A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 2016., Új folyam 3. (Szeged, 2016)

RÉGÉSZET - Kujáni Yvett: Viseleti elemek és mellékletadási szokások egy 4-5. századi dél-alföldi temetőben Az apátfalvi temető elemzése III.

Yvett Kujáni

Costume elements and grave good provision in a 4th-5th-centry cemetery

only in numerous female and child graves (Graves 153, 154, 159), but also in a male burial (Grave 175).

Based on the grave furniture it can be established that belts were worn by men, women and children alike. Belts fastened with buckles were observed in 12 burials (six men, four women and two children). Belts of men, women and children show slight differences in size, those of adults being slightly larger. Beside the semicircular buckle of the man in Grave 175, every exemplar is oval in shape. It is easy to determine that they were of local, barbarian, and not Roman, manufacture, since the cross-section of the exemplars from Pannónia is triangular, in contrast with the round or oval cross-section of the Sarmatian buckle types (Vaday 1989, 70). The casting technique of the belt buckle from Grave 175 indicates the existence of a barbarian workshop.

As in most Sarmatian cemeteries, the most frequent grave good at Apátfalva as well are vessels (27 pieces, thus 57.5% of all the graves contained a vessel), which are always placed beside the feet. All the vessels are made of clay (PI. 20). Food or drink remains were not attested in any of them, but during cleaning beads were found in some of the vessels. With regard to typology, it could be established that the most frequent type is the globular vessel manufactured on fast wheel. It was associated with the deceased of both sexes and all ages (PI. 18:1-12). These forms only indicate a rather wide chronological period, and a late date can

be demonstrated only in connection with a few, uniquely shaped specimens ("belted", cylindrical and biconical exemplars). This is also true for most of the hemispherical bowls. The situation is easier in the case of bowls with steep and concave wall and strong carination. Based on the known analogies and their associations they had been placed in the graves earliest in the last third of the 4th century.

To sum up, it can be established that the population of the cemetery excavated at Apátfalva- Nagyút-dűlő can be connected to the Sarmatian ethnic group based on the characteristic burial rites (N-S orientation of the bodies, grave pits enclosed by ditches, vessels placed at the feet, beads on female clothing, torques, etc.). Certain objecttypes (e.g. axe-shaped pendants, spouted vessel, bone needle case, etc.) show strong eastern connections. The cemetery could have been used for one or two generations. This is indicated by the uniform typology of costume elements and other grave goods. The beginning of the use of the cemetery - based on the above-mentioned analogies (fibulae, pendants, torques, buckles with the bar bent on the ring, large number of dark carnelians, late type vessels) - can be placed to the middle or last third of the 4th century, its end to the first third of the 5th century.

With regard to its finds the cemetery of Apátfalva shows the closest connections with the cemeteries of Sándorfalva-Eperjes, Csongrád-Kenderföldek, Tápé-Malajdok, and Óföldeák-Ürmös II.

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