The investigations and results presented here were carried out in the framework of a DAAD-MÖB bilateral project. As a part of the complex aim of this project, a limited sample collection (containing ceramics, floor and daub) from two Neolithic archaeological sites, Tiszaszõlõs-Domaháza and Füzesabony-Gubakút, was investigated. In addition to this archaeological sample group, geological samples (near surface clayey soils/sediments) were collected from the vicinity of the sites to find the most likely sources of raw materials for pottery making. Both ceramic and sediment samples were subjected to the same methodological research (microscopic petrographic and instrumental chemical investigations). In this way comparable data could be gained.

One aim of our research was to make a comparison between the ceramic (and other clay derivative) finds of the two Neolithic sites (Tiszaszõlõs-Domaháza is connected to the Körös, while Füzesabony-Gubakút to the Alföld Linear Pottery Culture). It became clear that – despite the different cultures – the two pottery assemblages show significant technological similarities to each other and to ceramic material from the Körös Culture. The other aim of our research was to identify the most probable sources of raw materials for pottery making and to characterise the pottery manufacturing process. The results show that Early Neolithic potters probably made their pots directly (without any washing or cleaning) from the local alluvial clayey sediment which they could collect from topographic depressions of the landscape in the vicinity of the sites. They added variable sized plant remnants to this paste as a temper. Then the hand fashioned vessels were fired at a relatively low (700—750°C) temperature in an atmospherically non-controlled firing place. A floor remnant from Tiszaszõlõs-Domaháza was made of a more carbonatic raw material than the pots.

On the one hand, our results can help to define the pottery traditions of these two Neolithic sites from an archaeological point of view. On the other hand, they can extend the presently sporadic raw data on archaeometrical ceramic investigations of this archaeological era.