Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 15. (2002)

Németh Péter Gergely – K. Zoffmann Zsuzsanna – Bartosiewicz László: Kelta temető és telep Ordacsehi határában

74 Celtic cemetery and settlement near Ordacsehi PÉTER GERGELY NÉMETH - ZSUZSANNA К. ZOFFMANN - LÁSZLÓ BARTOSIEWICZ Some Celtic graves and settlement features came to light at the sandpit of Ordacsehi in 1991 and 1995. Another rescue escavation by Péter Gergely Németh saved four Celtic graves in 2001. Additional graves will be published in a forthcoming articiele. Two of the Celtic graves the identification of two (Graves 9. and 22.) remain uncertain. Only one settlement feature (Pit. 19.) was excavated in the sandpit. Among the grave goods we can find several vessels, fibulae, bracelets, weapons and iron fragments from an unknown object. The vessels included a decorated one (Grave 30). Another pottery fragment was a strayfind. The cemetery can be dated to LT CI period. The human remains recovered from this cemetery have been difficult to evaluate. This is, in part, the consequence of the cremation rite, but also of the great degree of fragmentation encountered in the case of inhumation burials. Consequently, the material has but a limited potential of contributing new, substantial information to the general physical anthropological characterization of Celts in the southern section of Transdanubia, western Hungary. Animal bones recovered from four features at this Celtic cemetery originated largely from pig and poultry, although sporadic bones of cattle were also unearthed. Most characteristically, pig in two graves were represented by skulls showing evidence that the head of the decapitated animals was subsequently split longitudinally. Although compared to Slovakia, Northern Hungary and the south of the Great Hungarian Plain, Celtic cemeteries in the former Roman province of Pannónia (where the cemetery of Ordacsehi belonged) contained a smaller percentage of pig remains, the difference is relatively small (Figure 1 : the contribution of pig, domestic hen, cattle and sheep bones to Celtic assemblages in the four regions). Most remarkably, to date goose remains (similar to those recovered at this site) have only been found in Celtic burials in Slovakia.