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
50 Soós, Eszter—Bárány, Annamária—Köhler, Kitti—Pusztai, Tamás of a specific material culture.1 However, newcomers had also settled in the Upper Tisza Region: so far, the so-called Post-Chernyakhov horizon (Tejral 2000, 6—11) can primarily be identified in Hungary based on cemeteries (IstvAnovits 1993; IstvAnovits-Kulcsár 1999, 69, 93). A new social and economic system was formed in the 5th century AD that differed from the social structure of the previous late Roman Age. Small grave groups or lonely burials were spread all over the Carpathian Basin as remains of a new social system (Nagy 1993a, 60; Tejral 1999a, 255-274; ProhAszka 2003, 77-78). The settlements belonging to the ‘classical’ Hunnic period graves are mostly unknown in the Carpathian Basin and also in the territories of the North Hungarian Range. The main reason behind the problem is that the dating of the settlement finds, consisting of pottery, iron and bone tools, is not compatible with the relative chronology of the Hunnic period worked out based on grave goods (Tejral 1988; Tejral 1992; Tejral 2005; Bierbrauer 1995). The research of the representative burials and the remains of everyday life were separated in this period. New sites with contemporary burials and settlement remains like Hernádvécse—Nagy rét Site No. 4. will help to solve this methodological problem. The site provides new data for dating the Hunnic period settlements and for the relation of the burial place versus living space during the researched period. 2. HERNÁDVÉCSE-NAGY RÉT, SITE NO. 4. The site is situated on the right bank of River Hernád in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, 13 km away from the Slovak-Hungarian border. The river terraces in the valley provided suitable place to establish a settlement also in the previous late Roman Age (Soós 2016a, Fig. 1-2; Jurecko 1983; Lamiová-Schmiedlová 1969, 404, (Fig-1 ).(Fig. 1) The sites no. 4, no. 5, no. 6 and no. 7 near village Hernádvécse was excavated by the archaeologists of Herman Ottó Museum between April and August 2004 in connection with the reconstruction works of highroad no. 3 between Miskolc and Kosice.1 2 A total of 309 archaeological phenomena on a surface of 15 571 m2were unearthed in site no. 4 (Soós 2009; Soós 1 For instance the settlements of the so-called Post-Przeworsk horizon (Pieta 1999,185). 2 Identification number of the site: 38095 2015, 94—202). In addition to archaeological features from the Neolithic and late the Bronze Age, most phenomena belonged to a Roman Age Przeworsk and a Hunnic period settlement (Fig.2.1). 2.1. THE STRUCTURE OF THE HUNNIC PERIOD SETTLEMENT Although only a 30—40 m wide section of the onetime settlement has been excavated, the structure of the farmstead laid in the narrow river terrace could be well observed (Fig.2.2). Two semi-subterranean buildings came to the light 20 m apart from each other in the southwestern part of the site. Nearby there were structured rows of postholes. 1 m away from the southeast corner of building Str.125, the postholes Str.72—77 covered a rectangular area of 5.3 X 3.8 m, which orientation broadly corresponds that of the semi-subterranean building. Rows of postholes with similar orientation covering a 4 X 3.4 m area also appeared 13.5 m away from the building in northeast direction (Str.66—70 and Str.343). Since these features yielded no finds, their dating is uncertain. Approximately 25 m south from both buildings a beehive-shaped (Str.21) and an oval pit (Str.30) were dug. An oven (Str.4) came to the light 32 m east from building Str.125. To the northeast, irregular oval pits were lined up perpendicular to the slope (Str.52, Str.49, Str.104) including also a cylindrical pit (Str.40) and a huge narrowing one (Str.47). Nearby the pottery kiln (Str.161) was the next object group consisting of irregular, shallow (Str.187), beehiveshaped (Str.160, 308) and cylindrical (Str.192, 302) pits. In the northern part of the site only beehive-shaped pits were found in two groups 15 m apart from each other (sl64—166, s209, s275, s303). A row of postholes was lined up in north-south direction near pits Str.275 and Str.303 (Str.244-251). It was observable that each group of pits included a pitfall of larger dimensions. In the southern part this was an oval, shallow pit (Str.52), while in the north they were rather beehive-shaped pits (Str.160, 166). Two disturbed inhumation burials oriented to northwest were excavated in the southern part of the site. Grave Str.l came to light 20 m to the south from building Str.61. The burial Str.309 was situated between the pits 25-30 m away from building Str.125. A destruction horizon could be observed at the site. The wooden wall foundation of the buildings and the rafters were preserved by the fire. It should be noted that the buildings were almost empty of finds, only few scattered pieces were found in them, thus they were most
