• Technological comparison of Early and Middle Bronze Age Hatvan/Late Hatvan and Füzesabony pottery. • Late Hatvan and Füzesabony table wares suggest highly skilled pottery producers. • No differences in raw material choice and tempering were detected between the Late Hatvan and Füzesabony style pottery. • Late Hatvan and Füzesabony ceramics from northeastern Hungary differs in grog tempering from other EBA/MBA pottery styles of the Carpathian Basin. During the end of the Early and in the Middle Bronze Age (2200–1500/1450 BCE, Reinecke BzA1–B), tell-living societies were widespread across central and eastern Hungary. These communities have traditionally been classified into several cultural groups based on distinct funerary rites and ceramic styles. In the Bükk Foothills of northeastern Hungary, the Hatvan ceramic style can be found during the Early Bronze Age, and the Füzesabony ceramic traditions appeared after 2000/1900 BCE. In the Middle Bronze Age, however, the Füzesabony style became more dominant, but the Hatvan/Late Hatvan traditions also represented in the region, often in the same sites. Beside differences in ceramic style, the two groups practiced different burial rites (Hatvan-cremation, Füzesabony-inhumation). While at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, strong connection occurs between them, regarding the ceramic style. This study examines two steps of the ceramic chaîne opératoire , specifically the raw material selection and tempering practices of Hatvan/Late Hatvan and Füzesabony style pottery, investigating assemblages from three sites from the Bükk Foothill zone: Bogács-Pazsagpuszta, Novaj-Földvár, and Vatta-Telek-oldal-dűlő. The sites are well-known and containing both Hatvan/Late Hatvan and Füzesabony style pottery. Additionally, the analysis includes a rare biconical vessel type, associated with the Late Hatvan style, which represent a regionally developed, specialized vessel form within the research area. The applied methods are thin section petrography, x-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). The results indicate that producers utilized similar raw materials despite their distinct stylistic features. This technological analogy suggests stability of social practices and at least partly similar cultural background between the Hatvan/Late Hatvan and Füzesabony traditions. Notably, the rare use of grog temper distinguishes the traditions of these groups from other contemporary Early and Middle Bronze Age groups. Finally, the biconical Late Hatvan table wares exhibit a consistent technological recipe, suggesting a unified manufacturing tradition for these specialized vessels.
Mengyán et al. (Sat,) studied this question.