Arrabona - Múzeumi közlemények 31-33. (Győr, 1994)
Gömör János–Márton Péter–Hertelendi Ede–Benkő Lázár: Sopron és Daurfalva (Drassburg) égett sándainak kormeghatározása fizikai módszerekkel
The Dating of Burned Mounds of Sopron and Darufalva (Drassburg) Using Physical Methods Two burned red mounds lie some 10 kilometres apart on the western borders of what was mediaeval Hungary: Sopron is in Hungary presently, while Drassburg has belonged to Austria since 1920 (cf. picture 1). Both fortifications were situated alongside important routes in times of war, which have been in use since the Prehistoric era. They are indicated as the way between Scarbantia and Vindobona in the "itinerarium" of the Roman age. This route fulfilled an important function in the early Middle Ages, as well as the later. For example, at the beginning of the 11 th century, it was one of the main procession routes of the teutonic emperors who fought against Hungary. In 1044 the emperor Henry III of Germany and his forces entered "per Supronium" Hungary's territory. Since the early years of the 1890's excavations have been made on the sites of both mound earthworks. It is therefore possible to reconstitute the construction of the mounds. According to archeological data, at the beginning of the 11th century, a soil mound with a wooden framework was built, twenty metres high and nearly eight metres wide, which reconstituted Sopron 's Roman age Scarbantian fort walls. Several rows of "coffers" have been built parallel using rustic wooden rafters of an average length of 1.5 to 2 metres. The colony litter was transported from outside the town wall during and after the Roman period, as well as clay dug out of the fosse. The two diameters of the Sopron mound earthwork are respectively 250 and 404 metres, the whole mass of wood and soil being burnt out sometime in the course of the 11th to 13th centuries, reaching at times temperatures of 700 °C to 900 °C (see picture 3). In Austrian Burgenland, the Darufalva/Drassburg mound, called Dorog in old Hungarian, is to be found on the hill of Taborac (cf. picture 10) with diameters of 140 and 160 metres. In this mound there is only one coffer row. An analysis of this shows that the mound was burnt through almost to the wooden rafters, but in the five metre high mound, a red burn sign was observed on the upper strata in a three metre thick circle. Archeological study demonstrates that the mound was built around the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. The burning process is thought to be as a result of the war at the time of Hanry III in 1044. Timings, or physical age determination were arrived at by checking possible C 14 archeomagnetic and thermo-luminescent traces in the case of the burnt out mounds, as well as determining the time period between building and burning. Contemporaneously, an answer is sought over the question of whether the mound was intentionally made to be burnt immediately after construction, or whether it had already been in existence over a long period before change because of siege or accidental catastrophe. 76
