Gyöngyössy Márton (szerk.): Perspectives on the Past. Major Excavations in County Pest (Szentendre, 2008)
A Roman settlement at Páty (6100-4500 ВС) (4500-2700 ВС) <2700/2500-800 ВС) An extensive late Celtic-Roman Age settlement was investigated between 1982-1984 and 1997-1999 under the direction of Éva Maróti and Katalin Ottományi on the western bank of the Füzes Stream between the M1 Motorway and Road 100, in an area known as Malom-dűlő near Páty. The native population of Celtic stock continued its life uninterrupted during the first two centuries of Roman rule. They lived in sunken houses and used large beehive shaped storage pits and ovens with a round, bipartite fire pit. Their wheel-turned grey wares and hand-thrown vessels were made locally. The Celts traded with the Romans from an early period. Painted and stamped vessels, oil-lamps, glass wares and bronze jewellery arrived from Aquincum from the 70s. The many hundreds of terra sigillata and coin finds reflect the settlement’s prosperity and importance. The wealthier among the native population adopted Roman customs and erected gravestones and altars, and they built the first stone buildings in the mid-2nd century. They first lived in simple rectangular or square houses. By the turn of the 2nd/3rd centuries, during the settlement’s heyday, there were several large residential buildings of stone with a paved inner courtyard, a corridor, a kitchen and several rooms. These buildings were used throughout the late Roman period, until the close of the 4th century. Glazed pottery, coins and brooches date the settlement’s last period. The settlement extends for some 2 kilometres along the stream. It was not a simple villa estate, but a vicus that had evolved from a native Celtic settlement. The inscribed gravestones in the cemetery record the names of the first landowners and their families, who rose to prominence from the ranks of the native population. The presence of discharged veterans among the inhabitants is indicated by the fragment of a Roman military diploma from the early 2nd century found nearby. A small, mixed Ostrogothic and Alan group settled here at the turn of the 4th/5th centuries. Avar graves and Árpádian Age houses were dug into the settlement’s houses during later periods. • Katalin Ottományi
