A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 1. (Békéscsaba, 1971)

Pálóczi-Horváth András: Tenth century cemetery in the sand-pit of the model farm of Szabadkígyós

burial traditions some archeological and ethnographical data are already available and this is why this possibility was assumed in the present case, too, but naturally only a very faint trace of the custom of interment in a boat can be concerned. The general archeological picture of the cemetery points to the fact that the population of the cemetery belonged to the richer stratum of the conquering Hungarian commonalty. Burials were probly started in this cemetery in the first third of the 10 th century, between 900 and 930, and discontinued at the end of that century, between 970 and 990. Consequently there must have been a settlement in the neighbourhood for 60-90 years (2-3 generations) in the 10 th century. The number of the population living at one time can be put at 34-60, though on account of the scantiness of data with rather wide margins of error. Counting 7 members per family 5-8 families (households) can be assumed. This data corresponds to the number of the rows in the cemetery. Burials in rows - the only discernible feature of the order of the cemetery indicates also otherwise the closer relation of those buried together. In our view in each row a small family taken in the social sense (a complex family from the biological point of view) was buried continuously during the whole time the cemetery was used. The looting of the cemetery must have taken place after the departure of the population that was buried there, at a time when the graves and grave signs were still clearly visible because in most cases diggings had been made exactly on the graves. Looting was aimed on the whole at the upper part of the skeletons where probably silver and bronze objects were to be found. The ransacked skeletons were then re-buried in the graves thrown helter-skelter into one or two small heaps. According to our observations there can be no question of ritual skull looting. The looting of the cemetery was net done at random but in a well-organised form, perhaps as a reprisal against the pagan population. All this can be in connexion with the internal political conditions of the period, and with the state-organizing activity of Prince Géza, in the course of which also major resettlements may have taken place. 48