Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 33/4. (2013)
Articles
Churchyards in the Transylvanian Basin from the IIth to the first half of the 13th centuries 189 which also proves the existence of a miles class. On the other hand, for example the 15 mansios of the Arad castle may show that a considerable number of servants serving the warrior class must have lived in the castle .214 As has been seen, in the case of Cluj-Napoca- Mänästur, a smaller and a larger cemetery can be distinguished, which can be explained by the different statuses of the two communities. Graves 92 and 93 with brick covers in Cluj-Napoca- Mänästur might have been the burials of religious persons. The situation is similar in the case of the two excavated cemeteries in Alba Iulia. As conclusion, the multifunctionality of these centres and the stratification of the population inner these strongholds seems to clear. The differences among the finds from these castles could, at the same time, indicate that the wealth and importance of such centers may have been diverse. At the moment, similar statements can hardly be made on the cemeteries of the forming (rural) settlements. For example, in Grave 76 in the Dealul Viilor cemetery from Sighisoara the skull of a skeleton is missing and on the skull found in Grave 45 an injury can be registered. These data may refer to violent military actions, which can be combined with the profession of the members of this community. 14. Results and perspectives In our effort to summarise the churchyards in the Transylvanian Basin, although a lot of questions remained unanswered, we have managed to find some interpretations for several problems concerning the sociological and historical phenomena of the different segments of the 11th-13th century society. Our first observation belongs to this archaeological phenomenon. Churchyards are the most obvious and reliable indicators of institutionalised Christianity. By this we do not mean that before the appearance of these cemeteries one cannot talk about Christianity, but these symbolise the ‘fully fledged’ real Christianity as a result of the 11th century conversion. We do not say that one cannot talk about Christian conversion or Christian groups in the Carpathian or the Transylvanian Basin, but there is no archaeological or other kind of evidence of a widely common system of Christian institutions. As opposed to the other regions of Europe, there is no clear archaeological evidence of institutionalised Christianity in the Transylvanian Basin from before the 11th century. Certainly, the dating of these cemeteries is in close connection with the spread of Christianity. As has been analysed above, in the case of the Cluj-Napoca-Mänästur cemetery, we have managed to point out that Cemetery Sections I and II of the two communities of different statuses were used from the middle of the 1 llh century. We also formulated the question: to what extent could the population of these churchyards be Christian? The characteristics of these cemeteries seem to show that the members of these communities were Christian. In several cases, unusual or strange burial customs can be documented, which were considered the remnants of pagan rites. However, according to our present opinion, this issue can be approached in a different way. Burial customs observed in churchyards should not be seen as the archaeological signs of lingering pagan rites, but the custom of excommunication, which is practised in present day communities too and which is a common human reaction. Those who are/were sentenced to death or who commit(ted) suicide may fall in this category. Certainly, it is out of question that this had no pagan roots but here they did not represent the pagan attitude but a norm accepted and institutionalised by the Christian church. Although the Christian church banned some rites in the fight against paganism, based upon the archaeological finds, we can suppose a continuity of these in a few cases (for example Sighisoara-Dealul Viilor: Graves 45 and 76, Alba Iulia-Roman Catholic Cathedral: Grave 15). In the analysis of churchyards we could draw a detailed picture of the formation and development of the structure of the medieval settlement network. In the analysis of the Sighisoara-Dealul Viilor cemetery we collected the 11th- 12th century data concerning the Tárnává Mare region (cemetery, settlement, treasure, stray find). They also clearly show that there must have been a thick network of settlements in the E or upper region of the Rivers Tárnává in the 12th century, which may indicate that the Hungarian Kingdom had finished establishing the system of settlements and institutions in the Transylvanian Basin by the end of the 1 lth-beginning of the 12th centuries. 2,4 Györffy 1977, 229.
