Folia archeologica 24.

Pálóczi-Horváth András: A magyarországi kunok régészeti kutatásának helyzete

250 A. PÁLÓCZI-HORVÁTII till now. The burials started, in all probability, about the middle or second half of the 14th century when the permanent settlements of the Cumans took shape and their first churches were built; the earliest coins in the graves confirm these dates. On the other hand some pagan burial customs, as the placing of eggs or mirrors as grave goods survived, even a few objects were found to be dated to the 13th century, allowing the presumption that in some cases the cemeteries might have been started as early as the mid-thirteenth century, while the churches were built on their territories at a later date. Lacking other reasonable answers to the question we try to explain the absence of cemeteries of the common people which may be dated authentically to the 13th century. The 15th to 16th century houses, excavated in the villages, the structure of the settlements observed, agricultural implements and the collected animal bone material display Cumanian economics and way of life similar to their Hungarian environment of the same period. This means a relatively high level which could no be reached unprecedented. The society of the Cumans, at the moment of their immigration, must have been considerably differentiated, embracing agricultural elements, whose number at the end of the 14th century was augmented by a great number of prisoners taken in the Austrian, Bohemian and Moravian campaigns. Hungarian villages and agricultural towns, wedged into the settling areas of the Cumans, stimulated presumably the economic life of the Cumans. Free nomadizing is out of question at this time, the confines of the pastures - the settlings - were very likely divided from the beginnings among the clans. As for the places of the 13th century settlings the grave-goods of the nobles, mentioned above, give us some information. These can be considered as graves of the landowning class, their sites being situated near to the 15th-17th century Cumanian villages. We have, therefore, reasons to suppose that the 13th century half-nomadic winter dwellings, organically preceding the villages, were situated at the same places or in their nearest neighbourhood but certainly within the confine sof the domains.