Balogh Csilla – P. Fischl Klára: Felgyő, Ürmös-tanya. A Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve: Monumenta Archeologica 1. (Szeged, 2010)

The Avar Cemetery at Felgyő, Ürmős-Tanya

262 BALOGH Csilla THE FORM OF THE GRA VE PITS The form of the grave pit could not be recorded in the case of 18 burials (8.3%): most of these were either shallow grave pits (usually child burials) which lay in the humus, while the remainder had been disturbed when the grave pit for a later burial was dug. The overwhelming majority of the deceased were laid to rest in shaft graves (99%). Only two grave pits can perhaps be assigned to a different type: Graves 4 and 83 were niche graves, the former perhaps with a side niche, the latter with the niche dug outward at an oblique angle at the end of the grave pit. Shaft graves Most grave pits were rectangular (85%). The grave pit had a trapezoidal form in the case of 29 burials: 24 had the sides of the grave pit tapering toward the feet, the other grave pits narrowed toward the head. These graves lay near each other, forming five well distinguishable clusters (Map 2). Men and women were laid to rest in these trapezoidal grave pits in roughly equal proportion, and there were six child burials among them. The grave goods were humble and contained few artefacts suitable for a finer dating: plain hoop earrings, iron buckles, iron knives and spindle whorls (both of the biconical and the flat variety). Graves 73 and 177 yielded earrings with a bead pendant, the latter also contained melon seed beads and a prismatic needle-case, while the man in Grave 21 was laid to rest with a belt set of tendril decorated cast mounts, suggesting that these graves had been dug in the 8th century. Four burials (2%) had an oval grave pit (Graves 162, 176, 204 and 210). The size of the grave pit was quite obviously detennined by practical considerations: the stature of the deceased, the size of the coffin or the space needed for depositing the grave goods. In a few cases, however, the deceased were not placed in a grave pit of suitable size: the grave pit of Grave 175, for example, was too short, and the knees of the man laid to rest in this grave had to be drawn up (Fig. 70. 5). The grave pit was also too small to accommodate the burial in Grave 180, this being the reason that the trunk of the man interred in this grave leant slightly to one side and his skull was squeezed into the corner of the grave pit (Fig. 73. 1). Remains of a grave construction could be noted in six burials: four had a ledge (2 %) and two contained post-holes (1%). Péter Tomka interpreted both the ledge and the postholes in the sides of the grave pit as indicating the one-time presence of rudimentary coffins (TOMKA 1979, 75-76). Ledge graves. A narrow ledge extended along the two long sides of the grave pit in Graves 90, 95, 126 and 181. These ledges probably served to hold the wooden planks functioning as a coffin lid laid across the pit. The low number of graves with this feature suggests that this practice was not particularly widespread in the community using the cemetery. Ledge graves appeared in the cemeteries opened after the mid-7th century in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve; most of these burial grounds lie south of the Szeged-Baja line. The earliest ledge graves contained the burials of men buried with their belt set and bow, such as Grave 44 of the Madaras-Brickyard cemetery (RÁCZ 1999, 352, Fig. 10. 1-9) and Graves 266 and 305 of the Kundomb cemetery (SALAMON-CS. SEBESTYÉN 1995, 35, 39, Pis 32 and 38). The men interred in these graves probably enjoyed a special status in their community. The number of graves dating to this horizon is no more than one to four in a particular cemetery, indicating that this practice remained infrequent and eventually disappeared. Some communities again began to bury their dead in ledge graves, although most of the deceased placed in the late graves of this type were females, indicating that in contrast to earlier occurrences, this practice no longer served to mark the distinguished status of the deceased. Ledge graves show a concentration in the northern Bácska region: in addition to the Kundomb cemetery, about one-third of the burials in the Szokolác and Moravica burial grounds too represent this type. Grave pits with post-holes. Of the Avar burials uncovered at the Ürmös-tanya site, post-hole-like features could be noted along the long sides of the grave pit in Graves 118 and 170. The exact chronological position of the two burials cannot be detennined either from the grave goods or the position of the burials within the cemetery. Their date can only be established from a comparison with similar burials in the northern areas of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve. Grave constructions of this type have been reported from two Early Avar sites in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve (CsepelHáros and Kunpeszér-Felsőpeszéri Road-Sandpit); in contrast, 135 graves with comparable structures are known from 14 cemeteries of the later Avar period (cp. Table 1). Cemeteries with burials containing structures of this type show an uneven scatter in the northern and southern third of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve.

1 The Felgyö site can be assigned to the northern group (Apostag-Mining area, Csepel-Háros, Dunavecse-Kovacsos-díilő B, Kunpeszér-Felsőpeszéri RoadSandpit, Solt-Szőlőhegy, Szabadszállás-Battyhányi Street). While graves with post-holes occur in various areas of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve and during different periods, no graves of this type have yet been discovered in the region's middle part. This grave construction appears to have been fairly short-lived. The earliest burial of this type, dating from the earlier 7th century, was reported from the Early Avar burial ground at Kunpeszér. Similar graves were uncovered at Apostag, Dunavecse and Solt in the Solt Plain extending beside Kunpeszér, and in the Vác cemetery on the left side of the Danube Bend, suggesting that grave constructions of this type were only used by certain communities in the last third of the 7th century. The cemeteries mentioned above share other similarities in addition to this grave construction, such as the west to east orientation of the graves, equestrian burials, the lack of meat offerings and the scarcity of grave pottery. The few vessels recovered from these graves were of the same type and were made on a slow wheel. Female burials are more frequent among these graves. Niche graves Grave 83 was described as a niche grave in the field diary and it was marked as such on the plan of the trench. The niche was recessed into the right side of the grave pit; according to the grave plan, the burial's north-eastern part cut through Grave 51, an inurned burial, while the drawing indicates that the niche extended under Grave 56, another inurned burial (Fig. 2). No other drawing has survived of the grave or, more / The southern group comprises the cemeteries at Backa Topola-Bankert, Klanica, Horgos-Csárda and Horgos-Budzak in Serbia, Kiskundorozsma-Daruhalom-dűlő II, Sükösd-Ságod, Szatymaz-Makraszék School in Hungary, and Vrbas-Polet Brickyard, also in Serbia.