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

A Felgyő, Ünnös-tanyai avar kori temető 265 the pelvis can be regarded as an intentional arrangement of the body. One arm of the deceased in Grave 132 and perhaps in Grave 160 was bent and the lower arm was laid on the abdomen. Variation in the position of the legs and feet is much rarer. One knee was drawn slightly to the side in Graves 15, 39, 177 and 216, while both knees were drawn up in Graves 43, 165 and 175. The legs tilted sideways side under the weight of the earth in Grave 43 and remained in a so-called frog position. In Grave 175, the legs of the deceased were bent because the grave pit proved to be too short. Unusual burials The single crouched burial, the grave of an adult man, was uncovered in Grave 195. The man was laid on the back, his arms were bent and placed on the pelvis, while his ankles were probably bound and the knees were drawn up. The knees later tilted to one side. The bodies of the man and woman interred in Grave 61 were also found in an unusual position. The man on the right side lay partly on his left side and partly on the stomach, while the woman on the left side lay on her right side, right against the side of the coffin. The feet of the two bodies lay tightly next to each other; the man's legs were crossed at the knees. Double burials The 216 Avar graves included three double burials (1.4%), a proportion conforming to the usual one: the ratio of double and multiple burials is around 1-2 % in most Avar cemeteries (TOMK.A 2003, 18). Grave 3 contained the bodies of two children laid in opposite directions (with the body of the younger child deposited with a reverse orientation), while Graves 55 and 61 contained the burial of a man and a woman, with the man lying on the right side in both cases. Only Grave 61 can be more closely dated, even though the grave goods of the burial, lifted in situ, have not been excavated. The grave was probably dug in the later Avar period. It seems likely that the individuals buried together had been related to each other and that they passed away at roughly the same time. The emotional bond between the deceased buried in Grave 61 was demonstrated by their position and by the linking of their arms. Disturbed and looted graves The excavated burials of the cemetery included 37 disturbed graves (17 %), 10 of which were not disturbed during the Avar period, but were accidentally damaged during the construction or digging of the settlement features of the Árpádian Age village overlying the cemetery. Intentional disturbance and grave looting can thus only be assumed in the case of 28 graves (13%). Most of the graves disturbed by looting lay in the cemetery's southern part (Map 3). In most cases, the grave looters went for the bodily part upward of the pelvis, although in the case of Graves 77, 188 and 194, the robbers aimed for the head. In the first case, the rest of the body remained untouched and in the latter case, the other parts of the body were only disturbed to the extent that the robber's pit affected them. Graves 8, 27, 133 and 226 were totally plundered. Eight of the looted graves include burials that yielded finds providing a secure basis for dating the grave: they could all be assigned to the Late Avar period. There were no disturbed burials among the graves that could be explicitly dated to the Early Avar period, and neither were there looted burials among the latest graves of the cemetery dating from the close of the Late Avar period or among the graves containing burials of the Late Avar period in which the deceased were laid to rest with their belt set. The graves were probably looted at the end of the Avar period. GRAVE GOODS Tools and implements The most frequent artefacts in this category were biconical and disc shaped spindle whorls: 39 graves yielded biconical spindle whorls and 13 graves disc shaped ones. Graves 15, 54 and 151 contained two biconical pieces, while Grave 129 two disc shaped ones. These implements were most often deposited in female burials, although ten male and seven child burials too yielded spindle whorls. Needle-cases of different types were recovered from nine graves, most of which were female burials, although in two cases (Graves 7 and 165), these artefacts were placed in male burials. Iron awls were found in six male burials (Graves 68, 83, 122, 169, 226 and 227) and a child burial (Grave 126). The pieces included round, oval and square sectioned specimens. A stray find of a bone awl or bone pin also came to light during the excavation. The other tools and implements brought to light from the burials were represented by one or two pieces. Grave 42, a child burial, yielded a whetstone, while two male burials contained bone disentangling hooks. Grave 83 dates from the Early Avar period and was the single burial containing a sword. Grave 157, a male burial whose date can be put around the last third of the 7th century, yielded a bone disentangling hook, a double bone pipe and a prismatic bone pouch fastener. The iron tweezers in Grave 19, a female burial, lay by the left elbow. A small ring strung through the looped upper part probably served for suspension. A double-sided bone comb was found under the elbow of the woman interred in Grave 39. The iron tweezers and the bone comb are both rare finds in the Avar cemeteries of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve and can be regarded as indicating Germanic (Gepidic) connections, as can the conical ferrules found in Graves 10 and 159, both the burials of young girls. The two ends of the ferrules had been reinforced with bronze plaques: the ferrules had probably been made from some organic material because only the metal parts survived. Most of the known sheet metal ferrules of the Avar period from the Carpathian Basin are cylindrical; no more than a handful of conical pieces are known, such as the one recovered from Grave 203 of the nearby cemetery at Gátér (K.ADA 1906, 212). Conical pieces are more com7 Pouches and the various artefacts kept in them, as well as iron knives are discussed in the section on costume accessories because they were suspended from the belt.