Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 16. 1975 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1978)
Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: An Anthropological Sketch of Arpadian Age Burials at the Holy Crucifix Church in Székesfehérvár. p. 159–167.
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL SKETCH OF ARPADIAN-AGE BURIALS AT THE HOLY CRUCIFIX CHURCH IN SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR In order to erect a new building, a house was demolished at 3, Ferenc Rózsa Street in Székesfehérvár in the spring of 1970. In the course of this work, remains of a church belonging to the Arpadian — Age was uncovered under the old house. The church is surrounded by buildings on the east and west, while a road borders it on the north. Only on the southern side of the church was there an open space. It is on this spot that simultaneous with the demolition, the laying of foundations of the new building was started and drainage ditches for public utilies were dug. In these ditches a number of disturbed skeletons were found. In the course of the salvage of the finds, which was undertaken by А. К r a 1 о v á n s z к у and К. É r j{ L ), an excavation was possible only in units of a few square meters in extent next to the southern exterior wall of the church where the stratification of three graves, one on top of the other, could be observed. As the excavation within the walls of the church extended only to the original floor level, it could not be ascertained, whether burials were made in the church itself. Apart from the skeletons, no small finds turned up, although discoloration on the bones provides evidence of grave goods ( 2 ). According to the preliminary investigation of A. Kralovánszky, the architectural data indicate that the church was erected in the beginning of the eleventh century, and it is likely that it was the former Holy Crucifix parish church. The building (1) Excavation report, K. ÉRY — A. KRALOVÁNSZKY, AÉrt, XCVIII, 1971, 98. (2) Green discoloration can be Seen on the right mastoid of a female skull, on the left mastoid of a Second female skull, on both mastoids of a third female Skull, on the chin of a mandible and, on the edge of the foramen magnum of a male Skull. was probably destroyed at the time when the town fell to the Turkish invaders in 1543( 3 ). In principle thus, the burials could date from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. However, the skeletal material fix this time limit more precisely on the following grounds : — the bone remains came from approximately the same depth, in a dark argillaceous soil, situated at the level of the water table. Because of this the bones have a uniformly brown shade of colour with the exception of a few fragmentary remains ; — all the bones were in the same condition ; — their metrical and morphological features are identical in many respects; — marked brachycranialized skull shapes are lacking despite the fact that this trait is predominant in Hungary in the cemeteries of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries just as the brachycranialization process prevailed uniformly all over Europe( 4 ). On the basis of the above mentioned characteristics the conclusion may be drawn that the remains cannot be placed later than the thirteenth century and it can be presumed that they belong to the eleventh or the twelfth centuries. The thirteenth to sixteenth century skeletons of the Holy Crucifix parish church had to be buried either further away from the southern wall of the church, or on the otherthree sides, where excavation is not possible at present. (3) Oral communication. (4) This process is well illustrated by the following material of Hungarian Middle-Age cemeteries: Fonyód (GY. DEZSŐ et al., AnthrHung, VI, 1963). — Mohács — Csele (J. NEMESKÉRI — M. DEÁK, AÉrt, LXXIX, 1952, 46—47). — Nagytálya (B. KOROMPAI, EMÉ, XI—XII, 1973—74, 75—130). — Zombor (L. BARTUCZ, AUSB, Sec. Biol, III, 1960, 23—48). 159
