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

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

Tenth century cemetery in the Pál liget plot of Szabadkígyós CSANÁD BÁLINT In December 1967 at Szabadkígyós (county Békés), in the Pál Liget plot, 3 graves dating from the time of the Hungarian conquest were meddled with. After saving their finds the entire cemetery, altogether 19 graves, were uncovered in the course of our excavations carried on in April 1968. Some of the graves had been looted in the years following the burials, and others had been ruined by recent ploughing. Grave No. 4 is unusually big (about 3x2,5 m) and aroused attention by its size. The man buried there is believed to be the head of this big family, and his grave that must have been very rich in grave furniture was probably looted for this reason as early as in the 10th century. By the grave No. 6 - and along the southern side of the cemetery - a ditch was found that is probably the remain of the cemetery ditch. The parallels of the axe-adze found in grave No. 7 can be found in the Avar period and among the Khazar finds. I believe that this object can be regarded as a proof of direct Avar-Hungarian relations. After reviewing the domestic axes of the 10th century I arrived at the assumption that Grand Duke Géza, in the last third of the 10th century, - when he organized his army from Hungarian commoners and, following the Poles, equipped it with western-type swords - reviving Avar or Khazar traditions, also supplied his warriors with axes after the Polish pattern. In the graves Nos. 7 and 8 I found traces of mounted palls. This funeral custom indicates the direct continuation of Ugrian traditions. Here, too, on the basis of the position of the buckle of belt it must be assumed that the originally slipped-in belt of the dead person was cut asunder on the occasion of the burial. Of the pall there remained some textile fragments and threads. On the latter a microscopic analysis has shown traces of red, blue and green dye. In grave No. 9, which had been looted, hare bones were found which have so far been a unique find from the time of the conquest. In grave No. 12 lay a young woman from whose chest 24 silver ornaments were picked up. Along with the mountings, leather remains (which had been used as stays inside the mountings) remains of linen cloth and silk were saved. The latter can be identified with the fabric called „Samit" that was used in Byzantium. In my view it got to our country through the trade relations incidental to the activity of the Byzantine missionaries which started in the 950-ies. From the position of the ornaments I draw the conclusion that they were the ornaments of two silk dresses and that there was also an undecorated linen shirt there. A botanical analysis of the earth 87