Cseri Miklós, Tárnoki Judit szerk.: Népi építészet a Kárpát-medencében a honfoglalástól a 18. századig - A 2001. október 9-10-én Szolnokon megrendezett konferencia anyaga (Szentendre; Szolnok: Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum; Szolnoki Damjanich János, 2001)

GRÓF Péter: Újabb kutatások Visegrád-Várkertben

Latest research in the Palace Garden in Visegrád PÉTER GRÓF The reason to carry out research in Visegrád, in the administrative centre from the age of the foundation of the State is - besides its scientific importance - that according to our present knowledge, we don't expect to find evidence for the further existence of the historical unit after the Mongol invasion in 1241, with the exception of the Monastery St. Andrew, and even later no building up took place. When we carried on with the excavation of the village in the Palace Garden, our main goal was to have an extensive examination of the size and structure of the settlement. We wanted to give an answer to the question whether life was completely interrupted in early Visegrád after the Mongol invasion. In our work after 1999 we considered the earlier known finds and observations as well as the present geographical conditions of the area. Although there was no agriculture here, we have to study - besides recent occurrences of disturbing - the development of the landscape during the past centuries, the erosion of the hill, the vegetation, the forestation, and the hydrographical conditions. Our archaeological activities (fig. 1 ) in 1999-2001 uncovered 5 houses, 4 outside ovens, 3 pits with different functions and an outdoor fire-place. Due to lack of time we had to interrupt or postpone to the next season the research of a building (house?) with 2 stone and 1 mud-oven, of an object with pileholes next to house no. 1 of segment 2001/1 and of an oven (?) or other object near houses no. 1 and 2 of segment 2001/11. One of the main goals of the excavations in 2001 was to establish whether the objects found in the previous year belonged to a bigger part of settlement or they were individual buildings. House no. 1 of segment 2001/1 (fig. 2) A rectangular, 390x360cm dug-out with rounded corners. The hard trodden floor is at 50 cm below the surface and the walls of the pit are almost vertical. The oven was built in the northern corner on an elevation. Its size is small, 80x65 cm, its shape is rectangular. A 15 cm wall remained of it. The 2 Y-shaped uprights, which supported the purlin, were rammed in the earth on the east-west middle-line of the house. A 80 cm long and 28-30 cm wide ditch in the southern corner belonged to the house. It was at a height of 40 cm above the floor level. Near the south-western corner, 20 cm from the edge of the pit, we found a 25 cm deep pile-hole with 20 cm diameter. We didn't find any trace of the entrance but there was a third pile-hole near the two holes for the uprights and we suppose that this was part of the roof structure of the door. House no. 2 of segment 2001/11. (fig. 5) When we wanted to establish the exact outlines of the object of 370x330 cm with rounded corners, orientated in north-eastern - south-western direction, we faced the problem that the original wall of the house was disturbed when an outside oven was attached to it later on. Four piles in holes with 20-25 cm diameter supported the roof. The oven stood in the north-eastern corner, somewhat sunk in the floor. We tried to determine the time of use or destruction of the house with the help of coins from the reign of King Béla III and of ceramics found in the covering layer and by comparing them with the broken pottery in the house. It seems that the village was very big. The distance of the excavation area of 2000-2001 is at a distance of more than 300 m from the site uncovered before 1995. We found 13 objects on 600 nr surface, which suggests that this part of the settlement was densely populated. Only further research can give a more accurate picture.