Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 8.-9. 1967-1968 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1968)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: Reconstruction on the tenth Century Population of Sárbogárd on the Basis of Archaeoloogical and Anthropological Data. – A sárbogárdi X. századi közösség rekonstrukciója régészeti és embertani adatok alapján. VIII–IX, 1967–68. p. 93–147. t. XXVI–XLV.

In the burial rites the egg was likely to represent rebirth, as for instance the Easter egg, but it might also have been related to fertility magic. Here it is worthy to note the part of the body to which the egg was placed. In Sárbogárd we found eggs placed to the right hand, left knee, right clavicle, between the two femurs in front of the symphyses. At the late Avar period cemetery of Ártánd the egg was found at the following places: at the upper end of the sternum, at the right ankle, left knee, in the centre of the pelvis above the sacrum.

10 Thus the eggs were primarily placed to the joints or in the vicinity of the genital organs. The plate disks and half-moon shaped pendants are also known from the graves of children in Sárbogárd. Research on both objects revealed that they were worn only by women. The purpose of the plate disks and their use have still not been satisfactorily clarified by research but the half-moon shaped pendant was likely to have been primarily related to fertility magic

11

. The graves of the men, women and children of Sárbogárd yielded a peculiar find: the brown-girled snail.

12 According to P. A g ó с s y the snails belong to two species : the Helicella obvia (Hartmann) and the Cepaea vindobonensis (C.Pfr.). Both snails are characteristic of the fauna of the dry grassy steppes. The westernFig. 16. The number of object types among men and women in different age-groups io K. K. ÉRY-A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Az ártándi későavarkori népesség szociográfiai rekonstrukciója. (The Sociographic Reconstruction of the Late Avar-Period Cemetery of Ártánd) (Manuscript, 1963). " A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Arch. Ért. 86 (1959) 76-82. 12 Thus far they are known from the cemeteries of Ártánd —Kapitánydűlő, Pilismarót-Basaharc, Balinka and Tác (A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Alba Regia 2/3 [1961-62] 166-172). most specimens were found in the area of Austria. Both species found here still exist in the Carpathian Basin. (In grave 24 the small sweet-water snails strung between beads are of an entirely different species: Theodoxus danubialis (C.Pfr.) and Lithogliphus naticoides Fér. These snails can still be found in the Danube and in a few of its larger subsidiaries.) The burying of snails is practically unknown from the 10-1 lth century cemeteries of Hungary. Until now I have come across them only in one grave of the 10th century cemetery of Tengelic

12a and I do not know of their occurrence elsewhere. On the other hand they are known from the cemeteries of the Avar period. The burying of snails with the dead was likely related to some belief about the other world.

13 Very likely their spiral shape and colored rings provided the basis of the symbolic meaning, but it is possible that they were related to fertility magic too. For instance let us note the parts of the body to which the snails were placed in Sárbogárd: at the outside of the right caput humeri, at the outside of the right elbow, at the left of the skull near the opening of the ear, at the inside of the right elbow, between the two femurs in front of the symphyses. In Tengelic the snails was found on the left caput femoris, at the inside of the right femur, between the two knees. In the late Avar-period cemetery at Ártánd the snails was put to the following places : left of the skull, at the inside of the left elbow, between the two ankles, at the outside of the upper right arm, on the right pelvic arch, scattered on the chest and pelvis and scattered on the pelvis and lower extremities. Thus the snails are put to sites similar to those of the eggs, mainly to the joints and the vicinity of the genital organs. 3. Some Archeological Phenomena In the cemetery of Sárbogárd there are a few phenomena which require separate treatment and therefore there is no chance to fully exhaust these topics in this study, only the related problems can be indicated. A. The Grave of the Headman As I mentioned earlier, the location of grave 33 is unu12/a The author's excavation. Unpublished, is N. FETTICH: Studia Arch. 3 (1965). Fig. 15. The number of object types among the three groups of finds and sexes in 10-1 lth с cemeteries