A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 45. (2006)

Szabó Levente: Árpád-kori templom és temető Mezőcsát határában

AN ÁRPÁDIAN AGE CHURCH AND CEMETERY ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF MEZŐCSÁT A large tombstone carved with a male figure was turned up by the plough in 1985 in an area known as Csicske-dűlő on the outskirts of Mezőcsát in County Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén. The rescue excavations conducted in the area brought to light the bedding trenches of a large parish church with an apsidal sanctuary. Two burials were uncovered inside the church, 130 graves lay around the building. Other features included one prehistoric and three Arpádian Age pits. Wall debris of large stones and mortar were found in several spots inside the church, which measured 9.5 m by 14 m. Two burials were uncovered in the church's interior. A series of post-holes were noted running adjacent and parallel to the walls. The bedding trench of the apsis cut through one of the graves, suggesting that some burials pre-dated the church, which on the testimony of a coin minted under Béla III (1172-1196) was built in the late 12th or early 13th century. The finds from the burials (ribbed and plain S terminalled, silver lock-rings, rings inscribed with Hungarian runes, rings fashioned from two or three silver strands, fluorite beads) indicate that the earliest burials date from the llth-12th centuries, while the grave goods (e.g. diamond shaped buckles) from the latest ones suggest a date in the period after the Mongolian invasion of 1241. The burials of the cemetery around the church can be assigned to two main groups, the first pre-dating the church's construction, the second from the period, when the church already existed. The graves pre-dating the church lay in the cemetery's northern and north-eastern part, where superimposed burials were rare. This cemetery section was not used in later periods. The graves from the period of the church's existence lay in the cemetery's western and southwestern part, where there were many superimposed (and disturbed) burials. Few burials in this group were furnished with grave goods and most of the finds (such as the diamond shaped buckle) date from the period after the church's construction. The post-holes in the church's interior suggest the existence of an earlier wooden church, which -judging from the early burials - was built sometime in the late 10th century or early 11th century, and which later replaced by the stone church erected in the late 12th or early 13th century. The large stone tombstone carved with a male figure probably covered one of the two burials in the church interior. The tombstone can be dated to the 13th century in the light of analogous finds. The settlement was part of the estates of the Bikki family of the Örsúr kindred and the church was probably built by this family. We know that the last two male members of the Bikki family died in the late 13th century; the two graves, one of which was covered by the tombstone, probably contained the earthly remains of the family's last two male members. Levente Szabó 90