Maróti Éva szerk.: Régészeti tanulmányok Pest megyéből (Studia Comitatensia 22. Szentendre, 1991)

Tari Edit: Árpád-kori templomok Cegléd környékén I.

tion and church-building density of our territory in the Árpád Age. The latter problem nowadays can be solved already only by the means of archaeology. In the present study I deal with the excavation of three churches of Árpád Age: 1. Tápióbicske-St. Guy church, 2. Nagykáta-Kenderhalom, 3. Csemő-Hosszúdűlő. On the basis of an interesting record I am going to deal with one more church: Tápióbicske-church of Blessed Virgin Mary. Having the documental source, the archaeological excavation of the church would be very significant. (A special interest of this matter is that estate boundaries were marked by dividing the church into two parts at its height.) 1. Tápióbicske-St. Guy church. Its first record comes from B90. The bigger part of the building was demolished during earthworks. Remains were excavated in 1977 by István Dinnyés. It was a church with a rectangular termination of the apse. Its clay foundation was stamped in layers. The wall must have been built in mixed techniques (stones and bricks). The presumable inner height is about 11—12 meters. 9 graves were unearthed from the cemetery surrounding die church. A bronze buckle (grave 5., ill. VIII. 11.) and a headed ring (grave 8., ill. VIII. 12.) found in the graves can be dated to the middle of the Xnith century. The church was oriented precisely E—W, which is different from the usual NE—SW orientation of this region. It cannot be determined if the main aspect for the orientation was the summer solstice or the holiday of the patron saint, because these two dates stand very close to each other. 2. Nagykáta-Kenderhalom. We have no knowledge about medieval record on the church. It had been already excavated before the research of 1982. On this occasion the column foundation of the western choir was found in the nave. It was a church with a rectangular nave and with a rectangular termination of the apse. The joint inner height of the sanctuary and nave is 8.6 meters. The sanctuary was 2.7 meters wide, the nave 4—4.2 m. Space proportions of the nave: 1 : 1.3, it could hold maximum 40 persons. Orientation: NE 72 —SW 252. The foundation of the church was made of clay stamped in layers. Its wall must had been built in mixed technique judging from the building material found during the excavations. 48 graves were unearthed in the church cemetery. We have only poor finds from them: hair-rings, an obulus and some coffin-nails. Mints: CNH. I. 145. and 151. (VIH. 1—

lu) 3. Csema-Hosszúdűla. First mentioned in a 1368 record. The church was excavated in 1981, since that the foundation was removed by bulldozers. The apse has got a semicircular termination, there is a continuous foundation under the triumphal arch and the nave is rectangular. The joint inner height of the apse and the nave is Ю.7 m, the width of the nave is 5—5.2 m. Space proportions: 1 : 1.5, it could hold maximum 60—65 persons. Orientation: NE 60 — SW 240. In the foundation layers consisted stamped clay with humus and limestone. 4 graves were unearthed from the church cemetery. One of the child graves was framed by bricks (grave 2.). As stray finds we have an Árpád Age spur, a coulter and a XVIth century lead ring. (VIII. 13.) The spur and coulter were kept inside the sanctified area. (XVII. 2—3.) Although the foundation technique and the analysis of orientation need more reseach, it seems that we find churches with the same foundation (in layers) technique in a small area because of the relative closeness of limestone quarries. In the surroundings of Cegléd it seems to be a rule that churches were oriented NE—SW. Churches mentioned above were built in Árpád Age and did not survive until the XlVth century. The only exception is the St. Guy church from Tápióbicske. It must have existed even at the beginning of the XVth century which is proved by a cornice stone found there. We shall have a final answer only by going on with the research, excavating other churches of the region. (Translated by Valéria Kulcsár) 408