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

(6100-4500 ВС)

(4500-2700 ВС)

(2700/2500-800 ВС)

Altogether 170 archaeological features were uncovered in Spring 2004, at the planned location of the Outlet Centre on the outskirts of Biatorbágy. The site lies at the bottom of a hill on the northern side of Road 100, opposite the Budapark site, which had already been archaeologically explored. The Roman and Avar graves were mostly west to east oriented, with the exception of the early Roman burials. The handful of early Roman inhumation and cremation graves yielded brooches, coins and oil-lamps. About twenty graves can be assigned to the late Roman Age on the basis of their grave goods (coins, various glass wares and glazed pottery). A broken inscribed gravestone was also found.

The scoop bucket of an earth-moving machine brought to light an assemblage of bronze vessels (cauldrons, jugs, pitchers and a handled cup) and other articles (bronze chest mounts and ornamental rivets). Lying some 15 meters from this assemblage was a horse skeleton with iron and bronze harness fittings and three other vessels (a pan with the handle cast in one, a handled jug decorated with a leaf design on the handle and a rather

poorly preserved bronze jug with an iron handle). Early Roman cremation burials lay nearby.

The two assemblages containing bronze vessels suggest that these had been hoards or the grave goods of a destroyed tumulus burial. The custom of erecting a mound 1. over the grave was practiced from the late

1st to the late 3rd century in Pannonia. Bronze vessels were often deposited in burials of this type.

The bronze vessels were used for a long time, as shown by the many repairs. Some pieces were made in the 2nd-3rd centuries, although the coin found beside them suggests that they were buried in the late 3rd century.

• Éva Maróti and Tamás Repiszky

Bronze vessels from a Roman cemetery at Biatorbágy