Majorossy Judit: A Ferenczy Múzeum régészeti gyűjteményei - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, D. sorozat: Múzeumi füzetek - Kiállításvezetők 5. (Szentendre, 2014)
Dr. Ottomány Katalin: Rómaiak kora
Korongolt szürke tál / Wheel-made grey bowl boss and large vessels is known from Páty, “Mill-fields”. By that time, their belief in afterlife seemed to have been altered. Death means a definitive end to the earthly existence, and for that reason people do not need their everyday objects in the hereafter any more, consequently, they put them in a damaged condition into the graves. According to their belief one could reach the otherworld by land on chariots, that is why they put the chariots or some of their components into the graves of the rich. In the above-mentioned grave at Páty the wheel-bands were also excavated. This belief survived in the chariot representations of the native Celtic tombstones in the Early Roman Age. Urn burials are known from several places in Pest County, usually only with vessels (Pomáz, Tahitótfalu), but sometimes also rich in weaponry (Szigetmonostor, Farmos). In seven graves out of the 55 in the cemetery that was excavated near Vác “Gravel-pit” armed warriors were buried. Weapons are often found in the river-bed of the Danube as stray finds, such as, for example, the iron spearhead and iron sword in Dunabogdány and Tahitótfalu, but one can also mention the spear from the “Green-cave” near Budakalász. The golden or bronze torqueses or neck-rings found in Celtic graves were the symbols of social rank. In the Roman Age women already wore these objects as everyday jewels. The brooches or fibulas belonged to the costumes of the magnificently dressed highrank ladies. The earliest piece is the one from Szentendre, but well-decorated examples are also known from Püspökhatvan, Vác “Gravel-pit”, and Solymár. Women wore bronze belts inlaid with enamel or stones around their waist, and they had torqueses, bronze or glass bracelets, anklets, and rings. One of their typical jewels was the ball bracelet or anklet (with a hollow inside). In one of the graves of the cemetery at Vác “Gravel-pit” beads strung on an iron belt was excavated, among them three pieces with masks, one imitating a Janus head. The poorer people wore iron fibulas and they were buried with everyday objects (knives, scissors), with their bronze jewels. These graves with poor grave goods could belong to the class of craftsmen, while those without any grave goods could have been the burial places of the servants. Druids who were the members of the leading élite are only known from the extant written records, unfortunately they cannot be identified in the cemeteries. During the Roman conquest the Celts had already practiced skeleton burial. In the Late Iron Age the Celts settled down in almost every place suitable for human habitation. In Pest County, first of all, the Danube-bend and the Gödöllő Hills were densely populated, one can find hardly any traces of the Celts in the flatten parts of the county. In the 1st century B.C. the continuous attacks from outside (by the Dacians and the Romans) made it necessary for the Celts to establish their walled hill forts, the so-called oppida. These were built on strategically important places. The iron weapons were produces in the forge-shops that were in operation here, and their metallurgists made high quality bronze jewels. The hill fort established on the Gellert Hill - which was the tribal centre of the Eravisci - had been abandoned already before the Roman conquest. Only the colonies at the foot of the hill had survived until the conquest. On the other hand, at Százhalombatta a former hill fort of Bronze Age origin was reused by the Celts. While at Pomáz, on Nagycsikóvár a late Celtic earth mound is to be found. A mine in its neighbourhood had been exploited from the Early Iron Age onwards until the Celtic period. 35
