The non-appearance of piles and organic matter may probably be accounted for by their rapid decomposition from alternate exposure to air and water.
Further notices of these finds were given by Count Wurmbrand (B. 259), Dr. Much (B. 318), and Von Luschan (B. 365).
PILE STRUCTURES IN HUNGARY.
On the right bank of the Theiss, a few miles from the railway-station of Szolnok, and near the village of Tószeg, there is an artificial mound called "Kuczorgó or Lapos-halom," to which, since the meeting of the International Congress at Buda-Pesth, in 1876, much importance is attached on account of the opinion expressed by Pigorini that it is identical in structure with the terramara mounds of Northern Italy. The mound, though now considerably undermined by the river Theiss during the great floods of 1876, is still of considerable extent, measuring some 360 mètres in length, and 100 in breadth, and rising to a maximum height of 8 mètres over the surrounding plain. It is only in times of flood that the waters reach the mound, its usual bed being about 1½ mile distant. When the artificial nature of this mound became known by the section exposed by the floods, some extensive investigations were made to determine its archæological character. The objects collected in these researches were exhibited at the Congress as a special find, and among them were the following (Catalogue, pp. 85-87):—
1. Perforated hammers of staghorn, various pointed implements of horn and bone, perforated teeth of pigs, and a leg-bone perforated in two places, probably a skate.
2. Polished stone celts and perforated hammers, four flint flakes, and one of obsidian, corn-crushers, and various other worked stones.
3. Fragment of a bronze pin, a bronze knife, and a small ingot of bronze.
4. Pottery, showing a variety of dishes, some with handles, etc.; various objects of burnt clay, as a whistle, buttons, a spoon, 18 pyramidal clay weights (perforated), etc.
5. A considerable amount of food refuse, as bones, scales of fish, shells, charred wheat, etc.
When the International Congress was held at Buda-Pesth, Pigorini, Virchow, and Miss Mestorf visited this mound, and made some further researches, which not only confirmed Pigorini in his suspicions about the structure of the mound, but also led his distinguished fellow investigators to accept the main portion of his theory. Upon their return home they[30] published separate accounts of this excursion to Tószeg and the results obtained, from which I must here be content to notice that the following propositions are admitted facts:—