Rácz Tibor Ákos: A múltnak kútja. Fiatal középkoros regészek V. konferenciájának tanulmánykötete - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 3. (Szentendre, 2014)
Képtáblák
English Summaries Besides, this terrace was a blind spot when viewed from the centre of the castle. Based on charter documents and thirteenth-fifteenth-century finds, we presume that there was a late medieval noble residence - a curia or castellum - built there. This location would have been ideal to keep the castle under fire, and launch an offensive. It was because of this situation that the defenders of the castle decided to build an outpost, by which this critical point could have been also controlled. The double palisade structure and the deep trench of the outwork were all oriented towards this critical point, which explains its semi-circular arrangement as well. At the backside, towards the castle, where there was only a single-wall palisade, there could have been the position of the entrance. Thus far, relatively few outworks have been investigated archaeologically, but the available evidence points to the application of similar circular structures, defended by double fences, semi-circular trenches, and ditches (Figs. 3-5). Who built the outwork? Based on the artefacts and coins we have found, it was built around the middle of the fifteenth century. During this period, the valley of the Sajó River was ruled by Hussite mercenaries. In order to establish a territorial control, they have occupied previously abandoned and still functioning castles, and in some of which they have applied defensive wood-earth structures as a protection against firearms, similarly to the example of Sajónémeti. There is a charter from 1460 that reports about the siege of Sajónémeti, and that the „fortalitio” was taken back by the troops of King Matthias (Hunyadi). In the following years, the castle remained empty, and the locals gradually pulled it down. The outwork found in Sajónémeti is a unique military feature, which was commonly applied in Central Europe in the fifteenth century. However, it did not attract much attention from researchers. All known archaeological examples were related to the Bohemian Hussites - with no exceptions, all of these were discovered in areas once controlled by the Hussites or their descendants. One of the depictions in a Polish theoretical work, the so called Rei tornamentariae (Table 1, Fig. 3) was of significant help for reconstruction attempts. Drawing on this, we are able to provide a fairly accurate reconstruction of these structures, which consisted of an inner line of single-row wattle fence palisade, and which was — on the front of the direction of the expected attacks - complemented by a lightweight, multi-layered wooden frame structure filled with earth. We have every reason to believe that in Sajónémeti, we have found a very similar structure to the one depicted in the Rei tornamentariae, built by the Hussites who once occupied the castle (Fig. 6). It seems that the idea to apply earth-wood structures as a defence against firearms became more widely known, and a standard for later artillery constructions. 467
