Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)

An Early Bronze Age cemetery at Szigetszentmiklós

(6100-4500 BC) (4500-2700 BC)

(2700/2500-800 BC)

A salvage excavation was conducted between September 2006 and March 2007 in an area called Felső-Ürgehegyi-dűlő on the outskirts of Szigetszentmiklós, on the site of a planned shopping centre built by BAUHAUS Ltd. Altogether 716 archaeological features, including 226 burials, were uncovered. Most burials date from the Early Bronze Age; one could be assigned to the Late Bronze Age Urnfield culture. Aside from the burials, prehistoric settlement remains, traces of occupation from the Early and Late Bronze Ages, the Árpádian Age and the Middle Ages were also uncovered.

The Early Bronze Age cemetery contained inhumation burials and cremation graves of both the inurned and the scattered variety, as well as symbolic burials, which were furnished with grave goods, but did not have any human skeletal remains. The ditches ringing the graves could be observed and excavated in several cases.

Most of the Early Bronze Age burials could be assigned to the Bell Beaker culture. The most common grave good was pottery: bell beakers with a design arranged in zones, cups with incised, encrusted patterns, bowls with decorated or undecorated rim, and one-handled jugs and pots. In addition to the ceramic wares, stone plaques used as wristguards, chipped stone arrowheads and bone amulets with incised decoration, as well as daggers, awls and a halberd made from copper were also deposited in the burials. The perforated bone buttons were used for fastening clothing, while the bone and limestone beads found around the neck and the gold rings and delicate gold plaques by the head were costume ornaments. Some burials yielded vessels of the Nagyrév culture.

• Róbert Patay