Csengeri Piroska - Tóth Arnold (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 54. (Miskolc, 2015)
Régészet - Tóth Krisztina–Szabó Ádám–Homoki Balázs: Archaeological research at the Twin-barrows near Onga (Northeast Hungary in 2015)
276 Krisztián Tóth—Adám Szabó—Balázs Homoki In 2013, Eszter Ládi dealt with the geomorphological survey of the mounds in her thesis; therefore we have more accurate dates about them. The relative heights of the twins standing 30 meters from each other are 6 and 5.8 meters, their ground-space are 5024 m1 2 and 2826 m2 and their bodies join with steep sides to 2.5—3 meters deep surrounding ditches (LÁDI 2013, 26). She also took soil samples from the body of the eastern barrow and its ditch and from the field north from the mounds. She assumes based on the tests that the main body of the barrows are made from the soil of the surrounding ditches which later may have been filled up with meadow soil and soil from the barrow (LÁDI 2013, 26). This means that the largest part of the body of the barrow came from the ditch, above which a thin recent topsoil layer can be found, while fossil buried soil and in 380—400 centimetres deep bedrock are located underneath it (LÁDI 2013, 26). Based on their carbon-14 dating of the soil’s organic content on the basis of all carbon and humic acid, the time of the barrows’ construction could be placed between 6,h-5,h century BC (LÁDI 2013,26). In 2014, the results of the complex investigation, with a bigger surveyed area by magnetometer were published (TÓTH-PETHE-HATHÁZI 2014, 11-20). From an archaeological point of view, the most interesting result came from the geomagnetic measurement. The survey was conducted with GSM-19 Overhauser type magnetometer. It turned out that probably more graves with circular ditches are located to the north and east from the northern barrow; moreover another one was discovered to the west of it that can be interpreted as a funeral site. According to the publishers these burials based on morphological issues can be dated to the Roman Period and belonged to the Sarmatians (TÓTH-PETHE-HATHÁZI 2014, 18). Specific investigation of the twins from an archaeological point of view has not happened yet. In 2015, Zoltán Czajlik published an aerial photo about their territory, based on which he assumed that there was another barrow to the southwest of the twins that could have been ploughed (CZAJLIK 2015, 62, Abb. 6). In this article he checked the magnetic anomalies on the aerial photo and emphasized the importance of research on the burials around the mounds (CZAJLIK 2015, 64). In the valley of the Hernád river a number of sites with barrows are known (Megyaszó, Pere), however only the Baksa mound near Megyaszó had been excavated in 1869 (HAMPEL 1870,254-257; RÖMER 1870, 60—62). The low results of this excavation cannot help with the archaeological dating of that barrow. Our small excavation aimed to get information about the dates of the surrounding burials around the twins of Onga in August, 2015. TOPOGRAPHIC DATES The first map1 (Map 2), which shows the barrows is a work of an unknown author from the second half of the 18th century (1767), who marked them with the Latin word colies (mounds). This map probably originates from the period when possession around them started to divide in the second part of the 18th century. In 1771, János Lossontzi made a map2 about the possessions where they could have been derived from. This map is marking both barrows with the word mills near the Miskolc—Onga road (Map 3). Both mounds can be well observed and the shape of the northern one is a little bit oval. There is another map3 from Lossontzi about the same area from the Archives of Heves County, Eger (Map 4), which was made one year later in 1772. The land had been measured out and the mounds belonged to László Csizmadia, Mihály Huszár és Mihály Pato. The barrows are almost the same as on the earlier map. On another map4 from the beginning of the 19th century we can find the depiction of both barrows named Colles Ongaienses (Map 5). This map is very schematic, mainly referring to the roads but terrain objects can be seen as well. The northern mound was depicted slightly oval and larger in size. The twins are known as Gesytelhegy (hill of Geszte) on the number XXXIX-44 map of the Second Military Survey (Map 6). The two piles are recognizable on it and they are visibly distinct from each other. However, unlike other maps the barrows’ positions were inverted. The smaller one is located southwest whereas originally it is on the southeast. On the number 4766-3 map of the Third Military Survey is the first time the name Zsolc^ai halom (Map 7) is used. There is an elevation point (134 m) on the southeastern smaller barrow. The observed elevation is not far from the truth and their location is also very precise. 1 MNL BAZML 15-6 BmT 271. 2 MNL BAZML 15-6 BmT 124. 3 MNL HML Fkpt 83.2. 4 MNL BAZML 15-6 BmT 39.
