Szatmári Imre: Békés megye középkori templomai (Békéscsaba, 2005)
Mediaeval Churches in Békés County (resume) research makes the inseparable relation of archaeology and ethnography particularly emphatic. Regarding the observations relating to the mediaeval Hungarian sacred buildings and documented during the exploration of graveyards around churches, both the ethnographical and the archaeological aspects are of particular interest. Ethnographic studies give clues when mediaeval archaeological phenomena are to be interpreted, data gained with archaeological methods, however, prove indispensable when roots of general ethnographic findings are to be examined. This is the reason for that we need to synthesise in as large measure as possible the mediaeval features of the rural parishchurches, chapels, monastic quarters, clan's monasteries and graveyards around the churches, using 14-17 th century or, if possible, even earlier, ll-13 th century data. This provides a basis for the later, ethnographic findings, showing the roots and giving explanations of the subsequent outcomes. The area selected is the administrative region of the today Békés County. A fundamental step was first to collect all the data regarding the topic, which amount to a data store or cadastre forming the appendix of the study, including all the relevant references. This database paves the way for making a culture-historical summary also, then comes a systemisation and evaluation of the findings, brought under appropriate groups. The three long chapters of the groups treat the features of the mediaeval living space and the sacred buildings and burials in it. All the three areas cover all crucial features of the topic: the contemporary geographic environments, the settlement-system, the inner structure of the settlements; regarding the buildings their location in the settlement, orientation, basic plans, sizes, inner space structure, foundation, building materials, date of construction etc.; regarding graveyards the structure of cemeteries, customs of burial, pit, coffin, laying, costume, other supplements, etc. The evaluation aims at outlining main tendencies, features, general statements, comparisons according to the relevant ages. As illustration of the statements one can find drawings on various villages, churches, churchbasis, graves and objects of some burials and findings. The thesis treats the mediaeval church buildings and graveyards of the Hungarian Great Plain, regarding Békés County aiming at completeness. The topic involves more branches of the historical scholarship, opening way for dverse analyses and approaches.
