Pásztor Emília (szerk.): Sámánizmus és természethit régen és ma - Bajai dolgozatok 23. (Baja, 2019)
Cs. Andrási Réka: A Madaras-Árvai-dűlői honfoglalás kori temető az új kutatások tükrében
The cemetery of Madaras-Árvai dűlő revisited in the light of modern research The richest genuinely excavated burial site from the 10th century in Norhtern-Bácska is located in Madaras- Árvai-dűlő. In this area we have only a small number of genuinely excavated locations from the period of the Hungarian Conquest (Andrási-Langó 2016, 323-328). The cemetery was first published in 1980 by Mihály Kőhegyi on the pages of CommArchHung in German (Kőhegyi 1980, 205-239), but in this work I review his finding through the lens of new, modern methods and literature. The village of Madaras is located in the southern part of Bács-Kiskun county, in the Bácsalmási district close to the Serbia-Hungary border. The Madaras-Árvai-dűlő can be found circa 600 meters north from the road leading to Bácsalmás. The site is located on a slightly drop-shaped mound and its length is around 140-160 meters while the width is approximately 60-70 meters (Kőhegyi 1980, 205-206). The first two graves were discovered in May of 1976 during sand mining. The graves were heavily disturbed by the machinery but luckily the findings were separated by the workers. The archeological excavation took place in the autumn if 1976, which was done by the archaeologist of the museum, Mihály Kőhegyi. At that time, he excavated 3 graves, then in 1977 and one more grave was found (Kőhegyi 1980, 206-209). We know of 6 graves from the 10th century on this location. The first two which were disturbed by the heavy machinery contained males (grave 1-2). During the archeological excavation further graves were found. 1 male (grave 3), two women (grave 4 and 6) and 1 child (grave 5) grave. Altogether 3 male graves, 2 female graves and 1 children grave was found on Árvai-dűlő. Of the 6 graves 4 contained funerary equipments (grave 1, 2, 4, 6), 2 graves had no supplements in them, the clothes were not ornated with mounts (grave 3, 5) (Kőhegyi 1980, 209 -229). Based on genuine observations (grave 3, 4, 5 and 6) and on the account of the workers (grave 1, 2) the orientation of the graves was West-East, which was common in that period. There were two cases of irregular burying on this site. In case of the third grave an elderly man (around the age of 40-60) was lied on his right side with his legs pulled up to his face. The grave did not contain any complements, opposite to the first two burying-places, which contained rich individuals with weapons. The other irregularly placed person was an adult (age 20-40 years) woman (grave 6). In this case the mounts and jewels were buried with her. Both of her arms were bent and placed on her chest, her legs were pulled up, the left one somewhat higher than the other. There are two logical theories available to us regarding the graves with no grave goods and bodies buried in contracted positions. One version says the deceased might have been S******SSS$S**Sa********^ 51
