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)

WOLF Mária: 10. századi település Edelény-Borsodon

A settlement from the 10th century in Edelény-Borsod MÁRIA WOLF The site, the motte of Borsod, is situated on the top of a low hill in North-Eastern Hungary, at the river of Bódva, 30 km from Miskolc. The hill is not higher than 15 m. The earthwork of the motte, today in a quite destroyed state, was erected on this hilltop at the time of the foundation of the state. We excavated the motte and the bailey between 1987 and 1999. We also unearthed a settlement on the site. The objects of this settlement however cannot be linked to the motte, because they had been built in an earlier time. Based on the finds we established that the settlement burnt down and all the buildings were destroyed at the same time by the fire. The houses and ovens of the old settlement could be found everywhere in the motte of Borsod, scattered around on the whole hill area, even under the later built earthwork. Most of the buildings were built on the northern side of the hill. A very deep and wide ditch running in east-western direction divided the hill. The houses of the 10

th century settlement stood without exception at both sides of the ditch. We could thoroughly study 8 houses in the uncovered site. We could examine an other 3 houses partly. Houses no. 1?7 were covered by a 40750 cm thick layer of burnt debris of clay. We found a lot of stones in the crumbly clay, burnt red or grey. In and under the debris laid the furnishing of the houses, dishes, agricultural and working tools, bone objects. We found in every house a large quantity of cereals in a big variety. In two cases the layer of cereals laid above the debris of the house. After having removed the debris, we found the mud-plastered, burnt-through floor. The floor was attached directly to the former surface in most of the houses, nothing indicates that the houses or their floors would haven been sunk into the soil. The ovens of the houses stood at floor level, mostly near the south-eastern corner of the house. Ovens were built of big stones without any binding material. Most of the stones were scattered around, we could see only a few at their original place. Wherever we were able to verify, we found that the ovens were built in U-shape and they were quite small. We could study the remains of the collapsed roof in the debris of several houses. No dug holes for piles were found, which could be linked to the roof. We did not find any trace of entrance in the houses no. 1?7. We could study the best the structure and the way of construction of the house no. 8. When we unearthed the house, first we came across a 1,5 wide and 10 cm thick layer of burnt seeds of cereals at the northern wall. Under this layer was a 15720 cm thick layer of debris consisting of red burnt clay. After removing the debris, we found the burnt-through, mud-plastered flooring. We could study well the remains of the collapsed wood structure on the floor. The oven stood near the south-eastern corner. Amongst its scattered stones were 12 dishes, some undamaged, some crushed by the earth. The small oven of 0,75x0,75 cm was U-shaped, built of bigger stones without binding material. The baking surface had a 3 cm thick mud-plastering, slightly burntthrough and this was covered by a 5 cm thick layer of ash. The oven-mouth opened to the western direction. Big stones were placed at its two sides. We found at a distance of 20 cm from the stones on each side two holes of 8, resp. 10 cm diameter dug in the floor. We could well establish the structure of the walls on the eastern and western sides. The walls were about 20 cm thick, sunk into the floor at a depth of 8710 cm. Their pits were filled up with red burnt clay, in which remains of wood were mixed. Charred remains of beams could be followed up along the northern wall. The surface is sinking step-like at 10 cm distances in the north-eastern corner, which might hint at the former entrance of the house. Here we found some U-shaped iron hooks and nails. We can conclude from the revealed remains that house no. 8 was a log-house, erected on the surface, of which the floor might have been sunk. The remains of the lowest beam of the northern wall could be well observed and it is probably that clay filled up the places of the burnt out lowest beams of the eastern and western walls. The holes of the piles were not deep, therefore, we assume that they did not belong to the walls. It is more probably that they are the places of the wooden blocks placed under the log-walls. The 20-cm thick layer of red burnt clay proves that at least a part of the house was plastered. The