A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 1962-1964 (Debrecen, 1965)

Tanulmányok - Gazdapusztai Gyula: Réz- és középkori telep és temető Tégláson

Gyula Gazdapusztai A Coppere and Mediaeval Age Settlement and Cemetery at Téglás In summer 1962, the Déri Museum conducted major excavations in the area of Angolkert at Téglás, the Hajdúhadház district of the Hajdúság State Forests (County Hajdu-bihar). During an autumn deep ploughing of the sandy soil primitive and mediaeval finds had turned up there. This paper gives a description of the results of excavation and terrain inspection and is intended to serve as a starting point for further analyses of settlement and cemetery. Sporadic primitive finds have turned up in the area, Among them are two bigger pieces of obsidian (Figure 2. Table I), a number of smaller quartz and obsidian chippings, which are shown in Figures 2—2. of Table I, II aswell a number of earthenware fragments. The pieces of pottery are characterless, light brown objects as a rule, only one row of dots (Figure 1, Table I) and one fragment with a netlike pattern and linear decoration may serve for determining the age (Figure 1, Table I). On the basis of these two fragments we suggest that this was the place of the destroyed thin layer of the Bodrogkeresztár culture of the Copper Age. A small clay cylinder with a tapering end (Figure 1. Table II.), and an axial hole through it, may belong to the primitive finds, considering its material and working. This was the primitive blow-pipe. Since, however, this find is of a sporadic character, it may also come from a more recent period (Sarmatian or mediaeval) although it can be classified as belonging to the primitive finds, considering material and baking. As mentioned, the culture layer was destroyed altogether by deep ploughing, the majority of the finds turned up in secondary positions, thus no evaluation is possible. It should be added with some reservation that the two obsidian pieces might have served as a raw-material depot, as there are no traces of use on them, and the greyish-brown layer on the objects also would seem to serve as a proof of their raw-material character. Deep ploughing has caused heavy damages also to the remains of the mediaeval village. Only sporadic fragments of pottery (Tables III, IV, V, VI.) on the surface tell about the location of a one-time settlement, although at a later inspection of the terrain — at the time of another ploughing — György Módy found traces of house foundations and their streetlike layout. The pottery finds indicate that the settlement existed in the Arpadian period (11th—14th centuries). It is only the small church with a semicircular apsis, built of mud walls, and the surrounding cemetery that were spared destruction in part. The former is built in the style of the 11th—14th centuries, and may have been the church of a small, poorish rural community (Map 1, Table VIII). The foundations are made of tamped black earth, brick, fragments of brick, and yellow clay. The southern side of the cemetery was uncovered in the course of excavations, and 41 burial places were given individual grave numbers. The actual number of graves here was larger, therefore a — с markings were used for coherent complexes, not to speak of the unnumbered, frequently appearing and reburied fragments of skeletons and pits that contained the scattered and collectively reburied remains of 5—17 corpses. The find is very poor: besides some small iron fragments, we may mention a U-shaped iron object turned up in grave no. 36 (Figure 3, Table VII), a bracelet of poor silver alloy found in one of the pits with subsequent burials (Figure 2), and an Sended lock-ring turned up as a surface sporadic find in the cemetery area (Figure 4). All these finds support our opinion that the cemetery was of the same age as the settlement. This conclusion is seemingly contradicted by a bronze buckle of belt which also turned up as a sporadic object at the site and is now kept in the Déri Museum (Figure 1). This find has no counterpart in our material of the Arpadian period, and might come from a more recent period. But the sporadic character renders the dating value doubtful. 124