Rajna András (szerk.): Múltunk a föld alatt. Újabb régészeti kutatások Pest megyében - A Ferenczy Múzeum kiadványai, A. sorozat: Monográfiák 1. (Szentendre, 2014)
Tettamanti Sarolta: Régészti kuttások a váci vábren 1998-2002 között
English Summaries Péter Mali The Middle Bronze Age Cemetery of Biatorbágy-Szarvasugrás At the Biatorbágy-Szarvasugrás site Tamás Repiszky, the archaeologist of the Directorate of the Museums of Pest County (today Ferenczy Museum) carried out an excavation in 2005. A settlement belonging to the Early Bronze Age Makó culture as well as a cemetery of the Vatya culture were uncovered. The opportunity was given to unearth the whole cemetery, that is why the excavation yielded a lot of important information about the people who used the given cemetery in the Middle Bronze Age. Investigating the ceramic finds, it can be stated that the cemetery had a short life-span, it was used only in the earliest phase of the Vatya culture (though on some vessels the surviving influences of the Nagyrév culture can also be seen). Due to the cultivation activity, the ceramic assemblage is rather fragmentary, but no sherds contradicting this early dating were found. The characteristic types of vessels were the rounded, biconical urns tapering to their base which belong to the early Vatya ceramic finds, but some more unique-shaped urns came to the light, too (see the typology). The urns were covered by the so-called composite bowls and inside beakers with one handle, smaller composite bowls, or simple and spherical segment shaped bowls were to be found. On the ceramics usually finger-tip impressed ribs or, in fewer cases, incised lines can be seen. These incisions were mainly used on the shoulder of the urns, and on these parts of the ceramics the unique motifs without analogies are also common. A bowl with a more complex decoration was found only in the feature No. U38. The importance of this particular cemetery is mainly given by its great number of metal grave goods. Metal finds were discovered in 31 cases from the altogether 115 graves. Early daggers and different types of jewels typical for the period appeared in large quantities. The daggers strengthen the chronology that was based on the ceramics, but unfortunately the rest of the metal finds are not suitable for dating. Generally, the rite followed in the cemetery is in accordance with the urn burials of the Vatya culture, differences can be recognised only in the cases of those graves rich in metal grave goods. Instead of putting them into the urns or into the accompanying little vessels as was the usual way, these metal finds were placed into a little hole under the urns after an intentional physical damage caused by fire. Anthropological investigations could be carried out in 62% of all the graves, while for burials with metal grave goods this proportion is 71%. Considering the whole cemetery, the gender distribution is roughly equal, the ratio of children is about one third of the material suitable for research. For a general research of historical populations these numbers can be considered incomplete, but they at least yield a sample suitable for reconstruction. Disregarding the graves with metal grave goods, the analysis of the finds provides us with the picture of a healthy historical population, where the ratio of children is about 50% and from the infancy onwards every age-group are to be found. However, in case of poor burials the ratio of children is very low, therefore, it can be supposed that not every poor child was buried. The distribution of the metal finds enables further grouping and, compared to the anthropological investigations, it facilitates for us a better insight into the life of the contemporary society. Basically, four different groups can be distinguished on the basis of the richness of the graves and the context of the finds: no. 1. armed men; no. 2. rich adult women with head-dress; no. 3. children with partial head-dress; no. 4. persons with some jewels from each anthropological category. Relying upon these findings a hierarchical system emerges, where the community is lead by an armed man and a woman with head-dress, while the children belonging to them were buried with partial headdress. They are followed by a wider elite with less metal objects, and finally there is a poor social stratum without metal grave goods, whose children were most often not even buried in the cemetery of the community. This reconstruction is further supported by the characteristics that can be observed in the structure of the burial ground: the triple division of the graves, that is the linear burials typical of the Nagyrév culture as well as the position of mixed burials, or the appearnce of the grave groups of the Vatya culture. Within the three grave groups the distribution of the types of assemblages are equal: one armed grave and a grave with head-dress, and two children with partial head-dress in each. With the help of the jewels found in the rich female graves as well as the skeleton burials of the early Vatya and Perjámos cultures, the reconstruction of a female community leader’s head-dress was also possible. On the basis of the triple arrangement of the assemblage, the structure of the burial ground, and the narrow time-span dating possibility, it can be stated that at the site of Biatorbágy-Szarvasugrás a cemetery used for three generations by an at least tripartite community was found. 170
