Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)
A Scythian cemetery on the outskirts of Nyáregyháza IRON AGE (8th/7th century BC- late 1 st century AD) (1st-4th centuries AD)(400-454 AD) (454-568 AD) (568-811/829 AD) (895-1 301 AD) (1301-1526/1686) Edit Tari uncovered a Scythian Age cemetery on the planned line of link road between the M5 Motorway and Road 4. The 20 meters wide zone of the planned road essentially provided an east to west longitudinal section of the cemetery. A gully separated the western and eastern part of the extensive burial ground, 41 in which the graves formed loose clusters. Over 90 per cent of graves contained inhumation burials (45 graves), the rest were cremation burials (4 graves). The occurrence of both rites in the cemetery is not unusual in this period, although a similarly high proportion of inhumation burials has not been observed elsewhere. One possible explanation is that the community using the cemetery was dominated by the newcomers or their direct descendants. Grave 1 is unique in that it was enclosed within a ditch and it apparently had some sort of superstructure judging from the post-holes in the four corners of the grave pit and in the ditch. It also had a clay bench along the edge. The deceased in the inhumation burials were laid to rest in a crouched position on their right side, except for one grave, in which the deceased was laid prone. Similarly to other burial grounds from this period, there were several double and multiple burials. Some graves contained stone slabs, a reflection of ritual practices. The finds from the Nyáregyháza cemetery differ little from the assemblages recovered from other Scythian Age buri& als of the Great Hungarian Plain. The P disturbed or expressly looted graves yielded jewellery articles (gold earrings, bronze lockrings plated with electrum, bronze and iron bracelets, various beads), tools and implements (iron knives, whetstones), and an assortment of weapons (iron and bronze arrowheads, iron spearheads, iron axes). The practice of depositing vessels containing food and drink into the graves was quite common. Hand-thrown and wheel-turned vessels were both used for this purpose. The ceramics from the graves range from cups with high-drawn handle and bowls with indrawn rim to biconical urns and flowerpot shaped vessels, and they differ little from the pottery wares known from other cemeteries. The cemetery was opened sometime at the turn of the 6th/5th centuries and was used during the 5th century BC. Júlia Kisfaludi 1. Electrum plated lockrings 2. Bronze arrowheads 3. Bronze bracelets 4. Hand-thrown bowl 5. Wheel-turned vessels: cup with high-drawn handleJ channelled vessel Í
