Budapest Régiségei 19. (1959)

ANYAGKÖZLÉSEK - Kaba Melinda: Későrómai sírok a Fényes Elek utcában 157-165

M. KÁBA LATE ROMAN TOMBS IN THE FÉNYES ELEK STREET In the spring of 1955 a nursery was under construction at No 6 Fényes Elek street. When laying the electric cables we have found a tomb fitted together of flagstones and another made of bricks. The tombs lay side by side parallel with each other at 0,5 m below the present ground level. The skeletons were previously disarranged. Tomb No 1. The side-walls have been lined with flagstones of large size. One of the side-walls was made by secondary employment of a sarcophagus-cover. The lower part of it was paved with large-sized bricks (tegulae). We have found in the tomb one bronze bulbiform fibula, one bronze buckle and the fragment of a cylindrical, hollow bronze tool. Taking into consideration the size of the tomb, it must have been that of an adult, although only a few fragments were left of the bones. Tomb No 2. Lined with flanged bricks, inside a young child's skeleton, disarranged ; at the level of the neck were many tiny blue paste pearls smashed to smithereens and a perforated late Roman small-bronze used as amulet. The bulbiform fibulae were chiefly used in the 3rd and 4th centuries, the period of the Empire. A sample similar to the bronze buckle is known also from the late Empire graveyard of Intercisa. The perforated smallbronzes are identifiable with the coins of Constantine I. Hence, relying upon these finds discovered in both tombs, we date them from the 4th century of our era. The site of these tombs is connected topographically with the group of tombs previously excavated near the late Roman settlement of villas at Aquincum. The cadastral site-plan shows — on the basis of the literary data published so far -— that these newest finds are part of the Western sector (Ny) of the late Roman cemetery-area. CAPTIONS Fig. 1—4 Late Roman tombs in the Fényes Elek street Fig. 5 Site-plan Fig. 6 Cadastral site-plan Fig. 7—8 Late Roman tombs in the Fényes Elek street Fig. 9—13 Finds from the late Roman tombs in the Fényes Elek street 165