Szolyák Péter - Csengeri Piroska (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 56. (Miskolc, 2017)

Régészet - Soós, Eszter et al.: Settlement and graves from Hernádvécse (NE-Hungary) in the 5th century AD: relation of living space and burial place in the Hun Period

Settlement and graves from Hernádvécse (NE-Hungary) in the 5th century AD 67

groups is inverted (Vörös 1991, 199; Vörös 1999, 258; Kelemen 2011, 162). At the two sites similar to Hernádvécse—Nagy rét, site No. 4, only a small amount of animal bones was found (Füzesabony—Szikszópuszta: 107 pieces, Székelykeresztúr—Felső-Lok: 130 pieces), the difference is observable in the richness of the composition of species.

2.5. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE SITE The absolute chronological borders of the site can only be roughly determined due to the lack of well-dated artefacts.

The costume of the child grave Str.l can be dated to the middle third of the 5th century AD, the brooch fragment was probably also in use during period D3.22 The analogy of the Murga-type jug and the sword unearthed in the male grave Str.309 are dated from the end of the 4th to the middle of the 5th centuries AD. Summarizing the results, the child burial originates from the middle third, the male grave probably from the first half of the 5th century AD.

No well-datable metal artefacts came to light from the settlement, so we can only rely on the technological and typological feature of the ceramic material by the chronological definition. The local German Przeworsk culture could be followed in the Hungarian section of the Hernád valley up to the last third of the 4th century AD (Soós 2015, 365), the settlement of Hernádvécse was established after this period. The firing technology of the fine, smoothed ware (Ottományi 1991, 36; Ottományi 1996,114; Hárshegyi-Ottományi 2013, 503—507), the types of the smoothed-in motifs and the shaping of the vessel bottoms (Masek 2013,239—240, Abb. 1) show strong late Roman tradition. The analogies of the S-profiled bowls and the pots with a grooved rim could be dated from the turn of the 4th-5th century AD. Jugs with faceted surface typical to the period D2 (Gindele 2010,141—142, Abb. 67) are missing from the settlement material but this may also be attributed to regional differences. The fine smoothed-in motifs and the follow-up shaping of the vessel bottoms suggest the first half of the 5th century AD. In addition, the wide biconical bowl and the spout fragment could be dated to the middle third of the 5th century AD Altogether, the settlement was inhabited probably in the first half and in the middle third of the 5th century AD.23

22 Jaroslav Tejral already warned of the overlapping of the defined (Tejrai. 1997, 351).

23 In a preliminary report the settlement remains was dated incorrectly to the 4th century AD (Soós 2011, 330).

3. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HERNÁDVÉCSE SITE IN THE HUNNIC PERIOD SETTLEMENT ARCHAEOLOGY

Only a few evaluated large-scale settlements are known from the Carpathian Basin from the first half of the 5th century AD. The site of Hernádvécse can be highlighted from two viewpoints.

3.1. THE PROVENANCE

Based on the remains of architecture and the technological and typological of the ceramic material which is slightly different from the previous late Roman Age tradition, the Hernádvécse settlement testifies of a newcomer group without local traditions.

The dense Roman Age settlement network in the northeastern part of the Carpathian Basin declined drastically at the end of the 4th century AD (Gindele 2010, 145; Stanciu 2008, Fig. 1—2). At the same time, a new cultural phenomenon called Post-Chernyakhov horizon can be outlined in this region in period D1 (Tejral 2000, 6-11; Opreanu 2011, 197-198). The phenomenon can be documented in the Upper Tisza Basin as post-Chernyakhov (Masek 2011, 249—252; Masek 2013, 229—232) or, in the northern territories of Slovakia and Transylvania, as Dobrodzien or late Przeworsk influence (Opreanu 2005), based on artefacts as bell-shaped combs, brooches with inverted foot, wide, biconical bowls with smoothed-in decoration which appeared among the settlement finds from the turn of the 4th-5th or in the first half of the 5th centuries AD (Stanciu 2008, PI. 1-3; Gindele 2010, 64-66, Abb. 36). Many of the sites, for example Presov and Ostrovany, were permanently inhabited from the late Roman Age, therefore the above-mentioned changes are perceptible only in the last phases of these settlements (Budinsky-Kricka 1963, 42, Abb. 22, Taf. XI, 6, Taf. XV, 6; BéreS et ai 1991, Obr. 3-4, 6, 11, Tab. II, 1; Pieta 1999, 185; Lamiová-Schmiedlová-Tomásová 1999, 127-128).

Only a few newly established settlements are known in the Upper Tisza Region from the first half of the 5th century AD. Their pottery inventories are similar, jugs and bowls with smoothed-in decoration, grainy wheelturned pots and less hand-thrown ware characterized to them. However, typology of the vessels varied from one settlement to the other.

In site Lazuri/Lázári-Rátul lui Bela dated to the period D2, pottery kilns were unearthed in addition to biconical, deep bowls with elongated, curves rims