Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 8.-9. 1967-1968 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1968)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Éry Kinga, K.: Reconstruction on the tenth Century Population of Sárbogárd on the Basis of Archaeoloogical and Anthropological Data. – A sárbogárdi X. századi közösség rekonstrukciója régészeti és embertani adatok alapján. VIII–IX, 1967–68. p. 93–147. t. XXVI–XLV.

stirrups and a bit are horse bones, an iron knife and two simple hair rings in the grave.

21 Thus it may be observed that there was no weapon in the grave of the man who headed the community and who possessed a belt with mounts and an ornamented leather sabretache but there was no belt with mounts found in the grave of the man who possessed the seven arrows. What could have been the role of this man within the community ? If male 33 and male 5 were members of the same generation and this was the first conquering generation of the Magyars, then it seems that male 33, as the head of the community, was responsible for the material and moral welfare of the group while the armed service or rather its organization was the task of a man following him in ranks In this case such a strict distinction between duties appears to be similar to the dual distribution of power of the two high dignitaries of the conquering Magyars: the kende (kündj) and the gyula (dzsila). In such an instance, however, we still have to determine which grave contains the leaders of the second, or probably the third generation in the cemetery used for three generations, viz., approximately for 70—90 years. But according to the finds no other grave can be considered besides the two mentioned ones in this respect. Therefore it is more likely that male 33 was the leader of the first settling generation, male 5 headed the successive second generation. It is unnecessary to seek the grave of the leader of the third generation in the same cemetery for it is possible that the person is buried in the more recent cemetery of the community. In this regard let us make a few rough calculations. If we assume that the leader of the community, male 33, appearing in the area c. 900 was then only 20 years old, then his death at 42-46 years of age occurred between 920 and 930. (Naturally if in 900 he was older than 20, the date of his death occurred previous to 920.) Male 5 succeeding male 33 also had to be at least 20 years of age when elected, but since he died in his 50s his death occurred between 950 and 960. It would be difficult to find a reliable explanation as to why the first leader of the community did not possess a weapon appropriate to his rank. It is however more easy to explain why the second leader of the community was not buried with a belt with mounts. Taking the above calculation into account male 5 was likely to have been a very young boy at the times of the Magyar conquest. Boys received belts with mounts only when initiated as men, thus at approximately 12 to 13 years of age. According to archaeological data belts with mounts were made primarily in the goldsmithing centres of southern Russia but the conquerors upon reaching their new home were unable to provide the belts for their growing new generation. This is why male 5 probably had no belt with mounts, but his social status was expressed by the seven arrow he possessed. С Cattle Burial On the northern edge of the Sárbogárd cemetery was the grave of an 8-10 month old calf (Grave A). The data * Gy. KISLÉGHl NAGY: Arch. Ért. 27 (1907) 266-279. of the grave are the following: depth: 100 cm.; length: 250 cm; width: 160 cm. The four sides of the grave were dug facing the four points of the compass. The walls of the pit were vertical with clearly distinguishable corners. The grave was undisturbed. The well-preserved calf was lying on its left side with its skull towards the south. Its two forelegs are incomplete. From the remaining parts it can be noted that the missing sections were cut off by a sharp implement. Neither furniture nor other phenomena concerned with the burial were discovered. I. Lengyel carried out histochemical examinations proving that the grave of the calf is contemporary with the human graves there.

22 On account of its importance the grave was treated in a special study by A. Kralovánszk у

23

. Here I briefly present his results. Cattle burial is unknown from Hungary in the 10th century and thus its occurrence in the cemetery of Sárbogárd takes on special importance. The cemetery lies in the vicinity of the contemporary village of Tinód. In the 10th century custom of toponymy it is common to call the locality after a person. A. Kralovánszky holds that the calf (= tinó?) was most likely buried because either the head of the community was named ,Tinó'—,Tinód' or the totem animal of the clan was a calf

—,tinó'. Both of these possibilities might have been true. The community entering its new home very likely sacrificed and buried a calf to initiate the cemetery and the forelegs of the animal were probably cut off so that its spirit could not leave the area and its presence would guard the dead. D. Horse Burials Two separate horse graves were also unearthed in the central section of the cemetery. In both instances the entire corpse was buried. According to I. L e n g у e l's histochemical examination the horse graves are also contemporary with the human graves.

24 Since the ploughing largely destroyed both the pits and the skeletons it was possible to only approximately state the sizes of the graves. Grave B: Depth с 40 cm, length unknown, width с 180 cm. Orientation of the grave с 210°. The horse was lying on its right side with its skull to the south. The bones were very poorly preserved. Neither furniture nor other phenomena of burial were observable in the grave. (Plate XL. 2) Grave C: Depth с 50 cm, length с 270 cm, width с 170 cm. Orientation of the grave с 210°. The horse was lying on its right side with its skull to the south. The bones were very poorly preserved. The following finds were discovered alongside the horse. There were the fragments of a medium grey, unornamented clay vessel around the decaying skull which the plow destroyed. Height: 20 cm, diameter of mouth: 13.5 cm, diameter of base: 8.5 cm. Two flints was placed alongside of the foreand hindlegs of the horse. There were no other phenomena of burial observable in the grave. (Plate XL. 1) The burial of complete horse skeletons is a very rare 22 I. LENGYEL: Mezőgazd. Múz. Közi. 1 (1964) 243-246. 23 A. KRALOVÁNSZKY: Mezőgazd. Múz. Közi. 1 (1964) 171-184. 2i I. LENGYEL: op. cit. 108