Janus Pannonius Múzeum Évkönyve 26 (1981) (Pécs, 1982)

Régészet - Maráz Borbála: A szkítakori őslakosság La Tene-kori továbbélése Kelet-Magyarországon (Régészeti adatok a Kárpát-medencei kelta–szkíta kapcsolatok kérdéséhez)

SZKÍTAKORI ŐSLAKOSSÁG KELET-MAGYARORSZÁGON 111 Transylvania must have been invaded in the course of this campaign about 340—330 В. С The autochtonous population of the Scythian Age sites was forced to give up its cultural independence and abandon the settlements in the second half of the fourth century when the Celtic groups settled on the occupied area.

4-5 There is not any cemetery known from the Scythian Age which could be regarded as continuous during the LaTène period. Some of the Scythian Age cemeteries however contain one or two graves which yielded grave-goods demonstrating the appearance of the Celtic population :

6 One grave in the Békéscsaba—Fényes cemetery contained a bowl of LT В type (Pl. V. 6.) another yielded a handmade imitation of a Celtic urn (there were 77 graves of the cemetery excavated). The Tápiószele cemetery consisted of 467 graves,

7 one of them contained weapons of LT В/С type, another two yielded a wheel-made pseudokantharos of LT Cj type and a Celtic bowl among the grave-goods of Scythian Age character. Four graves of the Scythian cemetery at Hódmezővásárhely—Kishomok contained some Celtic finds corresponding to the beginning of the LT С period (PI. VI. 4—7) and that is all to represent the Celtic intruders in the whole corpus of the material of the Scythian Age cemeteries. The Celtic occupation expanded as far as the Carpathians later due to the intrusion of new Celtic groups. The sporadic Celtic finds of LT С and D type found on the territories East of the Carpathians (Kruglik, Kolodno'e, Kustánfalva, Onokovka, Olbia, Neapol etc.)

8 cannot be regarded as evidence of any permanent occupation. 2. There are numerous finds found in the Celtic cemeteries in Eastern Hungary which are uncommon in the LaTène circle and represent the surviving types of the former culture of the Scythian Age. The survival and gradual assimilation of the autochtonous population can be traced back analysing the chronological position of these finds found in LT graves. In the grave of a woman buried according to the typical Celtic ritual with one half of a boar was found a handmade flowerpot-like vessel (Fig. 4, PI. I.). This grave belonged to the LT В cemetery of Gyoma

—Egei halom. The Celtic cemetery of Hódmezővásárhely—Solt Pale belonging similarly to the second half of the fourth century contained a contracted burial with grave furniture of Celtic type. Contracted burials with Celtic grave-goods are also documented from the later, third-century Celtic cemeteries of the Hungarian Plain. This custom is unprecented in the Celtic tradition but it is general in the cemeteries of the Scythian Age. This ritual is represented by the graves datable to the first decades of the third century in the Gyoma

—Egei halom cemetery. Only a part of this cemetery with 22 LT graves has been excavated. Roughly 20—25 graves had been destroyed by the earth-works carried out before the rescue-excavation begun. The total number of the graves must have been about 45. It is worth mentioning that 8 of the excavated 22 graves contained finds indicating Scythian Age tradition. Two contracted burials were found, bot with Celtic jewellery. One of them yielded hollow sheet bronze anklets with zig-zag ornament, the other contained 11 gold-plated bronze fibulae, two bronze bracelets, iron bracelet, sheet-bronze anklet, iron fibula, glass- and amber-beads, a vessel and animal bones (one of the richest graves in the cemetery). Each of five cremation and an inhumation burials contained a vessel of Scythian Age character (bowls with inverted rims and a one-handled cup with graphitic surface). It is conspicuous that two graves contained one handled, handmade jugs with „turban" decoration. This type is not represented in the cemeteries of the Scythian Age however it is well known from the very beginning of the Early Iron Age. The appearance of the form in the LaTène period indicates that the Early Iron Age groups which followed the Gáva Culture must have acted as an important factor of the Scythian Age culture in Eastern Hungary. This question offers some difficulties : only the cemeteries are known from the Scythian Age and the graves contain a set of pottery restricted to four types (one handled cup, bowl with inverted rim, Villanova urn and pot of barrel — form with plastic bands) presumably according to the strictly kept burial-custom. It can be suppesed that the ritual became less rigid following the disturbance caused by the Celtic intrusion and it is understandable that the vessels found in the LaTène graves represent the survival of the autochtonous population but present no traces of any continuity as far as the burial practice is concerned. The situation is similar in the Celtic cemeteries in Slovakia and Romania.

9 Nearly each Celtic cremation grave contain one vessel of Scythian character in the Rozvágy

11 and Radostyán

12 cemeteries in northeastern Hungary. The Rákospalota grave is analogous from this respect.

13 Although the Scythian Age burial practice can bs demonstrated only in few cases, the survival of the indigenous population is indicated by the types of Scythian Age character found in the Celtic cemeteries. It can be established that the graves which contain the finds of local origin and tradition are not less well furnished than those which do not. These graves do not form separate groups or cemeteries. The facts mentioned above enable us to suppose that the autochtonous population of the occupied territory could survive and was gradually integrated by