Somogyvári Ágnes – V. Székely György szerk.: „In terra quondam Avarorum…” Ünnepi tanulmányok H. Tóth Elvira 80. születésnapjára - Archaeologia Cumanica 2. (Kecskemét, 2009)
Költő László: Kora avar kori lósír Szőlősgyörökről
archaeolog ia cumanica 2 László Költő Horse burial of the Early Avarian Age from Szőlősgyörök In Szőlősgyörök (County Somogy) during digging a gas-pipe ditch (fig. 1) workers found a horse skeleton. In the course of the rescue excavation we learned that it was a horse burial from the Early Avarian Age. It was oriented E-W. The burial was so disturbed that we could only determine the orientation and sizes of the horse. The following finds came to light: a stirrup with long eye, a socketed spearhead, bits, bronze rivets belonging to a saddle and 46 stamped hemisphere-shaped fittings and 11 stamped belt terminals. All the fittings and belt terminals were made of gilded bronze plate (fig. 6-8). According to workers, all of them were found at the head of the horse. We do not have more precise information on the situation of the spear. The grave belongs to group B by Ilona Kovrig; that is to say, this was a single grave not related to a cemetery. The horse was buried completely, together with its harness and saddle. Judging from the circumstances of finding, the hemisphere-shaped gilded fittings decorated only the bridle. According to the typology by Attila Kiss, the grave can be categorised as Early Avarian type VII (single horse grave), that is to say, it is not clear whether its owner was buried nearby or not. The find assemblage - apple-shaped stirrups with long eyes, hemisphere-shaped fittings of the harness, reed-leaf-shaped spearhead - represents characteristic early shapes. Stamped fittings belong to the widely spread, common types of Early Avarian horse-harness decorations. The closest analogies come from Várpalota-Unió-sand-pit, grave 12 where a fitting of a head decoration was found, but they also remind greatly stamped fittings of the harness from Szegvár-Sápoldal. Chronological position of the grave can be determined most precisely judging from the spearhead (harness decorations and stirrups were used for a longer time). The spearhead belongs to the so-called narrow, short type. Its analogies are known from Bácsújfalu (Selenca, Serbia), Esztergom-Nagyhegy and Zámoly. The closest analogy is the one from Esztergom, the shape and size of which almost completely suits to the piece from Szőlősgyörök. István Bona suggested that a similar spear with a „collar" could be the part of the assemblage from Szegvár-Sápoldal. On the basis of these analogies, burial from Szőlősgyörök can be categorised as belonging to the so-called group of horse-harness fittings with fringe pattern and dated to the last third of the 6 t h century. 136
