (4500–3650 BCE), a period characterised by the emergence and disappearance of various pottery forms and decorative styles, which previous studies often interpreted as the result of new communities settling in the area.
The study led by Eszter Solnay and Zsuzsanna Siklósi addresses this question using a new methodological framework for pottery analysis, i.e. the technological approach to the pottery assemblages of seven Copper Age archaeological sites from the region. Their technological analysis is based on the widely recognised observation that forming is one of the most stable stages of pottery production. The reason for this is that the motoric and cognitive skills required for vessel forming are acquired through a long learning process during which the apprentice observes and imitates the “way of doing” of the tutor. By the end of this process, the learned skills become fixed and are difficult to change later. Thus, learning always takes place within communities of practice, i.e. social groups connected by mutual technical knowledge and the personal transmission of expertise. Through the continuous transmission of these forming techniques over long periods, distinct technical traditions emerge. In addition to forming, the study also examined the modalities of regularising the surface of the formed vessels (i.e., surface treatment), which could have been influenced not only by long-term technical traditions but also by aesthetic or practical considerations.
The results of the technological analysis indicate that
most Early and Middle Copper Age potters in the Budapest Region made their vessels according to a mutual technical tradition.
In this shared knowledge, most of the vessel shapes had their own way of making, for example, jugs and bowls were consistently made using different techniques. Therefore, the results do not support the hypothesis that the changes in vessel forms and decoration were caused by the arrival of new communities. Instead, they imply the strong continuity of the local communities throughout the studied period.
At the same time, a limited degree of technological variability was observed at some sites, manifesting in two ways. Some potters used forming methods belonging to the mutual technical tradition to create vessel forms that were generally made with another method, while others used techniques that were likely not part of the common technological repertoire. The coexistence of both mutual and uncommon techniques suggests that several parallel learning networks existed within the Budapest Region, most of which cannot be linked to a specific period or site.
Based on the combination of mutual technical traditions and minor technological variations, two general types of Copper Age communities can be distinguished. The technological diversity of some sites suggests the presence of multiple potters, who, in some cases, might have followed a different tradition than the mutual one. This indicates more extensive social networks of these communities. In contrast, settlements where potters almost exclusively used the mutual technical tradition were probably more closed, reflecting more closed communities.
Figure: Pottery forming processes and the resulting pottery forms (Source: Solnay et al. 2025, Fig. 4.)