Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)

The Avar Cemetery at Felgyő, Ürmős-Tanya

274 BALOGH Csilla as opposed to the left side (23 burials). The position of the knife was not recorded in two cases. Knives were apparently kept in a wooden sheath whose remains were often corroded onto the blade. An iron ring was frequently found near the knife, most likely for suspending the sheath, The cast three-spoked disc of bronze from Grave 62 most likely served the same purpose and it would appear that the pouch too was suspended from it (GARAM 1980). The knife was probably simply looped over the belt in cases where no visible remains of the device whereby the knife was suspended have survived. The grave plan of Graves 21 and 63 suggest that the knife sheath had been hung on the propeller mounts, while in Grave 68, the knife was suspended by means of an iron ring around the propeller mount. Pouch fasteners (Fig. 7). The pouch was usually attached to the belt. Bone pouch fasteners, providing incontestable proof for the use of pouches, were found in eight burials (Graves 83, 108, 121, 157, 184, 215, 225 and 227), while a handful of other graves contained various artefacts lying near each other which had no doubt been kept in a pouch. Most of these were male burials (Graves 62, 136, 180 and 203); a child burial (Grave 126) can also be assigned here. In Grave 62, the pouch was probably suspended from a three-spoked disc of cast bronze. It seems likely that the glass fragment, tlintstone and the broken bronze brooch from Grave 40 had originally been kept in a pouch. These finds lay in a small heap by the shoulder, where a corroded iron chain of small links was also found, the latter perhaps the chain by which the pouch had been suspended. In other cases, it is not at all likely that the smaller articles from the grave were kept in a pouch: the whetstone from Grave 42, a female burial, was placed under the head, while a flintstone found in Grave 198, another female burial, lay beside the right upper arm. The nine pouch fasteners from the Felgyö cemetery can be assigned to three main types. Rectangular pieces with incised decoration on the obverse and three perforations on the reverse came to light in Graves 83, 108 and 121 (Fig. 7. la-c). The function of these bone artefacts was originally identified by László (LÁSZLÓ 1942). Graves 184 and 227 yielded flat rectangular pieces pierced by a hole at either end (Fig. 7. 2a-b). The specimen from Grave 184 is serrated along one side on the reverse, making it a unique piece in the currently known corpus of such finds."

1 The reconstruction of the flat bone artefacts with a perforation at either end and, occasionally, on their reverse as pouch fasteners was eventually settled by the disc terminalled bronze band found on the right pelvic bone of the male burial uncovered at Kecskemét-Sallai Street (H. TÓTH 1981, 144-147). These small articles were earlier variously described as slitters (LÁSZLÓ 1940, 95-98) and the fasteners of arrow quivers (ERDÉLYI 1958, 67). A flat rectangular variant with three perforations recovered from Grave 108 (Fig. 7. 2c) represents a transition between flat pieces with two perforations and prismatic specimens with three perforations. Examples of the latter came to light from Graves 157, 215 and 225. The pouch in Grave 225 was embroidered with millet seed beads. Pouches were generally worn on the left side, but also on the right. In Grave 40, for example, the pouch was placed beside the right shoulder. Flintstones (one to six pieces), glass fragments, iron awls, coins and the like were kept in the pouches. The armour scales found in Graves 62, 126 and 184 were probably used as strike-a-lights. Bone mouthpieces. Two burials (Graves 108 and 119) each yielded two bone mouthpieces, and a stray find is also known from the territory of the cemetery. They are discussed here because the position of the pieces from Grave 108 indicates that they had been suspended from the belt (Fig. 104. 4). They are usually interpreted as mouthpieces for leather bottles. Astragali. A pair of sheep astragali was found by the left thigh in Grave 207, a child burial, and by the pubic bone in Grave 208, a male burial. These were hardly the remains of food offerings. They were either attributes, symbolising the animal, or gaming pieces. Traces of dark brown pigment survived on one of the astragali from the child burial. Seeing that their position in the grave was not the one usual for animal attributes, it seems more likely that they were gaming pieces.' Similar pieces from an Avar context were found in Grave 662 of the Kölked-Feketekapu B cemetery (KISS 2001, Taf. 101). Amulets Several female burials (Graves 8, 92, 95, 96 and 119) and two male burials (Graves 108 and 121) yielded articles which had been vested with magical and protective properties, and usually lay in the region of the neck, the chest, the hands or the pelvis, perhaps part of the contents of a pouch. The finds from Felgyő include a few metal artefacts and certain animal bones that can be regarded as amulets. Bronze bullae lay on the chest in two female burials (Graves 58 and 96). The two specimens represent different types: the one from Grave 56 was round, the one from Grave 96 was cylindrical, and both were strung among the beads of a necklace. Round bullae can be derived from Roman prototypes and represent the Late Antique heritage in the Avar material. Cylindrical bullae of Antique/Early Byzantine origin can be regarded as one of the type finds of the Tótipuszta-Igar group (PÁSZTOR 1986, 128-136; VIDA 2002, 183). A strainer spoon shaped pendant came to light from Grave 96. In his study on Avar amulets, Vida assigned the small tool and implement shaped pendants (including strainer spoon shaped pieces) to the category of amulets, for which he claimed a Late Antique/Germanic ancestry (VIDA 2002, 182).

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s Strung among the beads of the necklace from Grave 95 were a pentagonal pendant of sheet bronze and a hollow pendant similarly made from sheet bronze which was perforated for suspension (Fig. 41. 6). The latter pendant has no analogies known to me; its hollow form suggests a resemblance to amulets encased in metal bands (VIDA 2002, 182). A round lead disc with notched rim was found by the pubic bone in Grave 121, a male burial. A similar piece can be quoted from Grave 634 of the Budakalász-Danube bank cemetery (VIDA 2002, Taf. 6. 5). The perforated bronze sheet found among the beads in Grave 95 and the trapezoidal, perforated bronze sheet from Grave 108, as well as the irregularly shaped bronze lump kept in the pouch from the same grave were probably also amulets. Three burials (Graves 92, 108 and 119) yielded animal bones which were believed to protect their owners from harm and misfortune. Four wing-bones of domestic geese and a pi16 Cp. note 76 on p. 239. 17 For gaming pieces and the games played with them, cp. TATÁR 1973; FARKAS 1987; BARTHA 1998, 78-84. 18 For a good overview of spoon and strainer spoon shaped amulets, cp. B. Tobias: Awarenzeitliche Tascheninhalte und Gürtelgehänge im Karpatenbecken. Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des Magistergrades der Philosophie aus der Studienrichtung Ur- und Frühgeschichte eingereicht an der Geistes- und Kulturwissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Wien 2005.