Dissertationes Archaeologicae

Investigations of an Early Iron Age Siege 2

2024-03-21T08:16:16+00:00

A research team of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University continued the fieldwork between 1 September 2022 and 31 December 2023 on two Early and Middle Iron Age sites, Dédestapolcsány-Verebce-bérc and Dédestapolcsány-Várerdő, in the frame of a project investigating Early Iron Age crises. New excavation trenches were opened at the fortified settlement in the north of the Bükk Mountains (Northern Hungary). One was an extension of a trench opened in 2022, where remains of a burnt house had been identified. Metal detector surveys recovered some new fascinating stray metal finds (e.g., an akinakes, battle axes, and the bronze protective sheath of a sword) and new assemblages (iron tool deposits and a hoard of gold jewellery and amber beads). Eleven more graves were excavated in the cemetery (Várerdő) north of the coeval settlement. The most interesting grave was the burial of an adult man with rich grave goods such as an ironworking toolkit, pottery, and other items.

Short report on the excavations of the Legionary Bath of Brigetio in 2023

2024-03-12T12:29:53+00:00

Since 2015, excavations have been carried out in different parts of the legionary fortress in Brigetio. Due to the systematic geophysical surveys of the praetentura, a large building complex came to light, which could be identified as the bath of the fortress, even before the fieldworks started in the territory. In the area of this building complex, the excavations started in 2021, and continued in the next two years. Now, an approximately 1800 m2 surface of the bath is excavated. During the last season of the fieldwork several heated and unheated rooms and three new (possible) pools and four praefurnia were unearthed. The north-eastern closure of the bath was identified, and parts of the northern apses of the basilica thermarum were unearthed. A huge number of coins and bronze small finds were discovered, and thanks to the brick stamps, some new data have become available on troop movements and military history of the Pannonian ripa.

The fort of Ad Mures (Ács, Komárom-Esztergom County, Hungary)

2024-01-22T10:31:22+00:00

The Roman auxiliary fort of Ad Mures (Ács-Bumbumkút, Komárom-Esztergom County, Hungary) has recently been studied intensively using geophysical surveys and a planned excavation by the team of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University. The paper presents the preliminary results of these investigations, focused on the layout of the fort and the relative chronology of the site, based on the data collected during the 2023 excavation. Results indicate several analogies with the fort of Ad Statuas (Ács-Vaspuszta).

Excavation of a Roman settlement in the north-western hinterland of Aquincum (Óbuda, Hungary) at Pilisszentiván

2023-12-17T21:37:48+00:00

As part of a new research project and a local history research project, a team of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University and the Archeovertex Ltd. excavated a Roman rural settlement in the territory of Pilisszentiván. The settlement is located in the northwestern hinterland of the Roman town of Aquincum (today: Óbuda, Hungary) in a scarcely investigated area. We documented the previously uncovered but unpublished remains of three buildings and made new observations on the chronology and function of the excavated settlement part.

Northwest Transdanubia from the end of the Early Bronze Age until the Koszider Period

2024-02-01T08:35:25+00:00

Review article of the PhD dissertation submitted in 2023 to the Archaeology Doctoral Programme, Doctoral School of History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and written under the supervision of Gábor V. Szabó.
The dissertation investigated the processes taking place at the end of the Early and in the Middle Bronze Age in northwest Hungary, predominantly in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, based on sites at Nagycenk, Hegyeshalom, Enese, Győr-Ménfőcsanak, and Mosonszentmiklós. This region between the Devín Gate and the confluence of the Rába and Danube rivers is important for European research on prehistory, as it could have been a gateway between the Carpathian Basin and the western parts of Central Europe. The complex statistical evaluation of the collected archaeological finds and their contexts has revealed the diversity of the material culture (Gáta–Wieselburg, Kisapostag, Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery Culture) and mortuary practices (inhumation and cremation burial rites, diverse patterns of grave furnishing) in the study area and period. In addition, a spatial analysis of the sites indicated a change in the settlement pattern between 2200 and 1500 BC. The typochronological analysis and the radiocarbon data helped specify the chronology and refine the connections maintained with Central European territories.

Cultural connections between the Eastern European steppe region and the Carpathian Basin in the 5th–7th centuries AD

2023-11-29T13:39:06+00:00

Extended, completed review of the theses of the PhD dissertation completed under the supervision of Tivadar Vida and submitted to the Archaeological Doctoral Programme, Doctoral School of History, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, in 2023.
The dissertation’s primary objective was to investigate the origins of the population that settled in the Trans-Tisza region in the 6th–7th centuries AD. According to prior studies, these populations, unlike the ‘Inner Asian Avars’, may have arrived in the Carpathian Basin from the Eastern European steppe. My research focused on burial practices, comparing the graves discovered in the two regions using quantitative and qualitative methods. The dissertation also includes a comprehensive presentation and analysis of the East European steppe material from the second half of the 5th to the middle third of the 7th century AD.

Obsidian-tipped spears from the Admiralty Islands in the Oceania Collection of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest

2024-02-01T09:00:20+00:00

The authors studied 36 obsidian-tipped spears in the Oceania collection of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. In addition to describing the objects from the Admiralty Islands collected before 1897, the paper provides a summary of the related ethnographic information, including the technological and technical details of spear point making and the characterisation of the obsidian raw material used.
The blades used for making the obsidian points presented in this study showed no sign of standardisation (an indicator of advanced blade technology) in the spear point-making process. According to 19th-century ethnographic sources, the functional part of the points was the most important, and much time and effort were invested in ensuring that the blades were effective weapons. Later, as a sign of decline, primary production of obsidian blades ceased, and manufacturers started scavenging old artefacts and utilising waste and by-products. As a result, the blades decreased in size and became more irregular, and an increasingly large number included parts of the cortex, the crust of obsidian. After 1911, the relative importance of decoration increased, and the type became more standardised.
The irregular shape of the spear points presented in the study and the thin, weak shafts with an awkward curvature raise questions about whether the spears were actual weapons. At the same time, the artistic decoration of the mounting sockets and ethnographic parallels suggest that the pieces in the collection were likely status objects instead.

New archaeobotanical finds from Baradla Cave

2023-08-29T07:09:11+00:00

The Baradla Cave is located in the Aggtelek Karst Region in Northern Hungary; it is one of the oldest known prehistoric sites in the country. The first excavations there in 1876–1877 are considered a milestone in Hungarian archaeology, and the research involved the first archaeobotanical analyses in Hungary. Although the cave was used in many periods with varied intensity, the vast majority of the artefacts are dated to the Middle Neolithic, while the Late Bronze Age represents a smaller but still significant portion of the archaeological record. The latest rescue excavation was carried out in 2019 in the Róka-ág [Róka branch] of the cave by a team from the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University. This paper presents the preliminary results obtained from the archaeobotanical analyses of the macro-remains recovered from the soil samples collected during this excavation. The charred remains were badly preserved, but it was possible to identify, among other seeds, emmer, barley, pea, and lentil. The uncertain dating of the samples further complicated the interpretation of the archaeobotanical finds.

Black or white, possibility or necessity?

2024-02-02T09:26:20+00:00

This paper aims to draw attention to how the process of virtual restoration of encrusted pottery can play a crucial role in understanding complex ornaments if the correct method of illustration is employed. To emphasise the importance of appropriate representation, the author has re-drawn some already published Bell Beaker vessels and presents a few more reconstructed examples from the Vučedol, Somogyvár–Vinkovci, and Ljubljana ceramic traditions. The study also addresses the theoretical limitations of reconstructing encrusted motifs, with a reflection on the latest arguments published on the topic. Furthermore, the paper presents case studies based on the newly made illustrations of the reconstructed encrusted patterns, revealing new insights into the interpretation of the motifs.

Chronology of the Bronze Age in southeast Transylvania

2024-02-07T09:24:42+00:00

The southeastern part of Transylvania has a specific location in the Carpathian Basin. Being situated on the western fringe of the Eastern Carpathians, influences from west (inner Transylvania and the Great Hungarian Plain) and east (Moldavia and the northern Pontic area) can be traced through human history. The mountains were never an impenetrable border, and their porosity has made it possible for external cultural influences to expand. As a result southeastern Transylvania can be seen as a “contact zone” between East and West, where the above-mentioned influences have sometimes been weaker, but have never ceased: the continuous contacts and links were always present between the two sides of the Carpathians, something that has been confirmed by the numerous archaeological discoveries. While in recent years more and more 14C data have been reported from central and western Transylvania, this number has been negligible from the study area. In the last three years we have managed to measure 33 samples from 23 key-sites belonging to the Bronze Age, covering the whole period. The results have brought us closer to answering the questions that have preoccupied specialists dealing with the Bronze Age for decades. Many of the dates are the first ones for some of the cultures present in the study area (for example, for the Jigodin and Gáva Cultures), offering new, independent dating. The new results confirm many of the earlier suppositions regarding the Bronze Age chronology of the area, but have also raised some problems, which will need to be clarified in the future.

A Looted ‘Hoard’ from ‘Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County’

2024-02-06T08:21:36+00:00

The study details a looted hoard seized near the village of Vaja by the Mátészalka Police during a night of police control. According to the person who smuggled the finds, the findings were discovered in the ‘attic of a house in Budapest, during garbage disposal’. This obvious lie can be easily refuted by the results of the typo-chronological analysis of the objects. The seized finds comprise sword blades, spearheads, a knife, socketed axes and chisels, sickles, bracelets, metal vessel parts, metal lumps, and some unidentifiable fragments. Except for a few supra-regional types (a Vadena-type knife and some Kelčice-type bracelets), the style of these artefacts matches the bronze products often deposited in Hajdúböszörmény-type (Ha B1) hoards in the east Carpathian Basin. The concentration of stylistically close analogies in the territory of Hungary and the presence of typologically identical finds in the assemblage support the previous hypothesis that they were indeed looted somewhere in ‘Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County’. A plausible findspot can be located in the northern and central areas of the county, such as the zone between Nyírmada, Mátészalka, Kántorjánosi, and Vaja, the area where the police action took place.

Same but different

2024-01-09T13:16:57+00:00

Attic black-figure vases from the Late Archaic and Early Classical periods are often neglected by scholars. Most of them are not included in the Beazley Archive Pottery Database, significantly hindering related research. This paper presents such a vase from the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The authors propose that the scene on the lekythos, akin to others from the era, is a simplified version of a more elaborate one.

Celtic plough and land use based on agricultural tool finds from the oppidum of Velem-Szent Vid

2024-02-12T08:17:30+00:00

The paper focuses on a group of finds obtained recently in a metal detector survey in the area of Velem-Szent Vid. Most artefacts found in the late La Tène oppidum are agricultural tools. They are the most important archaeological evidence available to us for reconstructing the agricultural equipment used during the Late Iron Age and, based on them, food production techniques. Diverse tools were utilised in specific agricultural processes. The plough, the most important tool of soil cultivation, and its components are discussed in the study, and an attempt is made to draw conclusions about the ways of land use in the Late Iron Age based on plough part finds from Celtic contexts.

A brooch with a name stamp from Győr-Ménfőcsanak-Széles-földek (Pannonia, Hungary)

2024-01-26T14:55:31+00:00

Name stamps occasionally appear on early Roman Period bow brooches, such as Aucissa brooches, Nertomarus brooches, brooches with side knobs (Scharnierflügelfibeln), and rosette brooches (Kragenfibeln, Distelfibeln, Flache Distelfibeln). Aucissa brooches are known from the territory of the whole Roman Empire and were produced in multiple workshops, while the other types were typical of the western parts, having been manufactured primarily in the western provinces. According to current research, the 55 bow brooches from Győr-Ménfőcsanak-Széles-földek belong to different western types. The only stamped brooch is a fragmentary Nertomarus brooch with an abbreviated NERTOMARVS stamp (NORV). This brooch could reach Pannonia from the place of production in different ways. One option is that the brooch travelled with its owner, a military person, or someone who accompanied the troops.

Roman head-shaped glass vessels from Hungary

2024-01-09T12:43:56+00:00

The paper presents two head-shaped vessels from Hungary: a glass bottle from a late Roman cemetery at Intercisa and a janiform bottle from a grave in Csongrád, i.e., the Sarmatian Barbaricum. Thanks to large-scale immigration from the East, the fort and vicus of Intercisa had a significant eastern influence. The most famous unit garrisoned there was the Syrian Cohors I millaria Hemesenorum sagittariorum equitatia civium Romanorum, originally stationed in the Syrian town of Hemesa, where many civilians may have accompanied the troops and moved to Intercisa. Settled down there, the new residents imported several objects from the East, including the two head-shaped vessels presented here.

Kakhramontepa in Southern Uzbekistan

2023-11-15T10:21:33+00:00

The paper presents a brief overview of the excavation results from the early medieval, 4th–5th-century AD fortress of Kakhramontepa in southern Uzbekistan, with a wide range of analogies from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Nearby burial groups were also surveyed, some of which belong to the same period. Based on the joint evaluation of the fortress, the find material, the structure of the burials, and written sources, the entire complex could be attributed to the Kidarites, one of the enigmatic peoples known from historical sources and difficult to identify in the archaeological record.

Recently discovered early medieval grave from Serbin

2023-11-14T13:40:35+00:00

An early medieval burial was found in Serbin (Krasnodar Krai, Slaviansk-na-Kubani District, Russia) in 2023. The grave contained a battle knife, analogies to which are known not only from Eastern Europe but also Inner Asia and Southern Siberia, emphasizing the vivid connections maintained throughout the Eurasian steppe in the second half of the first millennium AD. Grave 2023/3 of Serbin could be dated to the second half or last third of the 7th century AD.

Tiszakürt-Zsilke-tanya

2024-02-21T14:52:41+00:00

A cemetery section comprising 35 burials was excavated at the site of Tiszakürt-Zsilke-tanya. The burial rites suggest that the community who interred their dead here was of East European steppe origin, settled primarily east of the Tisza River. The graves were poorly furnished; the main chronological indicators are melon seed-shaped beads and two pairs of earrings with big bead pendants. Based on these, the cemetery section can be dated between the 640s and the 680s. The archaeological analysis is complemented by an anthropological, archaeozoological, and pottery analysis, as well as a study of metal and glass composition.

Chronological problems of the 7th–10th-century AD Carpathian Basin in light of radiocarbon data

2024-02-22T21:22:06+00:00

The study presents the evaluation of a radiocarbon series, currently unparalleled in the research of the early medieval Carpathian Basin, which comprises data from the 7th to the 10th century AD. We provide a data set that, when combined with the radiocarbon data available in the related literature, covers the period in focus. The results of its analysis can be considered novel in several respects: 1) the radiocarbon data sequence and the relative chronological framework established for the Late Avar Period concord, 2) based on the radiocarbon sequence, the Middle Avar Period in certain large cemeteries (i.e., Tiszafüred-Majoros) started considerably earlier than it was assumed previously, based on ‘Middle Avar Period’ elite graves—and, interestingly, earlier even than the coin-dated ‘Middle Avar’ elite grave horizon, and 3) the data of the latest grave horizon in Avar cemeteries suggests a similar asynchronism between the related sites. The data set allows one to draw preliminary conclusions about the trends of the early medieval cultural and social transformations in the Carpathian Basin and outline ‘innovative’ groups which, by maintaining contacts with diverse regions outside the Carpathian Basin, played a central role in these processes.

Household pottery of an urban noble house and craftsmen in Visegrád

2024-01-09T13:30:28+00:00

In 2003–2004, the King Matthias Museum in Visegrád conducted archaeological excavations at 5 Rév Street, Visegrád. The fieldwork brought to light, besides an already known late medieval house and a glass workshop of outstanding importance, some more buildings and the excellently preserved part of a street pavement. The study presents the pottery finds obtained by the excavations.