Szolyák Péter - Csengeri Piroska (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 56. (Miskolc, 2017)
Régészet - Soós, Eszter et al.: Settlement and graves from Hernádvécse (NE-Hungary) in the 5th century AD: relation of living space and burial place in the Hun Period
A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve LVI (2017), 49—98. SETTLEMENT AND GRAVES AT HERNÁDVÉCSE (NE-HUNGARY) FROM THE 5th CENTURY AD: THE RELATION BETWEEN LIVING SPACE AND BURIAL PLACE IN THE HUNNIC PERIOD Soós, Esztef-Bárány, Annamária1’—Köhler, Kittic— Pusztai, Tamásd a University of Pécs, Department of Archaeology b Hungarian National Museum, Department of Archaeology, Archaeozoological Collection c Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology Department of Bioarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology J Herman Ottó Museum, Miskolc Abstract: In Hernádvécse—Nagy rét Site No. 4 a settlement and two disturbed burials from the first half and the middle third of the 5th century AD were uncovered. The types of the grave goods, such as the fragment of a brooch with carved decoration, the long, double-edged sword and the Murga- type jug were typical in Hunnic period graves, however the finds from Hernádvécse have unique features. The ceramic find material of the settlement consists of fine, wheel-turned S-profile bowls, pots, jugs with smoothed decoration and grainy cookware which show analogies with contemporary Barbarian and provincial sites. The founders of the settlement might be derived from the Santana de Mure§ culture where the characteristic semi-subterranean building types furnished with stone furnaces were widespread. The evaluation of the site has also brought along new data in the topographical relations of burials and settlements in the Hunnic period on account of the graves located between the settlement features. Keywords: Upper Tisza Basin, Säntana de Murej-Chernyakhov culture, pottery kiln, Murga-type jug, grainy pots 1. INTRODUCTION The northeast part of the Carpathian Basin was densely populated in the late Roman Age. The territory was culturally divided. East of the Rivers Hernád and Torysa, in Transcarpathia all the way to the limes of the former Roman Dacia the settlements of the Przeworsk culture mostly identified with Vandals, can be found (Gindele 2010; Soós 2016a, 449, Fig. 1.). We can count with Sarmatian sites in the lowland areas of the Upper Tisza Region (Masek 2012a, 257—261). The settlement finds from the territories of the North Hungarian Range between the Rivers Danube and Sajó are related with the Quadi material culture from the present-day western Slovakia (Párducz-Korek 1958; Vaday 2003; Vaday 2005; Beljak 2016; Soós 2017). The inhabitants of the Roman Age settlements making a living mainly from agriculture and livestock farming had multi-level connections. Most of the everyday utensils have been manufactured locally in the settlements in a self-sufficient way, while certain types of the artefacts were purchased from workshops providing regional markets (Lamiova-Schmiedlová 1997; Istvánovits et а/. 2011; Gindele-Istvánovits 2011). In addition to the regional trade and exchange networks, long-distance connections can be traced on the basis of Roman and Barbarian imported items (Ardeleanu 2011; Carnap-Bornheim 2001; Istvánovits-Kulcsár 2003, 232-238). Radical changes began in the second half of 4th century AD which rearranged the former cultural and economic conditions throughout the Carpathian Basin. The dense settlement network declined, the most settlements from late Roman Age date to the turn of the 4th—5th or the beginning of the 5th century AD (Pieta 1999; Stanciu 2008; Varsik 2011, 226). In this period, new technological and typological characteristics appeared among the settlement finds, most of which show connections with the Santana de Murej—Chernyakhov culture. Continuity can be observed in some areas, however, in these regions the new cultural influences brought forth the formation
