Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 1. – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1960)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Bóna István: The Early Bronze Age Urn Cementery at Kulcs and the Kulcs group of the Nagyrév culture. I, 1960. p. 7–15.

THE EARLY BRONZE AGE URN CEMETERY AT KULCS AND THE KULCS GROUP OF THE NAGYRÉV CULTURE Our previous research believed that the people of the Nagyrév culture, living in the area between Eastern Transdanubia and the Tisza in the Early Bronze Age, practised the contracted skeleton burial. In connexion with the review of the Nagyrév sepulchral urns, excavated on the ökörhalom at Tószeg as early as 1906, I had already occasion to prove the contrary, i. e. that we know only cremation graves from this culture so far.

1 I mentioned the larger or smaller Nagyrév urn cemeteries discovered at Szőreg, Szanda, Kulcs, in the Táborállás and the Dunadűlő at Sztálinváros (Dunapentele). A more searching analysis of finds and their circumstances increased their number considerably since. In order to get acquainted with the life and history of the Nagyrév culture, characterized almost exclusively by finds excavated in settlements so far, in more detail, the publication of cemeteries is indispensable. I want to begin this work with the presentation of the Nagyrév sepulchral urns of the cemetery at Kulcs. In the Császár-farm at Kulcs (Sztálinváros district, at the time of the excavation KÖMI 204 undertaking) I discovered a total of 108 urn graves in course of a rescue excavation in December 1953 and April 1954. The rescue excavation became necessary because a nursery of young fruit-trees, extending to several hundred acres, was being established in this area. In order to plant the saplings holes of 100x100 cm and about 60—80 cm deep were dug at a distance of 1—1.5 m to each other. In course of the earthwork sepulchral urns were found at several places. Led by the urns unearthed in the single groups of graves we discovered the graves, appertaining to the respective groups, systematically. Apart from the few urns demolished earlier, we excavated all the groups of graves in the area of the nursery-garden. The quantity and quality of the earthwork executed in this area (PI. I, 1—2) was such as to make the omission of even the smaller groups of sepulchral urns improbable. The cemetery occupied the central part of a halfoval sand-hill (Fig. 1). Far from being unitary and coherent, it consisted of groups situated at a distance of 10—25 m to each other. The defined 11 groups were made up of 2 Nagyrév, 1 Kisapostag, 1 Kisapostag-Vatya transitional and 7 early Vatya ones. With the exception of the Nagyrév groups I present their material and I analyze their burial rites in detail in my work, dealing with the Middle Bronze Age in Hungary.

2 In the same work I discuss the relations of the Kulcs (further Kisapostag, Bölcske and Dunapentele), Kisapostag and early Vatya groups of graves to each other and to the Nagyrév tombs, preceding them in age in these cemeteries. This would be one reason more for presenting the Nagyrév graves discovered at Kulcs. 1. The description of graves

3 Grave group No. I. (Fig. 2) Grave 23. The fragments of an urn and a bowl, lifted during earthwork. Urn, with a broomed decoration and pock-marked surface, brick-red colour with gray patches. H: 32 cm, RD: 26.5 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 18, 1. (PI. II. 1). Bowl, one-handled, large-sized, with a broomed surface, greyish with brick-red patches. RD: 9 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 18, 2. (PI. II, 2). Reconstruction. Grave 24. UD: 25 cm, LD: 64 cm, D: 25 cm. The covering bowl lay with the bottom downwards, it has slid into the mouth of the urn. Below it a jug and a crumbled small cup were lying side by side. It contained no burnt bones. (PI. I, 7). Urn, smooth, grey. H: 30 cm, RD: 24.4 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 20, 1. (PI. II. 3). Bowl, two-handled, dark grey. H: 12 cm, RD: 22.7 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 20, 2. (PI. II, 7). Jug, one-handled, blotched brownish-black. H: 6.8 cm, RD: 5cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 20, 3. (PI. II, 6). Grave 25. UD: 39 cm, LD: 58 cm, D: 28 cm. A slightly compressed urn. It was covered by a large-sized bowl. Outside the urn a jug was lying in the direction south-southwest. In the urn there was a pedestalled cup above a few burnt bones. Urn, blotched grey-yellow. Its rim is missing. H: 20.8 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 21, 1. (PI. II, 5). Bowl, two-handled, grey. H: 13.5 cm, RD: 15.5 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 21, 2. (PI. II, 4). Pedestalled cup, one-handled, dark-grey. Its pedestal is hollow. H: 4.8 cm, RD: 10 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 21, 3. (PI. II. 10.) Jug, one-handled, grey. H: 6 cm, RD: 4,5 cm. Inv. no. 56, 2, 21, 4. (PI. II, 9). 1 J. BANNER—I. BONA- L. MÄRTON, Die Ausgrabungen von L. Márton in Tószeg. Acta Arch. Hung. 10 (1959) 133 seq., figs 28—30. 2 I. BONA: The Middle Bronze Age in Hungary (Budapest 1958, manuscript in Hungarian). The chapter on the Vatya culture. ' In describing the graves I apply the following abbreviations: UD = upper depth, LD = lower depth, D = diameter As to objects I use the following ones: H = height, RD « rim diameter, FD = foot diameter, Inv. no. = inventory number. The finds were brought to the State Museum, Sztálinváros.