Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 13 (1968) (Pécs, 1971)

Régészet - Kralovánszky, Alán: The Paleosociographical Reconstruction of the Eleventh Century Population of Kérpuszta. Methodological Study

PALAEOSOCIOGRAPHICAL RECONSTRUCTION 77 III. 1. TOPOGRAPHY Exact topographical fixation enables us to draw more exact conclusions beyond the sketching of the general geographical outlines. The cemetery is situated in Southern Transdanubia, in the region called Outer Somogy. Geographically Outer Somogy is characterized by the fact that the hill-country of clay loess mainly is made up by parallel valleys and hills, proceeding in the direction Northwest-Southeast. The network of rivers is very scarce, the area, belonging to the drainage basin of the Koppány river, is intersected by brooks only. The yearly medium temperature is -f-10.5 C°; the average fallout is 650 mm. Both the geographical and meteorological factors make agriculture and cattle-breeding equally possible. In modern times agriculture used to be the preponderant way of life here, however, the small but good pastures raised also cattlebreeding to a high degree. The latter is of minor importance, nevertheless. The soil is impermeable, fountains are very rare. The flora is typical of the so-called Illyrian plant life, made up of sorts of Turkey oak, hornbeam, poplar, willow and alder. Beech is found in regions above 200 meters only. Since the cemetery is situated on a small hill, higher than the level of the valley, at a height of —187,5—192,0 m above sea level, it may have been covered by the mentioned sorts of wood except beech. According to the plan of the cemetery the graves have an uneven situation; major or minor sites are left free. Supposing that these areas were occupied by trees, cca 6 of them may have had a foliage of 1. Map of the excavation in the cemetery. Kérpuszta. 5 metres in average and 20 of them a foliage of 3 metres. (Figs 1—2.) Burial has been begun at the bottom of the hill (we shall return to this fact below) and it was continued up the slope gradually. This fact may bear out the inference that the community which founded the cemetery did not regard the beginning of burials at the highest level as essential. Perhaps we might explain this view by the fact that the hill was covered by unhurt forest up to the top, so that the graves could not be seen from the settlement except by the extirpation of the trees on the whole mound. It is also possible that people wanted to bury their dead near the settlement. However, we have to consider one circumstance: according to the data known so far the rulers and leaders (persons, families, strata) have chosen to be buried on the higher levels of the cemeteries, pushing the socially inferior people to the lower level. Applying this observation to Kérpuszta it seems that this cemetery was used by a community which belonged to an inferior stratum of the age, in fact this community did not want to distinguish its leader his relatives in this manner after death. This picture seems to suit an agricultural, perhaps Christian (or Christianizing) community. The geographical situation and the site of the cemetery may help us in defining the settlement too. Since the area is generally imporous, nor does the thick clayish loess let water come up from below, the inhabitants of the tops or the sides of the hills could not gain water unless they dug deep wells. Owing to this circumstance the villages are settled in the valleys instead of the hill slopes even today. Our cemetery lies on the western side of a hill; at its bottom the Borsi brook extends to marshland. The one-time settlement seems to have been on the other side of the brook, on the lightly sloping place. Thus we may look for the settlement on the eastern side of the other hill, near the bottom of the valley.

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'' 2. CHRONOLOGY The exact dating of the cemetery is helped by the uncovered coins in the first place. Those coins are derived from the time between the rules of St. Stephen (997—1038) and St. Ladislas (1077—1095). It is conspicuous, however, that coins were found in a part of the cemetery only. This fact makes an exact dating partly easier, partly more difficult. Graves with coins occupy the northern part, those without coins the southern one. Presu14 Kogutowicz, 1938, 33—46, 67—78, 243—258.