Zalai Múzeum 14. Müller Róbert 60 éves (Zalaegerszeg, 2005)

Nagy Margit: Kor népvándorlás kori gyermeksír amulettekkel Mártélyról (Csongrád megye)

Kora népvándorlás kori gyermeksír amulettekkel Mártélyról (Csongrád megye) 113 objects were heavily worn (Fig. 2, lb; 6, 1-2; 8, 2-3). 14: Alongside one of the wild boar tusks, a truncated cone shaped iron bell was found. The bell was placed upside down in the grave. The bell was made of iron and it was covered with copper. The bell was hammered to its shape. The bell was heavily rusted both inside and outside over the major part of its body (Fig. 2, lb; 5, 8; 13,6). 15: Iron pendant(?). The object was fragmented and it was difficult to reconstruct its shape. The pieces were found next to each other but do not form to a recognisable shape (Fig. 2, 1; 4, 5-6). 16: Burnt bone fragments of a small animal In the following section the analogies and the chronological position of the finds are outlined. A natural elevation called 'Csanyi part' was a dry area even before the regulation of the river Tisza. Archaeological finds have been recorded from the area since the 1880s. The first graves of a late Avar cemetery were revealed in 1884 during the construction works of a bank (SZENTPÉTERI 2002, 235) (Fig. 1, 2b). In 1891 and 1897 apart from the Avar burials many graves were uncovered that belonged to the migration period and possibly to Germanic tribes. The finds from these graves could not be identified any longer (SZEREMLEI 1900, 467; PÁRDUCZ 1937, 175). A fibula pair with a triangular head was reported by E. Beninger from Mártély (BENINGER 1931, 16, Nr. 17). Attila Kiss (KISS 1981, 198-199) tried to discover more about the fibulae, the author of this article could not gain any more information about the fibula pair than was already found by him. Dezső Csallány (CSALLÁNY 1961, Taf. 218, 11) published a drawing of a triangular headed fibula that belongs to the Delhaes collection (InvNum. 61.119.1). In considering the scattered finds, there is a high probability that at 'Csanyi part', north from the Avar cemetery, a smaller cemetery was also found that can be dated to the 4-5

th century. The burial of the child described above was probably part of this cemetery. The burial of the child from Mártély was first dated to the Avar period in 1985 when it was put on a display in an exhibition about the Avars in Frankfurt am Main (KÜRTI-MENGHIN 1985, 92, Abb. 90, 47). The corpus of the Avar finds discusses this grave as early Avar (SZENTPÉTERI 2002, 235). It is considered here that the publication of this burial has important implications in understanding both the Hun and Avar periods. Amongst the finds the dotted, spherical glass beads deserve more consideration (TEMPELMANMACZYNSKA 1985, 47, Тур 198) (Fig. 5, 1-7). According to F. Teichner (TEICHNER 1999, 84-85, 228-231, Taf. 74) the basic blue coloured glass beads were made from the 3

rd century in workshops in Dacia and along the Danube. Glass beads belonging to this type reached the Sarmatians and Germanic tribes along the Danube, Elba and Rhone. The blue dotted beads were characteristic in the Tisza region and southern Great Hungarian Plain and appear with finds that can be dated to the end of the 4

th and beginning of 5

th century. This type of bead appears in small number (1-2 in one person's possession) and only rarely in greater number. In the Great Hungarian Plain in the graves of women with plate fibulae — Csongrád, Gyula, Makó, Mád, Tiszalök — blue glass beads are the commonest type (TEICHNER 1999, 230). As mentioned above only a small number of dotted glass beads are placed in graves. However this burial had seven beads. It is considered that the dark coloured dotted glass beads in this grave of the child were amulets. The number seven is often considered to be important. Apart from this it must also be noted that the beads were placed in the grave in a period (4-5

th century) when relatively more beads were available. The disk (Fig. 3, 4) and crescent (Fig. 3, 5) shaped pendants from Mártély show relation with Sarmatian torque pendants. An analogous lunula made of silver foil (Fig. 9, 18) has been found at Mezőszemere from grave 31 (Fig. 9, 16) and from Csongrád-Kettőshalmi dűlő (Fig. 9, 17). Analysis of the use of disc and crescent shaped pendants indicates that celestial symbols played an important role in the belief system of Sarmatians (KERÉNYI 1956, 19-20) and Huns (ASZT-KOVÁCS 1999, 51-52). The third amulet of the necklace was a deer tooth (Fig. 3, 3) that can often be found in graves of children and women from the 3-5

th centuries (Endrőd-Szujókereszt grave 49, Jászberény-Csegelapos, TápéMalajdok "A" grave 24, Viminacium/Stari KostolacBurdelj, Szécsény). The bone ring (Fig. 10, 1) shows similar characteristics to the one found in the Cernjachov culture at Frunzovka (KRAVCSENKO 1967, 162-163, Ris. 2, 1,3) (Fig 10, 2). A geographically closer analogy to the bone buckle can be found in a grave of a man in Singidunum (SCHULZEDÖRRLAMM 2002, 12, Abb. 4, 2) (Fig. 10, 3). At the Hódmezővásárhely-Dilinka-Franciszti brickfactory in the Gepidic cemetery a similar bone buckle was found (CSALLÁNY 1961, 125, Taf. 230, 14) (Fig. 10, 4). The wild boar tusk amulets (Fig. 6, 1-3) are not common finds in the Carpathian Basin. Within the territory of the Sîntanna-di-Mures, - Cernjachov culture, A

. Kokowski reports seventeen wild boar tusk amulets from nine sites. The greatest number of wild boar tusk amulets was uncovered at the cemetery of Maslomçcz, in east Poland, from seven graves (KOKOWSKI 2001,