KOVÁCS TIBOR: TUMULUS CULTURE CEMETERIES OF TISZAFÜRED / Régészeti Füzetek II/17. (Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Budapest, 1975)
II. Late Bronze Age cemeteries of Tiszafüred
meters were dug up (Fig. 3), and 1,003 Bronze Age and 1283 Avar graves were found. The excavation of the Avar graves were done by Éva Garam. 1 4 West of Majoroshalom, about 600 m away on Fertőihalom (Akasztódomb) (Fig. 2), a sandy hill, Ilona Stanczik excavated in 1970, and in 1972 the author conducted the dig, where again the remains of the Tumulus and the Füzesabony Culture came to light. 1 4 To complete the picture, we must mention, that east of Ásotthalom, about 800— 1000 m contracted burials were observed in the course of some earthwork. Considering all this, we can ascertain as an important result of the excavation, that the Bronze Age cemeteries, located on sandy heights in the tidelands surround the tell settlement of about 100-150 m in diameter on the originally left bank riverbed of the Tisza, in a semicircle. This area, according to our estimate, included at least 3— 4000 graves. Depending on the available data about 70 graves were destroyed on Majoroshalom, 80-90 on the Fertőihalom, 50-60 on Kenderföldek during earlier earthworks. 1,051 graves were explored an creditäbly excavated during the years of 1960-1972 from the above sites. The largest cemetery of these, Majoroshalom, based on a completed cemetery chart, could have contained about 1,500—1,600 graves, thus its excavated rate with its 1,003 graves is 60—70%. 1 5 The real and estimated figures clearly show that in spite of the fact that this is the first time we get a good picture as a result of these new excavations numerically and topographically of a Bronze Age cemetery used for hundreds of years, this picture is far from being complete. Simply because there is more to be excavated in the neighbourhood of Ásotthalom in the future, where there are about three of four seemingly undisturbed, smaller or larger hills. This at the same time could easily provide the topography of the presently yet unknown significant Hatvan cemetery. Finally we can ascertain that the 1,056 graves, excavated in the neighbourhood of Tiszafüred, with its mainly good physical anthropological material, covers the full period of the Füzesabony Culture and the following early Tumulus Culture. Therefore it provides excellent opportunities for: 1. the study of the social structure and the specific chronology of the Füzesabony Culture; 2. the detailed study of the later phase, called Bodrogszerdahely, of this culture; the more authentic determination of the origin of the ethnic groups of the Tumulus Culture of the Tisza river area. 1 6 II. LATE BRONZE AGE CEMETERIES OF TISZAFÜRED The source material value of the above mentioned excavated Bronze Age cemeteries change if we narrow our study to the Late Bronze Age graves. As we noted before, the possibly Late Bronze Age settlement layer was destroyed by the planing of the top of the tell settlement. In the course of field surveys in the area, no other tumulus graves were found, therefore we have no possibility to synchronize a settlement and a cemetery belonging to it. The source material value of the excavated finds is further decreased by the fact that the dug up cemetery at Majoroshalom with its dual rites was highly disturbed by the later settlements (Sarmathian, Medieval) especially by the Avar cemetery. So much, that theoretically every other grave of the Tumulus Culture was completely destroyed or highly disturbed. P This is true mainly for the high-lying cremation graves; therefore the material is not informative enough for the social analysis of the communities buried there, e. g. the partial results concernint these can only be considered in a limited sense. In spite of this, the analysis of the excavated finds enable us to register numerous new connections, and to study the material culture at depth. Our main considerations here are the close connections between the pottery and the metallurgy of the original inhabitants of the Füzesabony Culture and those of the later settling Tumulus Culture of the Late Bronze Age, e. g. the analysis of their characteristic differences. Finally I should like to refer to the difficulties originating from the differences between the chronological and genetic relations of the users of these cemeteries. The blending process of two consecutive ethnic groups in the same area supposedly must have taken several decades. The finds in the graves of these decades are characteristic to both cultures. In the case of such disturbed or confused graves, where the burial rite itself did not give enough clue for the determination of the grave's provenance, the shapes and decoration of the representative sherds aided us in the identification. The fact that we have grave numbers to unique pieces, or in some cases to some finds found in a secondary position can be questionable. We did this according to the following applied theory: when these had come to light from under a later object, or from the ground of an Avar grave, from the immediate topsoil; and when no such disturbed grave had been in their vicinity where they could have originated from. 8
