Somogyi Múzeumok Közleményei 8. (1987)

Bárdos Edith: Középkori Templom és temető Kaposvár határában II.

KÖZÉPKORI TEMPLOM ÉS TEMETŐ KAPOSVÁR HATÁRÁBAN II. EDITH BARDOS: MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND CEMETERY IN THE VICINITY OF KAPOSVÁR: PART II. The find is located about 400 metres north of the first watch-tower along the Kaposvár-Dombóvár railway line, at the highest point on the north-south bound of a bill. It is bordered by the bed of a dry brook to the west. The find spot lies about one kilometer away, south of the Kaposszentjakaib monostery. The excavation began during road construction in the summer of 1977 and it is unfortunate that some of the graves and the settlement itself were destroyed. The author has already reported on the results gained from the first year of excavation in the third volume of SMiK, entitled „Preliminary Report on the Medieval Church ond Cemetery near Kaposvár". Within the 10 month excavation of the find, stretching between 1977 and 1980, the remains of a cemetery were explored which covered more than 2,000 m

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. The almost elliptical cemetery stretches about 70 m east to west, although this is not necessarily its original size as the eastern edge has been destroyed. Considering the closeness of the graves, the diameter of the cemetery must have been at .least 100 m, with the width at about 60 m at the least. The ruined walls of a briok

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built church were found ait the centre of the cemetery. This church was probably built in the first half of the 15th century and demolished around 1530. The sectors of the ditches of the foundation of on older church, dating book to the 11th century, were discovered beneath it and, to the south-east of the church, on ossuary was also found. A total of 1,244 graves, and at the Northern part of the cemetery some objects from the settlement (rubbish heaps, the ruins of outdoor ovens, a granary pit, a well ditch and a pillared house) were explored. On the west side of the cemetery, the halfdemolished remains of 5 lime-kilns were unearthed, although these had been cut in two by construction vehicles. These ruins have been explored and are now being analysed by Mária Albaker, assistant at the National Technical Museum. In 1979, another cemetery from the 9th century came to light on the nort-eastern slope of the ridge, some 50 m from the eastern edge of the Medieval cemetery. This cemetery had also been ruined, but to a lesser extent. The author has reported on 88 graves explored here in a separate publication which includes a description of objects, but in this publication the objects and their finds from the 12-13th century are also dealt with (rubbish heaps, remains of ovens) which the population of the medievel settlement dug during the 12—13th centuries in the territory of the cemetery from the 9th century. Between the territory of the Medieval and 9th cenjtury cemeteries a large area (with a diameter of 50 m) of a spot of prehistoric diggings has been found, scattered with remains of pottery from the Baden era. As we have mentioned, the grave-goods from 1977 have already been published. In the following 3 years of excavation, it was not only the (number of explored graves which increased, as our knowledge of the function and the dating of the cemetery and the settlement did likewise. Along with a large number of already familiar and published finds, many new types were unearthed. This is why the author in this publication often refers back to her 1977 publication, the „preliminary report". The dating of the cemetery, funeral customs and the excavated archeological finds are treated in separate chapters. Special attention is given to the connection between the cemetery and the settlement, including descriptions of ditches, pits and the open air outdoor ovens by sections. In the last chapter, entitled „Aspects of the Settlement's History", the author summarizes the results of the excavation and details of the history of Medieval Kaposvár. In the chapter „Catalogue of Graves", descriptions of graves which had finds are given, including the graves explored in 1978, 1979 and 1980, as well as the already published descriptions of the 1977 graves. There are drawings of the 1978-1980 finds, shown in the successive graves. Finds from different pits, such as ceramics through photographs and glass objects through drawings ore illustrated. There is also much evidence highlighting the customs of „burial obulus" with the population of the settlement 56 graves contained coins placed as an obulus, the oldest of which came from graves no. 1,109 and 1,242 (these are the so-called „coins of St. Stephen"). The youngest coins came from grave no. РЛ9, which was minted in 1693, in the time of Lipót I., and from no. 1,018, a Prussian one minted by Frederick the Great in 1741. These data prove that the exolored site was used as a cemetery from the time of St. Stephen (1038) up to the last quarter of the 18th century. As for the structure of the cemetery, in the fashion of Medieval churchyards, on the edges of the cemetery, the graves are single-layered, ordered in regular lines. As we come closer to the church, graves are less scattered, with frequent overlapping. In the vicinity of the church, graves are often in 2 or 3 layers. The cemetery itself was not surrounded by a ditch or wall, although a hedge might have served as a type of fence. In the early graves (11th and 12th centuries) corpses were normally buried without a coffin in a round-cornered, oblong grave. Another early grave is the so-called „mummy-shaped grave pit" (see Fig. 6.). Judging from the position of the skeleton, the corpse would be laid on its back, arms resting along