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

Bálint Csanád: Tenth century cemetery in the Pál Liget plot of Szabadkígyós

picked up from the chest of the skeleton showed a large quantity of pollen, therefore on the occasion of the burial a funeral bunch of flowers (made from plants blooming in the late summer and autumn) had been put on the chest of the young woman. In all probability it was this bunch which the deceased young woman had held in her hands bent towards her waist. In grave No. 13 we found manifestations of the fear of the return of the deceased person. The feet of the deceased person had been cut off and placed above his head beside which, in addition, a knife pointing towards the eye had been put. After the filling up of the grave an arrow had been shot into the grave. According to my calculations originally a big family of about 28-30 members had belonged to this cemetery. It seems that 4-5 couples lived in this family. The men must have been engaged primarily in soldiering and hunting. The time during which the cemetery was used can be put at the middle third of the 10th century. Parallels to the objects found there and similar burial customs can be found primarily in southern Hungary. I assume that this big family had served and done military service to the aboriginal Becse-Gergely clan in county Zaránd. In my opinion the fact that the county of Zaránd belonged to the Ducate of Bihar meant only jurisdiction and perhaps trade relations but not ethnical idendity. I believe that the ransacking of the central graves of the cemetery can be attributed to the members of alien clans that were settled in Zaránd at the time of the organization of the state. Hg