Wolf Mária: A borsodi földvár. Egy államalapítás kori megyeszékhelyünk kutatása - Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén megye régészeti emlékei 10. (Budapest - Miskolc - Szeged, 2019)
Irodalom- és rövidítésjegyzék
389 must have swept through the village at that moment. As the village was consumed, houses collapsed, burying all their furnishings and the cooking food. Preserving fruit and making jam were not generally widespread practices even in the 19th century. Thus, it is extremely significant that evidence of this was found in a 10th-century village. A group of seed finds and another of animal bone finds similarly shed light on the eating habits of the period. The seeds of several types of plants were found whose tender leaves were frequently eaten by people of that time as a salad or cooked. Presumably people consumed them in this fashion in 10th-century Borsod, too. Traces of cutting and slashing observed on the bones clearly show that horses were not just for riding but were also eaten. That the skulls of these livestock were split open is proof that the brains were consumed as well. A horse skull found in house no. 6, however, is more likely connected to religious beliefs rather than dietary habits. Perhaps this is a relic of a custom known from the late Árpád Age, which arose from the belief that horse skulls could ward off trouble and decay. A game played with die made from sheep’s knucklebone (astragalos) was well known from the Conquest Period and later. An isolated find from this settlement, a half-finished piece, suggests that it was favourite game among the residents of Borsod village. In summary, we can conclude that the residents of the 10th-century village of Borsod had a settled, agrarian lifestyle. They had a broad knowledge of agriculture and their livelihood depended primarily on slash-and-bum cultivation. For the time being, the lack of information makes it impossible to determine to what degree this way of life and farming was characteristic of Hungarians in that period. What is certain, however, is that the agricultural tools and seed finds from Borsod preclude any view of the Conquest-Period Hungarians as being entirely nomadic. At present there is little material for comparison among artefacts and remains found in Hungary, but excavations in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe provide ample opportunity for this. Comparisons demonstrate that the standards of life and farming of the 10,h-century inhabitants of Borsod were on par with those of their contemporaries in Central and Eastern Europe; they in no way lagged behind them. All this strongly calls into question the much-proclaimed notion of Slav cultural superiority. In addition, it is also obvious that this lifestyle could not have emerged out of nowhere; it must have had a precursor. As we have seen, the destruction of the village may have taken place around 970-980, but it also may have occurred earlier. The material remains of this lifestyle and mode of farming suggest that at least by the mid- 10th century, perhaps in the first third of the century, Borsod was inhabited by a settled, Hungarian community that possessed a wide-ranging knowledge of agriculture, practiced slash-and-bum cultivation, and preserved remnants of their ancient culture. Therefore, we must agree with Róbert Müller, who stated that a good portion of the Conquering Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian Basin with a knowledge of agrarian techniques that rivalled that of the local indigenous population with respect to toolmaking and ploughing methods. Extending in a north-south direction, the oval hill upon which the hillfort was erected is situated immediately on the banks of the Bódva River, rising almost 15 metres above the river. Its sides are steep in every direction, although the entire hill slopes slightly to the south. The ramparts are most intact on the southern side, where a 100-metre stretch can be followed. On the more ruined western side, only a 70-metre stretch is discernible. On the northern side, only very few remains can be observed, while on the southern side, the ramparts were completely destroyed, leaving not a trace on the surface. The ramparts were 3-5 metres higher than the interior level of the hillfort. The ramparts were first researched by Gyula Bartalos at the end of the 19th century, but unfortunately we do not know exactly where he investigated. We also cannot identify the location of the next cross-sectioning of the ramparts, which was done by Andor Leszih in 1926. During the excavations conducted between 1987 and 1999, we examined the ramparts in five places. In two places we completely cut through the ramparts. Gyula Nováki crosscut the eastern, most intact part of the ramparts in 1988-89, and in contrast, in 1990 he crosscut the much-disturbed western ramparts. In one case, we made a cut along the length of the rampart (section 49). In another case, we determined the path of the rampart (section 51), and in yet another (section 43) we examined the structure. During the two systematic cross-sectionings of the wall, we determined that the width was on average 10.5 metres and in some places even reached 13 metres. Two kinds of wooden structures were found in the ramparts. In the upper levels, we found a compartmentalized structure well known from Hungarian hillfort architecture. The compartments were 3.7 x 0.8 metres. The beams running parallel never touched one another; between them were 10-25 centimetres of earth. The 20-centimetre thick beams were trimmed into a square shape and dovetailed to each other. In the eastern and western cross-sections of the rampart another wood structure was uncovered beneath the compartmentalized rampart. It presented a 25-to 40-degree deviation from the above. It was a much smaller lattice structure composed of logs 4-8 and 6-12 centimetres in diameter, placed tightly alongside each other. This rampart was supported on the outside by two rows of posts. The different levels rested directly on top of each other; only occasionally could 10- to 20-centimetre layers of earth be observed. The wood remains were
