A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 43. (2004)
B. Hellebrandt Magdolna: A nyersanyagok hatása a vaskor és a császárkor településeire a Sajó és a Bódva vidékén
at the western edge of the fortress, the Ormos stream flows from the Rudabánya valley intő the Szuha, and at the eastern side of the fortress the Mák stream alsó flows towards the Szuha, joining it at Szuhakálló. The first and second military surveys 11 clearly show the ancient state, patches of wetland and flood plains can be seen almost from hill to hill beyond Kurityán and Felsőnyárád as well. In autumn 2003 we marked out our trial trench (Figure 3) in the northern part of the fortress, running north from the edge of the path leading over the hill from Izsófalva to Rudolftelep (passing along the top of the former earthwork). The trial trench is 9 m long and 1.3 m wide. The soil at the foot of Koplaló hill is sandy loess (Figure 4); this is found from the northern end of our trench for two metres towards the south, followed by a mixed soil and then a hard clay. 1.20 m from the southern end of the trench, towards the north we can see the entrenchment. We deepened our trench and could see the brown fill-in in the yellow clay layer, with many pebbles at the bottom. The entrenchment could be seen on both the eastern and western sides of the trial trench, and on the southern wall we evén found the somewhat higher widening of the former ditch where we observed numerous traces of charcoal. The ancient ditch is thus documented at a depth of 2.10 m and a width of 1.20 m, it then narrows downwards in a broad arc, and 0.60 m of brown fill-in goes down intő the yellow clay. The ditch-diggers threw the soil out on two sides; this line can be seen on aerial photographs. The northern mound of the ditch must have been around 7 m wide at the base, there was just room for it on the clay soil. The water fortifications at Edelény-Kenderföldek 12 ' 13 were created to the west of the Bódva. The trade route to the Gömör-Szepes Érchegység (Ore Mountains) led through the Bódva valley. Ferenc Tompa bclieved that this river valley was the northern gateway to Borsod County. 14 The water fortifications on the hill above Szendrő-Major are found beside the Bódva to the south of the inner settlement. 15 The road from Szendrő through Szuhogy to Rudabánya passes beside this fortification. The Gömör-Szepes Ore Mountains, a rangé rich in irón ore narrows towards the south. The width of the vein of irón ore reaches one kilometre beside Alsótelekes 16 , then suddenly ends at a fracture line. The irón region in northern Borsod lies on both sides of the central stretch of the Sajó, between the Rima and the junction of the Bódva. Irón ore, 17-19 or traces indicating its presence, 20-28 can be found in a number of places, and naturally it must be taken intő account that these were not operated at the same time. The irón industry required a large quantity of charcoal which is the reason why such plants were located in the vicinity of forests. 29 Place-names alsó refer to the craft of ironsmith. 30 We know of Vaskapu [Irón Gate], Kovácsos [ironsmith] mountain, Kovácsos hill. The map on a scale of 1:50000 produced in the first half of the 20th century is marked "Mounds" above Puszta Vassas [Irón] forest now in Slovak territory, north of Szuhafő. The literature 31 reports mention of fortifications (Figure 1. Indicated with a small empty circle) at Dövény-Őrfatető and Őrhegy, Felsőkelecsény-Orhegy, Felsőnyárád-Kis- and Nagyőrhegy, and there are no doubt alsó others we do not know about in this forested area where few surveys have been made. At Rudabánya the irón ore had no overlying stratum and could be mined on the surface. Podányi observed that at Mogyoróshegy on the road leading to Szuhogy and Szendrő, the road passed over irón ore on the surface. 32 This observation has been confirmed by recent drilling, for example, in 1983 spar irón ore was found at a depth of 0.00-9.20 m, in another place at 1-14.30 m, and in a third place at 0.00-7.7 m, and the depth of the useful ore was 5.00 and 9.30 m. 33 Sándor Soproni did work in 1954 at Rudabánya to rescue archaeological finds. 34 He saw traces of chiselling 5-10 cm long in the old mine tunnel. In 1955-56 György Szabó went intő the mine; in his opinion wedges were used and in places the rock was split, which means that fire was alsó used to break the ore. 35 The irón slag can alsó help to identify a site. 36 Traces have been found in Aggtelek, Szendrő (Figure 5), and Kelemér (Figure 6). Harsh struggles were waged over the course of history for the possession of irón ore deposits. In Szendrő, in the Ördöggát cave, bronzé and irón arrowheads have been found. 37 Kemenczei dated the finds to the 6th century BC. 38 Similarly early arrowheads were found at Alsótelekes. 39 Researchers dealing with the period agree that the population of the Scythian period produced in the Carpathian Basins objects with forms that had been brought from 125
