Open AccessA Unique Megalithic find from the Great Hungarian Plain : Preliminary Report on the Research of a Stone Stele from Kevermes
Author(s) -
Gergely Bóka,
Attila Gyucha,
István Oláh,
Máté Stibrányi,
Mihály Pethe,
Zsolt Kasztovszky,
Attila Kreiter,
Michael L. Galaty,
Timothy J. Ward,
Balázs Szemerey-Kiss,
Danielle J. Riebe,
Pál Medgyesi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
hungarian archaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2416-0296
DOI - 10.36338/ha.2021.4.4
Subject(s) - megalith , stele , calligraphy , archaeology , context (archaeology) , ancient history , history , art , visual arts , painting
Large, complex megalithic monuments erected in great numbers on the Atlantic coast and in northern Europe during the 4th‒2nd millennia BC have never been found in Hungary, and the architectural forms and decorative arts of passage and chamber tombs, dolmens, stone circles, and menhirs have not been linked to the archaeological heritage of the Carpathian Basin. This is what renders a stone stele, with engravings evoking some megaliths in western Europe, found near Kevermes in the southeastern Great Hungarian Plain so extraordinary. In this article, we report the results of our research related to this unique object to clarify the circumstances of its discovery, to examine the possibility of forgery, to specify the raw material and provenance of the stele, and to explore the original context. In our next paper, we will present detailed descriptions of the analytical results and discuss the interactions and networks that may have led to the appearance of the motifs on the Kevermes stele on the Great Hungarian Plain.