Csengeri Piroska - Tóth Arnold (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 54. (Miskolc, 2015)

Régészet - K. Tutkovics Eszter: Szarmata temetkezése, a bükkábrányi lignitbánya területén. Bükkábrány Bánya, XI/A lelőhely szarmata sírjai

Szarmata temetkezések a bükkábrányi lignitbánya területén...

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SARMATIAN BURIALS IN THE LIGNITE MINE OF BÜKKÁBRÁNY

SARMATIAN GRAVES AT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF BÜKKÁBRÁNY-BÁNYA XI/A

Keywords: Roman Imperial Period, Sarmatians, AD 2nd—3rd century, graves with enclosing ditch

The settlement called Bükkábrány is located in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, along Main Road no. 3. The neighboring villages are Vatta, Csincse and Mezőkeresztes (Fig. 1). Extended lignite resources have been utilized in this area since the 1960s, with a potential amount of lignite up to several hundred million tons. The rescue excavations associated with the improvements in the mining area started in 2007 under the supervision of the Herman Ottó Museum in Miskolc. A small, well-defined zone was mapped in 2011, when mining activities reached the area of the Csincse Stream. Field walks estimated the size of the site to 25.56 hectares. The site is located on an elevated bank, 5-6 m higher than its surroundings, west of the Csincse Stream (Fig. 2). Archaeological excavations started in July, 2012 and ended in March, 2014. More than 3,700 archaeological features were brought to light in an area of 130,000 m2, divided into different working zones. In this paper, the Sarmatian graves unearthed in zone XI/A are discussed (Fig. 3).

The cemetery consisted of 27 burials which were fully excavated. There were no more graves. The Sarmatian burial site was located on a sandy hill in the southern part of the site, within the Csörsz Trench, and in a 500 m distance of the latter. The map of the cemetery shows two distinct clusters of burials. The northern cluster consists of 15 graves which were not arranged into rows, while in the southern cluster, six of the eleven graves formed a clear row. Grave S:223, an undisturbed female burial, was interpreted as a connection between the two clusters. Graves enclosed by ditches were present in both clusters. Three of the trenches were rectangular, two circular. The majority of graves a northwest-southeast or northeast-southwest orientation, only two burials were oriented from southeast to northwest and another two from southwest to northeast. Almost 81% of the graves had been robbed.

The presented 27 graves are all associated with a chronologically and spatially well-defined cultural unit. Only five of the burials remained undisturbed, but even the robbed graves yielded a considerable number of finds that made dating possible. Of the undisturbed graves, the female grave S:195 is of special interest (Plate 12), both because of the unusual mode of interment and its grave goods. A fibula dated to the early 3rd century was placed beside the right shoulder of the deceased, while an ornamental bronze bracelet and a necklace of 98 beads unearthed in situ also confirm this dating. The type of earring and lunula pendant found in the female grave S:223 (Plate 14) appeared in Sarmatian contexts already in the 2nd century, but the two fibulae with high catchplates in the same grave suggest a dating to the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Dating of the third undisturbed female grave, S:137 (Plate 8) was dated by two fibulae as well. A bronze kneebrooch and another bronze fibula with silver plaque decoration associated this burial with the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, too. Bronze wire bracelets similar to those found in the male grave no. S:95 (Plates 4—5) appear from the 2nd century, and the same is true for the type of pot discovered in the same grave. This bracelet type became more widespread from the early 3td century. The dating is also confirmed by a trapezoid-shape bronze buckle, a single-piece iron buckle and the bronze fibula with high catchplate. The silver tore discovered in a child’s grave (S:116, Plate 6) was only hypothetically associated with the period defined by the findings discussed above, due to the lack of other finds in this burial.

Even in the disturbed graves there are finds that make the dating of these robbed assemblages possible. In burial S:100 (Plate 2) a bolt fibula and a slightly trapezoid bronze buckle are dated to the early 3rd century. The same dating is suggested by a small jug with a handle, also unearthed from here. Buckle types found in S:86 (Plate 3), S:139 (Plate 9) and S:146 (Plate

10) are also associated with the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The single-piece buckles and strap ends found in the male burial S:218 (Plate 13) are of special interest, as these may have constituted parts of a silver set, dated to the decades from the second third of the 2nd to the first quarter of the 3rd century.

Objects yielded by the female grave S:349 and hypothetically identified as golden spangles are worth mentioning. Although the type they belong to is uncertain due to their poor preservation, research associates graves with golden objects with a later period. Another exceptional find is the bronze knife handle brought to light from the male grave S:140, because of both its type and form. To sum up, it can be concluded that the dead in this Sarmatian cemetery were interred around the turn of the 2nd and the 3rd centuries.

The small Sarmatian cemetery in the southern part of the site Bükkábrány-Mine XI revealed important additional data to the Roman Period history of the area. The investigation of the nearby Sarmatian settlement, the Csörsz Trench and the other tree cemeteries and settlements excavated recently in the vicinity, will provide an opportunity for the extensive archaeological mapping of the region of the Csincse Stream in the Sarmatian period.

[Translated by Kyra Lyublyanovics]

K. Tutkovics, Eszter