K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2005/9. (Veszprém, 2005)
T. LÁNG, ORSOLYA: Control Excavations in the Territory of the Civil Town of Aquincum: the so-called „Testvérhegy-villa"
dated between the middle of the AD. 3 rd c. and the first third of the 4 th c. using (coins of Gordinaus III, Philippus Arabs, Hostilianus, Galerius? and Crispus). Though the graves excavated did not seem to be distrubed, a Spruchbecher and a glassbead found between the two burials suggest some had been robbed. The anthropological analysis suggests that six of the seven very poorly preserved skeletons were the burials of adults, while one was that of an infant. No pathological cases could be observed. 16 Prior to the grave phase at this site, a northwest-southeast dirt road with three layers ran in this area although its affiliation is still uncertain. It was certainly no longer in use when the cemetery was established. Summary Although the work on the site as well as on the find material is far from complete, it is already possible to draw some conclusions. The periods and topography of the buildings and the road-segments excavated between 1934 and in 2004 on the slope and foot of the Testvérhegy fit the picture of the municipal territory of the Aquincum Civil Town well. Considering the main northwest-southeast orineted diagonal road - though the coins coming from the various layers can only be used as terminus post quern data - the stone paved road was first constructed in this form during the first decades of the AD. 2 nd c. This was a time when urbanization actually began and Aquincum was given the rank of municipium. The road was more frequently renewed in Roman times (see the two coins of Hadrianus from the first and third pavements) and less often in later periods, as shown by the fact that there are only three layers can be shown up to the 16 th c. Although the extent of the buildings on the slope, their function (part of the villa urbana?) and their affiliation with the graves discovered by the road are still uncertain, this settlement must have owed its existence to the road. The entrance-unit excavated at the foot of Testvérhegy is unique among the Aquincum villas. So is its early, wooden phase. This latter feature may have been part of a smaller estate in the AD. 2 nd c. and survived up to the great villa period in the environs of Aquincum at the end of AD. 2 nd - beginning of the 3 rd c. Reconstruction in stone may have already been carried out by new owners (or tenants). It is also possible that the settlement began life as a village-like settlement and „grew" into a villa-estate by the mm of the AD. 2 nd-3 rd c. 17 Most of the owners of the Aquincum villas were eastern migrants and merchants arriving in Pannónia after the end of the Marcoman wars and at the time of the rise of the Severan dynasty. 18 The graveyard enclosure of Bithinia Severa, discovered close to the buildings on the slope also suggest that the owner of the Testvérhegy villa was an eastern family 19 . Based on the inscription on the sarcophagus, which was found by the main road, Italian settlers must have lived in this area (though not necessarly during the villa-period). As mentioned above, the flourishing period for the villas in the municipal territory of Aquincum dates to the first half of the AD. 3 rd and the beginning of the 4 th c.
