Novajidrány–Sárvár-Erdészház : A Celtic Cemetery at the Foothills of Cserehát, Hungary

At the end of the 4th century BC, and the beginning of the 3rd century BC a Celtic population wave reached the eastern parts of the Carpathian Basin, including Northeastern Hungary. The elements of the funerary rite and the archaeological finds attest to the presence of the newly arrived communities in the cemeteries of the region. The present study serves as a preliminary report on the research results of a Celtic cemetery in the Hernád valley excavated in 2019. The site of Novajidrány–Sárvár-erdészház was in use between the late 4th century BC the earliest and the 3rd century BC and it fits well into the row of Late Iron Age cemeteries in the region. Both cremated and inhumated burials were documented with richly accompanied metal and pottery grave goods. Appearing next to the typically La Tène-styled finds, the graves also contained – mainly in the ceramic assemblages – Scythian-influenced forms which can be explained by the Celtic and Scythian cohabitation in the region during the Late Iron Age.

Methods and Opportunities in the Research of Bronze Age Communities : The Outcomes of the Bioarchaeological Research Programme of the Momentum Mobility Research Group (2015-2020)

Although there is no textual evidence known from the Bronze Age, written sources describing migrations of later (i.e. Early Medieval) periods effecting the Carpathian Basin were interpreted as instances of cultural and population change which could be comparable with processes that took place during the Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin. In the past two decades, Eurasian archaeological research received a new impetus to investigate the traces of migrations during prehistory, in collaboration with other disciplines such as isotope geochemistry or archaeogenetics. The current project which commenced in 2015, funded by the ‛Momentum Programme’ of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, was set out to investigate the societal changes that had taken place within the boundaries of modern-day Hungary – contemporaneous with the builders of the great pyramids of Egypt and the Greek heroes of the Mycenaean shaft graves – by analysing the settlements, cemeteries and the artefacts recovered from these archaeological sites. The project, for the first time in Hungarian Bronze Age research, employs a range of multidisciplinary methodologies in order to examine the social changes of the period. The present paper is to provide an overview of a particular aspect of this research: the outcomes of the bioarchaeological enquiries with special regards to the general health, mobility and the lifestyle of studied populations.

Architectural Elements of a Royal Residence : 15th-century Stone Carvings in Tata Castle

Being an important historical monument and a popular tourist destination, Tata Castle in Komárom-Esztergom County is well-known for many people. The medieval castle rising on the shore of the picturesque Old Lake offers outstanding scenery for its visitors. Although the castle had an important representative role during late medieval times and its archaeological excavation was conducted half a century ago, historians have made few efforts to research the building history and representative function of the castle more thoroughly. In its current state, the castle reveals little of its original 15th century appearance. However, a detailed examination of the remaining walls and stone carvings can help us to better understand the castle’s history.

Abnormal Tooth Wear Caused by Tool Use Found in the Cemetery of Szalaszend, Hungary, Dated to the Period of the Hungarian Conquest (10th c.)

The Archaeological Heritage Directorate of the Hungarian National Museum conducted excavations in 2018 preceding the construction of motorway M30. The site of Szalaszend–Kis-és Nagyhegy in north-east Hungary is located south of a Bronze Age earth mound. Only a few burials were brought to light from the 10th century, however, this assemblage revealed a fair amount of valuable archaeological and anthropological data. From an anthropological point of view, burial no. SNR407 was most significant, as these remains offered a glimpse into the lifestyle of this 10th-century population. The abnormal wear observed on the enamel of a front tooth of the male individual can be interpreted as a sign of a tooth-tool use, suggesting an activity when a hard object is held by the teeth during an activity that requires the use of both hands.

A Quarried Excavation Site : Late Bronze Age Relics Unearthed in a Gravel Pit near Muhi

East of the village of Muhi, in the direction of Nyékládháza, there are huge gravel pits, many of which have already been abandoned, flooded, and transformed into popular modern resorts. Recently, new gravel extraction sites have also been opened, and so a rescue excavation of the Muhi-III kavicsbánya (gravel pit) site took place in 2019. After months of excavation, the artifacts are still in the process of being cleaned and restored, and so until this work is complete, it is only possible to outline a brief overview of the important and remarkable finds. Features have been excavated from several periods (Middle Neolithic, Late Bronze Age, and Early Iron Age), but the most significant ones are those from the Late Bronze Age. These finds reveal information about a place of intensive human activity, a settlement on the border of different European cultural zones that participated in long-distance trade. These influences are reflected in varied elements of material culture. The large quantities of metal and ceramic finds brought to light in various conditions can be dated to the so-called pre-Gava period based on finds from the major features (urn graves, vessel hoards), and thus provide new information on the Late Bronze Age history of the Sajó-Hernád plain.

Archaeological Traces of Rural Coin Counterfeiting in Tolna County in the 16th–17th Centuries

“Hidden in dark forests, shifty characters with shady pasts were producing caps full of coins or Polish groschen from base metal in peasant cottages” (Komáromy 1893, 648). It is as if András Komáromy in his 1893 story for the journal Századok was describing the archaeological finds from Tolna County we will present below. The scene he portrays was of the difficult times following the Battle of Mohács, when even poor people tried their hand at the forbidden activity of counterfeiting. We can learn of the efforts of noblemen at counterfeiting from the work of Komáromy through the confession of a man (master Nicholas) accused of this activity. One of the most interesting parts of the science of numismatics is counterfeiting, because it is only a slight exaggeration that there have been fakes ever since the birth of money. Despite the distinctive nature of the topic, little is known of it even today. Knowledge is particularly scanty about so-called rural counterfeiting workshops, with few written sources – in contrast to those on counterfeiting by noblemen. In our paper we would like to provide some useful archaeological data primarily through surveys with metal detectors and field walks on a relatively small but intensively studied topic of the Ottoman Period.

The Mesolithic Research of a Decade: Early Holocene Settlements in Transdanubia

Despite the promising research trends of the last decades, it is striking that traces of Mesolithic settlements have only rarely come to light in the Carpathian Basin so far. The area of Transdanubia is not an exception. With the cooperation of three institutes, a research program was launched in 2003 with the aim of discovering new find places of the period, as well as re-evaluating finds that had been taken to museums earlier and classified as Mesolithic. The field surveys revealed Early Holocene sites in the South-East Transdanubian region in the valley of the Kapos and Koppány Rivers, mainly in the outskirts of Kaposhomok and Regöly. The sites mainly came to light on the island-like reliefs elevating only a few meters from the present-day floodplain. The dating of the surface finds, especially chipped stone artefacts, was primarily based on the geometric microliths, which contain asymmetric triangles, segments, and trapezes. We could even reveal Mesolithic finds within stratigraphic position at the site of Regöly 2, where the remains of a domestic structure also came to light.

A Late Roman Luxury Villa in Nagyharsány, at the Feet of the Szársomlyó Mountain

Those who visit the tourist attractions of the Villány–Siklós wine route may not even suspect that a ruin of a high-status Roman villa is hiding under the picturesque landscape with vineyards at the foot of the Szársomlyó Mountain. The Mediterranean beauty and climate of this region attracted the late imperial elite of the Roman Empire, among whom an influential, senatorial family built its luxury villa here. This villa only revealed its significance and treasures slowly. After the excavation of its bathhouse, an unfortunately commissioned deep ploughing twisted large pieces of the mosaic floors out of the ground. After a long pause, the Hungarian National Museum continued the investigation of the site in 2016. The excavations brought to light the villa’s banquet hall, the floor of which was once covered with colourful mosaics representing the highest quality of Roman mosaic art. Masterpieces of Roman glass craftmanship – pieces of a wine set – were also found here. The villa of Nagyharsány plays an important role in the research of the Seuso Treasure too. The luxury reflected by the interior decoration and the artefacts of the banquet hall proved that the educated and wealthy imperial aristocracy was present in late Roman Pannonian provinces, the members of which could afford a set of silver tableware comparable to the Seuso Treasure in quality, understood the literary and visual culture based on the classical education of the elite, and spoke its sophisticated language.

Digital Geographies and Virtual Landscape Archaeology : Reconstructing the Iron Gates Castle System Under the Miasma of COVID-19

The Iron Gates gorge system is formed by the convergence of the Carpathians and Balkan mountain ranges that collide and plunge directly into the Danube River (Fig. 1). The geographical conditions of this region have created a frontier zone in different periods, and the historical context of this article deals specifically with the period between 1429 and c. 1435 when this castle system was placed under the control of a contingent from the Teutonic Order to help defend the Kingdom of Hungary against an impending Ottoman invasion. The Teutonic Order’s mission was a military expedition and King Sigismund’s use of a contingent from the Teutonic Order as a military force in this region was a part of his overall strategy to protect his kingdom from further invasion by Ottoman armies under Sultan Murad II (1404–1451). The Danube river, itself, at this time served as the frontier between the Kingdom of Hungary and the recently conquered Ottoman territory on the southern bank. The theme of this article centers on the application of traditional techniques of landscape archaeology to perform a military analysis of these fortifications in the Iron Gates castle chain using more novel avenues of research- given travel bans and other restrictions brought about by the on-going Corona-19 crisis.

The Skull in the Oven : An unusual variant of the skull cult from the Late Copper Age

Various forms of the skull cult have been attested since the Palaeolithic across immense and geographically often distant regions. Several variants of this distinctive rite dating from the later fourth millennium BC have been documented in the Carpathian Basin: skulls placed in inhumation burials and skulls or skull fragments buried in separate graves, as well as skull fragments or mandibles deposited in pits, wells or other settlement features. Any assessment of skull cults is ultimately based on finds of intact or fragmented neurocraniums (ossa cranii cerebralis) and the viscerocraniums (ossa cranii visceralis), while mandibles are rarely found in this context. Yet, no matter which fragment of the skull is found in a burial or some other feature, the entire skull was needed for removing the portions necessary for performing the rite. The large-scale excavations conducted during the past years have yielded further evidence for the practice of this rite from several sites in Hungary. Here, we shall discuss a new element, namely the deposition of human skull fragments in ovens.