Vaday Andrea – Bánffy Eszter – Bartosiewicz László – T. Biró Katalin – Gogältan Florin – Horváth Friderika – Nagy Andrea: Kompolt-Kistér : Újkőkori, bronzkori, szarmata és avar lelőhely Leletmentő ásatás az M+-as autópálya nyomvonalán (Eger, 1999)

The site of Kompolt, Kistér

357 THE SITE OF KOMPOLT, KISTÉR acteristic of the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. This could be due to a mainly pastoral way of life, reflected in small settlements lacking a particularly thick cultural stratum. Even if the archaeological material discovered within them show that the two cremation graves belong to the same culture, they present a different burial ritual. Thus, for Grave /(Feature 8) an oval pit measuring 90 x 60 cm in area and 15 cm in depth was dug into the yellow clay. Being situated so close to the surface of the soil, agricultural work had destroyed the upper part of the grave. Today it is difficult to say whether the bowl was used as a lid for the urn or whether it was placed near it as part of the grave-goods. Much more information concerning the burial ritual, was provided by Grave 2 (Feature 115). A less deep pit was dug (about 25 cm depth). It had a round shape and a diameter of 230 cm. Four other little pits, symmetrically placed, with depths of 40, 40, 42 and 68 cm respectively, were identified inside the grave pit. Apparently, they may have been used for the wooden frame of a construction. It is more than probable that a so-called "house of the dead" stood here. The cremated bones of the deceased were spread outside the urn, as in the case of the graves discovered at Sal'a, Caka (Grave 8), or Budapest III-Aranyhegy Street. Four vessels were grouped near the bones. The very fragmentary preservation is probably a consequence of the fact that they were broken on purpose during the burial ritual and not because the light wooden construction had fallen. A small bone chisel completed the grave inventory. The two graves from Kompolt - Kistér are among the few complexes of this type systematically researched in the last 20 years. They provide further information on the rites and the burial rituals of the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. As for the burial rite, the characteristic feature is cremation. The few inhumation graves attributed to this culture (Ivanka pri Nitre), should probably be reconsidered. The burial ritual is extremely diverse, which is quite a natural situation if we keep in mind the large area over which this culture spread. Therefore, the six vessels discovered in 1938 at Makó - Vöröskereszt are believed to probably belong to a symbolic grave. The grave from Hódmezővásárhely Gorzsa-Cukor-tanya consisted of a big urn in which, besides the cremated bones of the dead, a little bowl was found. Two other vessels placed near the urn completed the grave goods inventory of the grave. At Caka, each of the three graves presented a different rite: with the bones placed inside an urn and no grave goods (Grave 4), with the bones deposited both inside an urn and in a little pit near it (Grave 5), or the bones laid in a pit and with four vessels as grave goods (Grave 8). At Pi§colt the situation is more homogeneous: in all graves, the bones were found in an urn, and in three cases the urn was covered with a bowl. The presence in the grave goods of the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture of the bowls with hollow stems and decorated inside, is a situation commonly encountered. In the case of the grave discovered at Magyarcsanád - Bökény, beside the urn, the grave goods consisted of two bowls (of which one was decorated inside) and a bronze needle(?). At Mezőkövesd - Mocsolyás the grave inventory included three large vessels. A greater number of vessels was found in the graves from Schwechat - Bauerei (5), Tata - Tófarok (7) and Budapest III - Aranyhegy Street. (12-13). As in the case of grave 2 from Kompolt - Kistér 14, special attention was given to the arrangement of the graves at Krásno. In this case, they were covered with a stone construction. The pit (Feature 7) had an irregular shape, with a diameter of 80 cm and a depth of 60 cm. As mentioned above, the pit was found at a distance of about 20 m from grave 1 (Feature 8). Its discovery raises certain problems. Though, a large zone was archaeologically investigated, no habitation was found nearby. In this case, we can presume two things: either it belonged to a habitation with a very easy suprastructure which could not be identified archaeologically, or the pit should be connected to grave 1. A relatively great number of pits have been found over the area in which the Makó-KosihyCaka culture spread. The pits discovered on Slovakian territory have been synthetically presented by J. Vladár. They were found in different settlements (Caka, Nővé Zámky, Maié Kosihy etc.), and had the characteristics of refuse pits. Most information we have concerning the pits of this culture comes from the south-eastern part of Hungary. Twelve pits belonging to a settlement (Csongrád - Sarok-tanya) were discovered by Gy. Gazdapusztai in 1958 at a distance of 4 km from the town of Csongrád. Near the locality of Hódmezővásárhely, more such complexes have been investigated. They have been recently described by G. Kulcsár. Wider extended excavations have been carried out only at the site of Barci-rét. The pits which were discovered here could not be connected to a settlement in the same way as five pits found at Jánosszállás - Katonapart. Other isolated pits were found in Békés county, at Battonya (in several places), Mezőgyán - Gépműhely and Szeghalom - Környe. Research by Marietta Csányi at Tiszakürt - Homoki szőlő, revealed five isolated pits. We have little information concerning the pits from Budapest III - Aranyhegy Street, and Schleinbach. The 13 pits from Táp - Borbapuszta or those at Abda - Hármasok, were discovered within settlements. The same thing can be said about the 20 complexes found at Oszlár - Nyárfaszög. The existence of some isolated pits and the absence of settlements is something often encountered in the Makó-Kosihy-Caka culture. It is hard to see all these pits being related to ritual practices. Probably, they were connected with some settlements of short duration, traces of which cannot be identified archaeologically. The idea of linking the pit at Kompolt - Kistér to a funeral feast, the remains of which were deposited in it, cannot be supported at this stage in the research. Yet, such a possibility should not be totally excluded.