A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 23. (Békéscsaba, 2002)

Havassy Péter: Inspection of landmarks and boundary marks in Békés County of the Middle Ages

Havassy Péter years old state, and this statement of us is especially valid for those cases, when at the begining of the 18

th century the evidences during the again inspections of the landmarks and the data of the once documents are in accordance. Thus the continuous population - that took care of the meta-s and also provided the knowledge of the marks, so to say maintained the memory - is a very important condition of the preservation of the boundary marks. Comparing the Middle Ages and 18

th century place-names of some villages seems evidently the survival of the old boundary marks till the new Ages, also in case of those settlements that's inhabitants were totally destroyed - according to the opinion of the researchers - during the Turkish times. Anyway a few inhabitant should have survived the Turkish occupation, or returned to his/her former village, otherwise the transfer/survival of the geographical names could not be possible. Detailed boundary descriptions of some villages - several of them were on the Great Plain - endowed in whole already in the 19

th century, prove the ancientness of the boundaries. There were rank differences among the boundary marks. Some of them were denominated as capitalis or capitaneus meta i.e main boundary mark. The boundary marks could have been natural or artifical or a mixture of both, e.g. when a cross was engraved or a large nail was driven into a living tree etc. The streams, rivers, brooks, swamps, ponds, lakes, various trees and line of trees (sometimes also bushes) were the main natural marks. Furthermore - especially on the Great Plain - the sand drift created dunes named „halom "(mound), „kurga", „kunhalom" could be reagarded also as natural marks. But most of them were artifically - mainly for burial purposes made protrusions. The smaller mounds, hillocks (meta terrae) were the most simple artificial boundary marks and they were well known also in other regions of Europe. The smaller or larger mounds were made identifiable - even afterwards - by placing, laying a lasting, remarkable object, boundary stone (the eldest is preserved in the Gyula Museum), often a characteristic stone or when it was not available - especially on the Great Plain - a brick. E.g. the bond clump of grass, the bundle of reeds, a leafy branch (sign-board), a mark assembled from several leafy branches driven into the ground or fixed on a pole, the so-called „csóva"(brand) - in the Békés County dialect

„cúca") belonged to the temporary boundary marks. The trenches, pits, holes, wells and also the burials into boundary marks could be mentioned among the dug boundary marks. The examiners have often determined also the distance between the boundary marks, that distances were measured by step, somewhere else by throwing an ax (like the Germans did) or a stick, but most often they were measured by arrowshot. Havassy Péter Erkel Ferenc Múzeum H-5700 Gyula, Kossuth L. u. 17. 476