A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyvei 54. (Nyíregyháza, 2012)
Régészet - Almássy Katalin: A Mátraszőlős-királydombi kelta temető I. A sírok leírása
A Mátraszőlős—királydombi kelta temető I. SZABÓ TANKÓ 2006. Miklós Szabó - Károly Tankó: Nécropole laténienne á Ludas-Varjú-dűlő. ActaArchHimg 57. 2006. 325-343. VENCLOVÁ 1990. Natalie Venclová: Prehistoric glass in Bohemia. Archeologicky ústav CSAV, Praha 1990. ALMÁSSY Katalin Jósa András Múzeum Nyíregyháza H-4401 Pf. 57. e-mail: almassyk@gmail.com Celtic cemetery from Mátraszőlős-Királydomb I. Description of the graves Publication of the cemetery investigated in 1957-58 is an old debt of the Hungarian Late Iron Age research (PATAY 1958, PATAY 1959). 3 4 The site is situated in the valley of river Zagyva, on its western side, at the altitude of 175.3 m above the sea level (Fig. 2). The elevation is the last member in the chain of hills sloping from the Cserhát Mountains towards the river. From the north it is separated only by a meadow from a spring that runs into the Zagyva situated in 650-700 meters. The first two graves were found during ballast-digging in the spring of 1957, in Királydomb situated east of the village. Until July 1958, Pál Patay visited the site several times; he excavated or recorded the newly found burials (graves 3-5) and also collected the artefacts the findings of which had not been reported to the museum. The first small scale rescue excavation took place in July 1958 (graves 6-14). Remaining part of the cemetery was excavated between August and September, 1958 (graves 15-63). We have to emphasise that there was literally a rescue excavation taking place in Mátraszőlős: it were the soil machines working day and night that dictated the beat and not the aspects of archaeological excavation (Fig. 4). Due to these circumstances, sometimes it happened that burials were disturbed or more or less destroyed despite of the presence of the archaeologist. It occurred that a grave was investigated during the night, at the light of the bulldozer. A total of 63 graves and 2 pits were unearthed (the relationship of the pits with the Celtic cemetery is uncertain). That means that even today the cemetery of Mátraszőlős is one of the largest Late Iron Age necropolises in the Carpathian Basin (Fig. 3). It seems to be even more significant if we take into consideration that only 10-15 burials have been destroyed in the course of earlier construction and different earth works. Only at the southern side it remains uncertain whether the rescue excavation reached the border of the cemetery, because there used to be houses the yards of which were planed. At the same time, the earth works touched a territory much larger than the archaeological site, that is to say, in the case of the other three sides we can be sure that the cemetery did not continue. Its territory counts 2,290 sq.m. The material of the burial ground is very uniform, especially if we take into consideration the high number of graves. This is true both for the weaponry and for the objects of female costume. 3 4 The analysis of the cemetery and of the find material is to be published in a later study. 139
