A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve 2015., Új folyam 2. (Szeged, 2015)
RÉGÉSZET - Lajkó Orsolya: Feneette műemlék, a kis zsuzsu. Beszámoló a szegedi Dóm téren végzett régészeti munkáról
Orsolya Lajkó Report on the archaeological work at the Dóm Square in Szeged Report on the archaeological work at the Dóm Square in Szeged Orsolya Lajkó Between June and December 2014 the museum carried out archaeological monitoring and excavation in the inner city of Szeged, on Dóm Square. The archaeological intervention was connected to the renovation of the Dóm Square - Votive Church and the Dömötör Tower. The square has been known as an archaeological site for a long time. This was the location of the Szt. Demeter parish church, the oldest ecclesiastic building of the city, whose medieval remains, the renovated Dömötör Tower is still visible in its original place. The church was built in a series of phases. Its construction history is known from Károly Cs. Sebestyént research, who distinguished seven construction phases. The church was demolished in 1925, during the construction of the cathedral. As a result of the 2014 archaeological works we found the sanctum of the Gothic church built around the end of the 14th century, sections of the southern and northern wall of the Baroque church built on the foundations of the 15th-century church, as the continuation of the western facade of the church, the Boldogasszony (Virgin Mary) chapel built in 1501, and in the northern end of the construction area an unknown medieval wall section. Based on the construction technique, the materials used and the apsidal shape it is probable that we found the remains ofthe foundations of a church or chapel. The date of its construction and its function cannot be determined either archaeologically or through written sources, but at the current level of our knowledge it may be hypothesized that this structure is the earliest church ofthe area. Around the 14th-century church medieval burials were found in anatomical order. The superposition of the graves of the excavated cemetery part indicates a longer use of the cemetery. The grave goods are the usual finds of cemeteries from the end of the 13th to the beginning of the 15th century; they are remains of clothing, jewellery and coffins. In themselves they do not provide an opportunity to clear the chronological issues of individual object types or to refine the chronology ofthe cemetery, but they confirm the suspicion that the two grave groups distinguished based on the orientation of the graves may differ chronologically as well. Although the archaeological research on Dóm Square may be considered successful thanks to the professional efforts, this can be questioned due to the destruction of some elements of cultural heritage during the construction works with the consent of the Cultural Heritage Office. Thus the question is not only if archaeologists can do science in a very limited time, at a fixed price, but also what archaeology can achieve, if it does not have the strong support of cultural heritage management. 185
